Sagamore Spirit Rye
Sagamore Spirit Rye
Continuing our Rye reviews this extended July 4th weekend, we will now turn to the great state of Maryland, which has a long whiskey history here in the United States, dating back to the colonial times which makes it fitting to do a review for the 4th of July holiday.
Sagamore Rye TL;DR
Sagamore Spirit is a newer distillery which seemed to go from launch to full market penetration in a matter of years, at least from where I live in the Northeast. While Sagamore is located on a 5 acre waterfront plot in the city of Baltimore, it is keenly focused on local Maryland agriculture and continues to expand its ability to produce increasing amounts of its grain in its home state. Per their website, over the past 4 years they have grown the grain production from 50,000 pounds of rye and corn to over 950,000 pounds with 100% of the non-GMO corn used in its whiskey being produced on Sagamore Farm, which consists of 250+ acres of land. I respect these efforts, especially when the actions of distilleries match their marketing. It’s one thing to promote “Maryland Rye” because you distill it in Maryland, it’s another to promote “Maryland Rye” when it’s made from Maryland’s own land. That said, this particular bottle is a blend of whiskey made from Maryland and Indiana, but Sagamore rightfully addresses this on their website so no harm no foul in my opinion.
What is Maryland Rye? The Maryland Distillers Guild has a near 4,000 word dissertation on this very topic, which goes back to Maryland Rye’s place in colonial America and provides all sorts of fun facts. However, other Google searches provide a whole host of other theories and assertions attempting to define Maryland Rye. As the whiskey revival in America has gained momentum, more and more regions within America are getting back into distilling. Prohibition destroyed much of the whiskey history in the United States. It centralized the whiskey production to not only a few companies that were able to survive during those dark times, but it also centralized whiskey production to mainly Kentucky and Tennessee and a lot of the old records, and secrets, were lost to history. That said, we now have a lot of creative people trying their best to figure it all out and to reignite regional pride into spirits, which is fantastic. Within the Rye world there’s also Pennsylvania Rye, also known as Old Monongahela Rye. To us, to go from Baltimore, Maryland to Monongahela (Pittsburgh area), Pennsylvania will take you just about as much time as it would take to watch Zach Snyder’s full director’s cut of the Justice League, if the Traffic Gods are kind that is. But in colonial times, when these whiskeys were developed, it could take nearly a week and it would be an arduous journey, so it’s not surprising that different styles were created. The Old Monongahela style of Rye is all, or nearly all, made from Rye with perhaps a little malted barley to help the mashing and fermentation process. Maryland Rye is sweeter, and uses more corn in the mash bill, tempering down the spicy dry notes of its western cousin.
The Sagamore Spirit Rye is a blend of two straight rye whiskeys, both aged between four to six years. One blend is a “High-Rye” with the second being a “Low-Rye” mash bill. The higher the Rye, the more baking spices and grassy rye notes. The lower the Rye, the sweeter the whiskey will be as typically more Corn is used. This particular release clocks in at 83 proof (41.5% ABV) which is really low by today’s standards. For the whiskey nerds out there, this is Batch 11BC, Bottle 0722. This blend was distilled in Maryland and Indiana, so it seems they are using some of their own spirit and blending it with MGP spirit.
Time for the tasting.
ABV: 41.5%
How it smells…vanilla, warm cinnamon, some of the dusty rye haystacks and perhaps a bit of cherry. Certainly smells like a rye that’s not a 95%/5% Rye.
How it tastes….dry at the start, giving you a solid rye impression from the get-go. Dr. Pepper follows suit, providing some cherry and herbaceous notes where it ends with spicy candied ginger. The finish is bittersweet but light.
Price....$40
Rating….🥃🥃🥃
Final thoughts…..It’s a pleasant sip. One of the few sips where the smell is probably more robust than the taste. From the nose, I was expecting a spicier dram, but it was quite light and mellow, yet not without some character. I suspect this is driven more by the low proof point than the blend itself. That said, I wouldn’t use any ice in this sip as it would completely destroy whatever nuance remains that hasn’t already been proofed out. As a neat sipper, I do enjoy it though. Like I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I like having some lower proofed whiskeys on hand to drink neat and to not worry about getting sideways quickly. This is a good example of that, where you can have a few neat sippers without feeling like the morning will be punishing. Like yesterday’s post, this probably isn’t a great sipper for die hard rye fans that prefer to have their sensories blown up on the first sip. But this is a great Summer Sipper, just something to relax with. It’s not going to challenge you, but it’s smooth from start to finish and leaves me wanting more.
With a $40 price point, I think 3x 🥃 is appropriate. It’s decent value for a newer distillery that offers good flavors, but the low proof and the lack of wow factor at $40 makes it difficult to get overly jazzed up about it when you have Michters and a slew of others coming in at that price point. If this were priced at $25-$27, I would have easily given it a 4x 🥃.
Nice Sipper Ratings Reminder…
All ratings are done on a scale between 1x 🥃 and 5x 🥃 according to the following criteria
1x 🥃 = I don't like this at all and/or not worth the cost by a mile.
2x 🥃🥃 = This is "meh" and/or slightly overpriced.
3x 🥃🥃🥃 = This is good stuff and/or the price is right.
4x 🥃🥃🥃🥃 = This is wonderful and I'm always keeping it in stock especially at this price.
5x 🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃 = This is amazing and/or this is way underpriced for the quality of the experience.
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