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singlemaltrussell · 7 months ago

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American Whiskey Review #35, #36, #37 & #38 Indiana 5yr Rye (2017 Cadenhead's), Frey Ranch Straight Rye, New Riff B-i-B Rye, Kings County Distillery Empire Rye

I've managed to maintain a pretty consistent rye focus this summer, but being still pretty early days in my exploration of that style, this is the first time I've really sat with a few different bottles and drilled down into the separate characters as a side by side.

The reviews have been assembled over the past month, starting out as Frey Ranch vs Kings County, but as I spotted New Riff on my shelf, adding in another 100 proof 100% rye seemed to make sense. Of course, once I did that, how could I not add an MGP into the mix?

I figured these four were similar enough in some aspects (approximate age and ABV) for a decent comparison and contrast.

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Indiana 5yr Rye Cadenhead's

I’m making the assumption that this bottle is MGP, but I haven’t heard anyone suggest it could be anything else and honestly, at this point, if I hear “Rye” and “Indiana” it’s the only name in my head. I’m also pretty sure it’s the 95/5 mashbill, but again, [Disclaimer] this is all gleamed from whisky chatter.

Between Cadenhead’s and SMWS, there have been a refreshing amount of decently priced, Independently Bottled American Whiskies on sale in the UK market in recent times. Makes a nice change.

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Category: Rye

Bottler: Cadenhead's (CA)

Series: Authentic Collection

Vintage: 2017

Bottled: Summer 2023

Age: 05 years old

Cask: Barrel

№ of bottles: 222

ABV: 55%

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**𝙽��𝚜𝚎**: No idea if this is a thing, but unbaked rye sourdough? A lot of sweet and citric orange jellies where the sharpness overlaps with ethanol, that does eventually mellow. Wet cut grass, and also earthy caraway seed, with that earthiness veering slightly into brown cardboard. Lots of Log Cabin syrup brings the vanilla after sitting for a while.

**𝙿𝚊𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎**: Honeycomb toffee dissolves into orange squash and sunflower oil. I get fennel, but it’s the green bits up top.

**𝙵𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚜𝚑**: Finely ground black pepper brings tight tannins that quickly melt and relax into buttercream with a herbal flush of fresh peppermint and curly parsley. The barrel char shows some coffee-bean acidity, but manages to stay on the right side of bitter.

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**𝙽𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚜**: Easy sipping and not too aggressive for its ABV, nice texture and a measured spice. This has all the herbal green notes that I know can be a bit divisive in the world of Rye, but I thought it all worked together.

The palate was quite basic but was also my favourite bit. The oily orange and crunchy sugar combo is a winner made just that little bit more interesting by the fennel shoots.

Solid MGP at a price that doesn’t sting. If you like MGP (like I do), then I doubt this would disappoint.

Hats off Cadenhead’s. Keep em coming.

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**𝚂𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚎**: 8 *𝑹𝒚𝒆 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑵𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒔*

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Frey Ranch Straight Rye

This was catnip for me. As a grain nerd, I'm a sucker for a good farm to glass story, and Frey Ranch spins a nice tale of Colby and Ashley: 5th generation farmers going their own way to create a 100% winter rye from their 1500-acre farm 4000 ft above sea level (which is still somehow the lowlands) in Fallon, Nevada.

If you’re curious about what “winter rye” means, it’s what it sounds like - rye sown in September - October that grows throughout the winter season and is harvested in spring.

It also has to be said, the Frey Ranch bottles are pretty sweet. Chunky AF. Really nailed the visual branding there.

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Category: Rye

Distillery: Frey Ranch

Mashbill: 100% Winter Rye

Age: 6 years

Cask: New charred oak

Batch №: 9

ABV: 50%

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**𝙽𝚘𝚜𝚎**: Cinnamon-spiced cherrywood meets Crème brûlée, Hot Cross Buns and Cointreau-enriched vanilla Coke.

**𝙿𝚊𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎**: Lightly grassy on the approach, but becoming denser honey-butter, and rich, brown sugar-dusted rice pudding that’s almost but not quite cut by red berry coulis. A generous shake of white pepper and chilli flakes brings some heat and dryness.

**𝙵𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚜𝚑**: Barrel char pipes up as tannic cocoa solids and burnt sugars, but any astringency is deftly countered by the slick texture of corn oil, rising malty Ovaltine and sugar cookie dough. At the very end, cool green dill and spearmint face off against buzzing Szechuan and cardamom.

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**𝙽𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚜**: At 6 years old, this is possibly the oldest bottle in the review.

It has quite a sweet palate but it's offset by the spice and bitter notes that give it a good amount of crowd-pleasing depth.

Usually I get the rye-dough notes in the nose, but here, it arrived almost at the very end in conjunction with malty tones and slick corn oil. With that and the spicy coolness, it left me consistently in a place of wanting more.

Well adjusted and nicely put together. I’d love to hear more about Frey Ranches production, especially around mashing and fermentation.

I went out on a limb to buy this bottle without due diligence in researching, but I am 100% happy with my purchase.

