LouisianaLonghorn
Russell's Reserve 6 Year Rye
Rye — Kentucky, USA
Reviewed
July 26, 2020 (edited July 30, 2020)
Last time I reviewed a rye, I compared the style to an abusive ex-girlfriend one keeps going back to. I think that was for a bottle of Pikesville. Here we are again, my getting drawn back to the category, with hopes that a rye offered by one of my favorite bourbon makers, Wild Turkey, yields better results than my previous outings.
Nosing this is a wild nostalgia trip for me. When I was growing up, my dad used to take me back to the neighborhood in Queens he grew up in, and the nose on this rye takes me back to the deli he used to frequent. Fast forward to grad school, and I lived down the street and around the corner from a deli in Ann Arbor called Zingermanns which baked all of its own bread and I would wake up to the smell of fresh baking rye bread every morning. The nose on this rye takes me right back to those places, with its bready, yeasty (in a good way), spicy goodness. Good start.
As it enters the palate, it's not like other rye's I've tried before that just obliterate your palate with the spice, leather, and tannins found in some other ryes. It's smooth, predominantly caramel on the palate, like a whisky version of a macchiato. Near the finish, there's a surge in spice (baking and pepper) that settles into a coating and warming finish of a moderate length. Color me surprised!
I like this one! For $40, it was a good purchase. This is the entry level to Wild Turkey's upper end ryes, and I wanted to make sure I liked this one before shelling out for the RR Single Barrel or the Masters Keep Cornerstone. I'll keep working through this one, but I like what I've got so far, and hope it continues to develop. Cheers!
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@ContemplativeFox appreciate it. I’ve had bad luck finding eyes that suit my palate over the years, and I was happy to finally find one I could sip and enjoy.
I particularly enjoyed the narrative aspect of this review :)