New Riff Straight Rye Bottled in Bond

New Riff Straight Rye Bottled in Bond

Today’s review is on New Riff Rye Bottled in Bond.  I previously did a review on another one of New Riff’s releases, the Single Barrel Bourbon, which I really liked.  It was a nice little sipper with some traditional bourbon notes, but gave it a 3x 🥃 due to value, at $10 cheaper, it would have been a 4x 🥃.  Check out that post if you want to read more about New Riff as they are doing some interesting stuff.

The Rye, however, is a little more interesting.  Made from 95% Rye and 5% Malted Rye (yes, Malted Rye, not Malted Barley which is more traditional for the 95%/5% ryes out there), this particular bottle was Distilled in the Fall of 2016 and Bottled in the Fall of 2020 (also Bottled in Bond), so a 4 year old and they used a sour mash process during production.

ABV: 50%

How it smells…honey and vanilla bomb!  Cinnamon, clove, and allspice with strong oak scents (but in a pleasant way).  You get a bit of that rye haystacks smell, but surprisingly light on the nose given the 100% rye mash bill.

How it tastes…starts off with that bold vanilla flavor followed by cola notes.  The end is a little woody and drying, but the finish is sweet with those baking spices that we picked up on the smell.  Overall, surprisingly sweet for 100% rye.

Price..$45 - $50

Rating...🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃

Final thoughts…I like this and I find it intriguing.  When I see a mash bill of 100% rye, I automatically expect certain flavors and scents and a certain mouthfeel, so when I get something completely different, I’m pleasantly surprised.  This is very sweet for a 100% rye.  You get a little bit of that traditional rye flavor at the end, but if I didn’t see the mash bill, I would have thought this to be a high rye bourbon.  HOWEVER, I will say that I dipped back into the bottle the other night, but instead of neat, I had it on the rocks.  Interestingly enough, I got a lot more of those traditional rye notes that I thought it lacked in the first tasting.  I know water and/or ice can change the whisky's flavors as it opens up, but this was a pretty dramatic change.  Again, in a good way.  Another interesting thing that I noted during the tasting, instead of transitioning between start, middle, end and finish, once a flavor was introduced, it stayed throughout the rest of the tasting.  They just kept piling up, which I thought was pretty cool.  I think this is a solid 5x 🥃 because it was so interesting and isn’t a bad price.  Originally, I pegged it at 4x 🥃 but after dipping back into the bottle on the rocks and getting more of those rye notes (and a completely different tasting experience) I upped it to 5x 🥃.  New Riff is living up to their name, creating some interesting new takes on classic American whiskeys.  At this point I have had 3 of the 4 core releases (need to find the Single Barrel Rye) but they also have a whole host of bespoke releases that I don’t think have made it up to my region of the country.  I’m really interested in getting my hands on a bottle of the 100% Malted Rye as I loved an Old Potrero that I reviewed a while back and want to explore this mash bill more.