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**𝚂𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚎**: 8.3 *𝑨𝒍𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒅𝒆 𝑨𝒅𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕*

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New Riff Bottled-in-Bond Rye

𝙿𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚖𝚋𝚕𝚎: Before this, I knew New Riff by reputation only. A relative newcomer, from their distillery in Newport Kentucky, they've made a name putting out whisky presented at a baseline of Bottled-in-Bond stats or better. Not too shabby.

Also worth a note, Larry Ebersold, of Seagrams/MGP fame was heavily involved as a consultant in the early days.

Larry created the 95/5 rye/malted barley mashbill, and is one of the people credited with really getting a handle on dealing with the famously difficult grain.

New Riff has tweaked the recipe further by swapping out the 5% malted barley for malted rye.

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Category: Rye

Distillery: New Riff Distilling

Region: Kentucky

Bottler: Distillery Bottling

Series: Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey - Bottled in Bond

Vintage: 2017

Bottled: 2021

Mashbill: 95% rye/5% malted rye

Age: 4 years

ABV: 50%

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**𝙽𝚘𝚜𝚎**: Sweet and tart Dried cherries and cranberries, with chocolate orange following closely. The chocolate has a bit of carob to it, and there's a tiny bit of fresh green herbs that reads like tarragon to me. Vanilla ramps up as cream soda, and the oak registers as dusty nutmeg. I get a little solvent with it too, like freshly stained wood and there's a powdery mint quality like newly unwrapped Doublemint gum.

**𝙿𝚊𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎**: Sweet, herbal and fruity, with the cream soda from the nose joined by a fair bit of artificial cherry and Chicory leaves balancing the sweet with bitterness. Dry cinnamon gets bolstered by a couple twists of cracked pepper and crushed chillies

**𝙵𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚜𝚑**:Dark Chocolate covered morello cherries get a red fruit signal boost by way of raspberry coulis, couched in browned butter. The chocolate recedes to clearer wood char but spearmint keeps it sweet and coolly, herbaceously menthol.

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**𝙽𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚜**: I expected to like this, but it was still surprising how much it ended up connecting. The New Riff is quite sweet, but red berries and chocolate together, was hard not to love.

I wonder how else their production differs from MGP? I would be surprised if that 5% barley/rye switch alone was responsible.

Great stuff. Fun and sippable, but with a good amount of individual character - the extra berryness of it all jussst gave it the edge against the Frey Ranch.

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**𝚂𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚎**: 8.4 *𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝑭𝒓𝒖𝒊𝒕 𝑪𝒉𝒐𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒐𝒕𝒆*

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Kings County Empire Rye

I already know Kings County from a previous review of their BiB bourbon, where I may have overscored it, but also undoubtedly enjoyed it.

On the strength of that, and the perfect amount of a gift card, I picked up another 200ml glass flask of theirs, which this time is their Empire Rye.

The “Empire” designation meant nothing to me, but luckily I didn't have to dig too deep to find out that is a not-quite-legal definition stating that to sport that label, the whisky in question would need to be 75% New York grain, distilled to 160 proof or less, and aged for a minimum of two years in charred, virgin oak at maximum filling strength of 115 proof.

I haven’t been able to verify the ages of the liquid that went into this particular batch, but it seems to change between each one. Could have a combination of various ages up to 6 years.

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Category: Rye

Distillery: Kings County Distillery

Region: New York

Bottler: Distillery Bottling

Series: Straight Rye Whiskey

Mashbill: 80% NY Danko rye /20% English malted barley.

Age: 2y>

ABV: 51.0%

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**𝙽𝚘𝚜𝚎**: Chocolate covered, brandy soaked cherries and maple sugar flapjacks bring a mix of fruit and grains - all quite dark and decadent. I got more forward sarsaparilla than vanilla, but it is still there as a backdrop of buttery waffles that exists alongside damp pine.

**𝙿𝚊𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎**: Another oily and slightly grassy approach, but much less green here. Crème brulee skews towards dense dairy and toasted sugars but it keeps getting earthier, becoming dark chocolate kahlua cake and quite sticky on the teeth. Malty too. There's an overlap with that and the tannins, which makes me think of Ovaltine and red wine mixed together. In a good way.

**𝙵𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚜𝚑**: Rounded molasses rye bread and wet charred wood charged by electrostatic Szechuan tingles and eucalyptus. A bit salty and mineral in the tail, like buttery pebbles, and with the eucalyptus evolving into fresh peppermint leaves as the heat fades.

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**𝙽𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚜**: These were all good, but this was my favourite.

It's the least sweet and the most rounded to my tastes, incorporating a bit of salt and dark molasses that I really liked.

It's lucky these smaller bottles exist because otherwise, at the price KC sits at, I might have let it pass me by.

I have a feeling that my love of scotch means that the 20% malted barley may be what makes the difference here.

I love the idea of 100% ryes, but my history with single malt has likely molded my palate towards a preference of having barley in the mashbill.

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**𝚂𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚎**: 8.5 *𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑶𝒇 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒊𝒍𝒍*

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**𝚂𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚎**

𝟿.𝟼 - 𝟷𝟶 𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚘𝚛𝚎𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝙿𝚘𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