Barrell Rye 13 Year Canadian Rye Single Barrel Cask Strength

Barrell Rye 13 Year Old Canadian Whiskey Barrel No. L941

Barrell Craft Spirits is a new(er) whiskey maker.  If you recall, one of my early reviews was for the company’s other label, Stellum, which focuses on younger and a more affordable price point.  Barrell Bourbon and Barrell Ryes, however, tend to be more Batch focused with higher age statements, as well as a few staple labels that are ongoing releases (I’ll review more of those at a later date).

This particular release is a store pick from Gordon’s Wine.  Barrel # L941 (Bottle No. 127) which is a 13 year old Canadian Rye which was aged both in Canada and in Kentucky. 

ABV: 63.09 (Cask Strength)

How it smells…cotton candy, sugar cookies and candied nuts….with some water, it is a little less sweet and a bit more malty.

How it tastes….orange citrus upfront with a traditional rye spice in the middle.  The end is sweet and zesty with a very light chocolatey/nutty finish…..with some water you get some more spice towards the front and middle and some cayenne pepper on the finish.  The finish has a stronger mocha flavor.  

Price..$100 (although I think I got it on sale for $90)

Rating….🥃🥃🥃🥃

Final thoughts….This was a very tasty Canadian Rye.  First off, the smell is surprisingly unboozy given the 126 proof.  As with a lot of high proof ryes, I am always surprised that they tend to get spicier as I add water to dilute down a bit.  This particular batch had a fantastic combination of sweet, spicy and cocoa/nuttiness that was kind of like Nutella.  For $100, you get an aged Rye at a very high barrel proof, so I consider that a pretty good value buy even though it is a bit on the expensive side.  Couple that with an amazing sip, and I feel good about this at a 4x 🥃 rating.

I had heard/read great things about the batch releases that Barrell was putting out into the market and finally broke down and bought a couple of bottles about a year or so ago.  They were fantastic.  As a startup whiskey maker, they decided from the get-go to focus on being an independent bottler instead of trying to distill their own.  This is what we would call “sourced” whiskey in America…where we typically see young startup distilleries using purchased stocks from larger distillers to build their brand as they work on building their own stocks of aged products. Not Barrell.  While they source whiskey from other producers, they are more akin to the independent bottlers in Europe who buy barrels of Scotch and either blend them or put out single barrel releases (SMWS, who I have reviewed in the past is one of these independent bottlers).  For people who only want their bottles to have the labels of the distilleries on them, you are missing out on a lot of great whiskey out there.  Independent bottles can put out single barrel releases of whiskeys that are unlike any other a distillery might release under its own label.  In addition, many (and Barrell is certainly one of them) independent bottles get creative and experiment with some unique cask finishes (See SMWS reviews here or here).  The Armida, which is one of Barrell’s ongoing releases, is a Bourbon that is finished in Pear Brandy, Rum Casks, and Sicilian Amaro Casks….and spoiler, it’s fucking fantastic.

The hard part about reviewing many of the batch releases from Barrell is that they are one-offs, so you won’t be able to get the bottles that I review (except for the ongoing releases).  That said, I hope these reviews provide you with a general sense of the type of quality you can expect from any of the Barrell batches, whether they are what I have reviewed or not.