Served: 1 Finger pour with 5 drops of water to bring out the flavors. Notes: (I’m comparing this alongside Bone Snapper X-Ray Rye. This allows me to explain how the age changes the notes.) After my finger pour, I bring her up to the nose for a first smell. I set her down, and bring her up again. The aroma presents candied apples, cinnamon & carmel, followed by buttered bread. I go in for a small sip, and I’m immediately greeted with similar tastes that I recieved from the prior smell, albeit slightly different. This rye is oily and it coats the mouth with suitable viscosity. I’m immediately hit a buttery & oily mouthful that brings bitter apples, allspice, cinnamon, cardamom, and pepper to my palate. All of these noted are encompassed with a perfumey carmel that lingers throughout the whole sip. The aftertaste once again presents a rich butter, this time with a faint earthiness to finish the notes. It is slightly salty, hence why I added the briny tag. This Rye is far from simple, so for those that desire something complex, this is it. Comments: When comparing this to Backbone Bourbon Co.’s X-Ray, the palate of the regular bone snapler rye offers a sweeter smell than the taste, while X-Ray offers a more bitter smell than its taste. This is presumanly due to age, and it seems the kick of the regular Bone snapper mellows out after another year. The regular bone snapper reminds me of a sofisticated gentleman’s drink of choice while bringing about enough spicy and tannin-like qualities to leave Rye lovers smiling. As of this review, this is my favorite rye of all time, and for very good reasons. It’s complex in all the right ways, offering amazingly complimentary flavors. If this doesnt put Indiana on the map for a serious bourbon/rye distillery, I don’t know what will. Highly underrated and a must try. Why isn’t it a 5/5 you might ask? There’s always room for improvement, and I think that’s how every distillery approaches their next bottled release of rye or bourbon. Although I don’t know what those improvements could be, very few Rye’s meet the cachet of 5/5.