REVIEW: Strange Rye indeed. Cream of Kentucky BIB
Every once in awhile a purchase is completed, a bottle opened, and a discovery made. Sometimes that discovery is palate changing like my experience with Kentucky Owl Rye batch 1, and sometimes it’s like god what is happening in here (balcones rye). This 100 proof, Bottled in Bond six year old rye from Jim Rutledge is one of those god what is happening in here bottles. It’s a 70 barrel release (sounds like not a lot, but c’mon, at least 10,000 bottles, probably more). Composed of 100% Rymin rye, completely made stored and bottled by Kentucky Artisan Distillery, this thing is just strange. Not bad strange, just strange like strange.
The nose is like sniffing wet hay, or driving by a farm with the windows down, it just smells like horses live nearby. It has some powdered hot chocolate notes too, which will make some sense when it gets to the taste. The transition from the nose to the palate is effortless, the nose tells you what’s coming here, no surprises, except for the texture. It is not a spicy rye, it is a pardon the silliness here, creamy. It’s like that first sip off of your instant hot chocolate, with the melted marshmallow cream on top coating the chocolate goodness underneath. This is similar, but not literally so. It gives a creamy flavor of rye grain (not to be confused with spice) that resembles hay, cocoa powder, and toasted (not charred) marshmallows. I’ve read some reviews that talk about the rye spice of this one, and I don’t agree that this is a punchy rye, to me it definitely goes for Floyd Mayweather like smoothness, rather than any kind of aggressive Marvin Hagler style of rye.
It’s not the strangest rye we’ve ever had, but it’s close.
I have never had any rye like this one, it’s a true oddball outlier. Over the course of some months, I had several glasses at Barrel Proof here in New Orleans, just trying to figure it out. Each time, just appreciating the strangeness of it all. Was it malty? Maybe, wait, maybe it was creamy, was it oily? Each time, I was left baffled, confused, perplexed, but always willing to have another go at it. Ultimately I felt strongly enough about it that I had to purchase one for myself, and I have, at $79.99 (about $10 over the MSRP, but hey different prices for different markets). Some of you may ask if it’s good enough to bunker a backup, while I do not encourage bunkering (hoarding, stashing, banking, we can no longer justify collecting) if you are a bunker person, I’d say I love this enough to keep this in my palate library for oddball strangeness for future comparisons to other outliers, or to challenge the palates of people looking to expand their whiskey journey.
This rye will be remembered simply for how different it is, without having resorted to any type of finishing, allowing the strangeness to shine. I think we all need to embrace these sorts of different styles, as this to me is what true craft looks like- something strange that’s worth experiencing again.
- Mickey Pinstripe