This was a Christmas gift to me that I’ve been secretly wanting for quite some time. My in-laws visited the distillery and brought back a bottle to gift me for Christmas this year. So I had high expectations for this rye for two reasons, one being that it is local and secondly it won some prestigious awards out in San Francisco. I’ll spoil it by saying I thoroughly Njoy’d this rye (pun intended). If you want to know where I felt a little let down on this one then keep on reading, if not, then let it be known this is an excellent rye. Okay so upon opening this bottle the smell was not the best scented rye I’ve ever had but by no means was it unenjoyable; it was just average. Smell to me is not as important as taste so if I was judging I wouldn’t deduct points. Next up I took my first taste and whoa the explosion of great flavor just came all at once. Spicy rye, sweet undertones, distinct Florida flavor that I just can’t describe came rushing at me. It’s no wonder that this rye was suggested to me by lesser whiskey aficionado friends than me a few times already. It’s just a nice spicy sweet mix that has amazing flavor. I made this in an old fashioned the third time tasting and WOW it is great in a good cocktail. Okay so you read all this way to know what my “gripe” was with this was. Well, it’s not a huge factor but one that really irks me personally. I really hate when I have a wonderfully flavored whiskey/bourbon/scotch and the flavors finish too quickly. The one thing that I love is a drink I can taste a half hour later in my mouth and this one just goes away as fast as you get it past your esophagus. So other than that this is a damn fine whiskey and I’m glad to know it’s a local company that is using locally sourced Florida ingredients and I can drive to their distillery in an hour if I decide I want to! 1/22/20