LouisianaLonghorn
Willett Family Estate Small Batch Rye 4 Year
Rye — Kentucky, USA
Reviewed
November 6, 2020 (edited January 6, 2021)
After revisiting my bottle of Russell's Reserve Single Barrel Rye last night and basking in its magnificence, I thought it high time that I review this bottle, which I spent a considerable amount of time hunting down, only to be moderately disappointed, and relegated it to making the most expensive Old Fashioned's I've ever made. The bottle's been open about a month and a half, and it's about halfway empty with plenty of air. How does it hold up?
Nose is rye. Rye, rye, rye. No mistake what you're drinking here. Digging deeper, we find some chocolate (more dark than milk), brown sugar, cherry, and dusty oak. Ok, fine. The palate betrays the proof. At 55.1%, it drinks like 43%, even into the finish. I will say, the taste is intriguing. It's unlike any rye I've tried. It has a distinctly malty character to it, which indicates a high percentage of malted barley in the mix. It almost reminds me of a Kudos bar (when I was a kid they would have those as snacks after baseball games, which are basically granola bars with either a chocolate glaze or chocolate chips in them). Interesting nostalgia hit taking me back thirty years...There's no mistake you're drinking a rye, but it's not in your face like RYE! The finish is a bit underwhelming, again, betraying the proof. For a cask strength dram, I expected longer.
So what to rate? It took me months to hunt this down in Texas. SRP for this hovers around $60, but I paid around $90 for it at the one shop in all of central Texas I found this at. Stupid markups...it's not like Buffalo Trace made this...Do I think this is worth $90? No way. How about $60? Still no. I'm not loving sipping on this. I want that wow factor for what I paid for this. It does make a damn good cocktail, but so does Rittenhouse or Old Overholt for a fraction of the price. I'll give it a 3, because it's good and does make a good cocktail, but the VFM really isn't there. I can see why this is a shelf turd in California. Save your money and buy RR SiB if you want a good sipping rye, or perhaps one of the Sagamore cask finished ryes.
I'm disappointed given the high rating it has from the community here, but such is life. Cheers all, and happy weekend. Hopefully for all my American friends this long nightmare of an election week is almost over. It could almost drive a fella to drink...
95.0
USD
per
Bottle
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Dang, I'll hope to see it for $50 someday @bigwhitemike
@bigwhitemike good detective work! Appreciate the information.
@Ctrexman @Bourbon_Obsessed_Lexington @WhiskeyLonghorn bourbonr documents that there are two Willett rye mashes, one 74% and the other a 51%er. Both show a significant 15% barley and I’d venture to agree it’s all malted. FWIW I like this stuff but it’s pretty easy to find at $50 SRP by me every other month when the distributions hit, some places even on sale for $45. I think it’s a very unique profile... bubblegum, grape must, lemon, cinnamon. Just kinda wild and different. Still prefer pikesville for the same price (and always avail) but this less mainstream.
@Ctrexman having played around with several unique bottles of their bourbon and older rye there is enough of a silver lining stringing them together that I believe they all ride the 35-51% rye mark. I’ve had their wheated mash bill once at a local bottle shop and it was just off and uncharacteristic for me. The ability to keep a consistent backbone makes me believe their rye can’t be far off regarding mash bill from their high rye bourbons.
@Ctrexman I’m not rightly sure. I know it’s not a barely legal rye. My guess is it’s high rye (60-70%), then barley, then corn proportionately. It’s light but oily at the same time. If you’re looking to try something barely legal, try Pikesville if you’re a Heaven Hill fan, or because I know you like Turkey, try the RR SiB rye (skip the six year) or the new Rare Breed rye which if started to see around town now.
Whats the mash on this one. Im finding I really only want the barely 51 ryes now.
Good thing Christmas only comes once a year @dhsilv2 !
Christmas in a glass...not one I want often but that's my view on this one.
Not much more disappointing like hunting hard for that toy, pay above asking because you want/need it only to find that toy you wanted does not have the Kong-fu grip or always veers to the left. At least you can drink this one.
Yeah i loved their sourced stuff in the old days..15 yr Johnny Drum, great stuff. Then they removed the age stmt...poop...then distilled their own stuff. I had the 3yr and really didn't rate it. The Knob Creek CS Rye I had smoked it by a whole point. Their std bottling isn't complex but I also enjoyed it albeit at a lower rating.
Ages ago I remember liking this. Was one of my first ryes. Then after getting exposed to other ryes, I thought this was over rated and over priced.
@ContemplativeFox they can’t all be zingers!
Great notes. I was disappointing when I tried this too, but I'll give it another shot sometime. Sorry it was such a bummer, especially after all of that effort and expense.