RY3 Rum Cask Finish

RY3 Rum Cask Finish Rye

As always, extended reviews & thoughts on the website (link in the bio).....Next up is a newer expression of a rye that I have really enjoyed over the past year or so – RY3 Blended Rye Rum Cask Finish.  For those unfamiliar with this brand, get familiar with it!  I really enjoyed the core release, which is a blended rye and I purchased a bottle of the Cognac Finish release for my Dad for his birthday this past Spring, so when I saw the Rum Finish, I had to give it a sip.  

RY3 is made by Phenomenal Spirits (aptly named) out of Virginia Beach.  They blend three rye mash bills of three distinct ages, both Canadian Rye and American Rye.  For those of you with a stick up your butt about blended whiskey, you should get over it as there are some new players doing some really good things, including RY3 and Barrell/Lyrum.

ABV….50%

How it smells….floral, stone fruit, boozy, a bit musty, but not in an off-putting way.

How it tastes….starts with some cinnamon, which stays throughout the sip, followed by sweet honey and finishing with a rich creamy malty flavor on the linger….with water (and I don’t usually do this for 50%), a rye bomb to start followed by that cinnamon that intensifies throughout, finishing sweeter with that rich creamy malt at the end.

Price….$50 

Rating….🥃🥃🥃🥃

Final thoughts….This was very enjoyable.  The rye flavor hints at first and then haunts in the background, pushing through every once in a while.  It is certainly there throughout, yet not overwhelmingly so.  Overall, I found this to be a difficult one to parse out…the 2nd glass certainly helped though.  Who knew?.  You also don’t get a punch in the face of rum, as you do with a lot of cask finished products.  The rum comes through with the sweetness if not the actual rum flavors.  In addition to the rye, you get a blast of cinnamon throughout and all of that sweetness at the end.  Very well rounded, very interesting, very affordable.  4x 🥃 seems extremely appropriate.  I’ll certainly continue to look for new variations of the ryes that RY3 releases and keep a bottle of its core product on hand.  I guess the only difficult thing about this bottle is that it is not widely available yet, but hopefully that changes over time.