Taken: Neat in a Glencairn glass, rested for about 10 minutes.
Distillery: New Riff Distilling.
Proof: 100. Non-chill filtered.
Age: At least 8 years.
Mash bill: 95% Rye/5% Malted Rye.
Retail Price: $70.00
Appearance: Deep caramel.
Nose
From the get-go, there’s an excellent mix of dark and rich caramelized brown sugar, root beer, and chocolate, with some butterscotch and a prominent spearmint note. With that, there’s a lot of herbaceous rye flavors of black tea, cloves with vanilla icing, orange citrus, baking spice, baked apples, some subtle stone fruit, and toasted oak. With more time, different notes change focus, as the barrel character flavors get sweeter.
Palate
The nose transfers to the palate with barrel-influenced flavors of root beer, caramelized brown sugar, dark chocolate, and butterscotch. Alongside is green tea, cloves, allspice, and orange peel, with underlying flavors of baked apples, vanilla, and toasted oak. It has a good medium mouthfeel with little proof heat and a nice balance of moderate rye spiciness. This release is right up my alley and does an excellent job of balancing a complex mix of rich oak and herbal flavors.
Finish
Allspice continues with root beer and brown sugar, green tea, chocolate, orange peel, toasted oak, and tobacco. More time brings out leather and tobacco with allspice lingering in the cheeks and gums with some dryness.
Conclusion
New Riff’s first 8-Year Rye has exceeded my expectations. What surprised me the most is its mature, rich barrel character flavors, which resemble a higher-aged or double-oaked whiskey. All of which pleased my oak-loving palate. At the same time, I was impressed by the intensity of its herbal rye flavors of spearmint, tea, and cloves, which add complexity to this profile, along with a note of orange peel throughout. As for its proof point, I wouldn’t hesitate to say if a higher ABV would greatly benefit this whiskey, but fortunately, that’s not the case. I’m sure New Riff’s lower 110 barrel entry proof has a lot to do with that. If I’m in the mood for an excellent higher proof rye, I have plenty of other bottles to reach for, but I don’t have a rye whiskey at this proof point that I prefer more than this one.
Nevertheless, everyone has their own preferences, so if you’re not a big rye drinker or prefer whiskey with more fruit flavors and moderate to light oak, this release is probably not for you, or at best, a try-before-you-buy situation. On the flip side, if you’re big into rye whiskey and have an oak profile fetish, the New Riff 8-Year Rye is a no-brainer.
Rating: 7.5/10.
1 | Disgusting | So bad I poured it out.
2 | Poor | I wouldn’t consume by choice.
3 | Bad | Multiple flaws.
4 | Sub-par | Not bad, but better exists.
5 | Good | Good, just fine.
6 | Very Good | A cut above.
7 | Great | Well above average.
8 | Excellent | Really quite exceptional.
9 | Incredible | An all-time favorite.
10 | Perfect | Perfect.
