George Dickel Gives A Different Taste To LDI Rye

There’s an interesting link between the new George Dickel Rye and Templeton Rye. Though not available in most of the country, Templeton Rye has, in a short time, become a major brand in Iowa and Illinois, including the major market of Chicago.

When Templeton debuted in 2005, the company was extremely secretive about where it was made. They wanted people to believe it was made in Templeton, Iowa, since mythology about that small town’s Prohibition-era reputation as a leading illegal whiskey source was the heart and soul of the company’s marketing strategy. That was impossible, since the company got its license as a distilled spirits producer the same year it launched its product, which as a straight rye whiskey had to be at least two years old, and tasted more like five or six.

Obviously, Templeton was whiskey made by another distiller, but who? Most lists of the usual suspects (including mine) didn’t include the old Seagram’s distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, which turned out to be the source. Little was known about that distillery, then owned by Pernod-Ricard, except that it made Seagram’s Gin, Seagram’s Vodka, and Seagram’s Seven Crown Blended Whiskey, but no straight whiskeys sold in the U.S.

Since then, many straight ryes have been introduced using whiskey made by the distillery best known as Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana (LDI), which last year was sold to MGP Ingredients, Inc. of Atchison, Kansas. Templeton was the first to bring LDI’s unique 95% rye to market and George Dickel Rye may be the last, as least for now, since almost all of LDI’s current rye inventory is less than a year old. (Dickel has its supply locked up.)

The recipe, which calls for 95% rye grain and 5% malt, was developed many years ago, when Seagram’s still reigned. It was created by Larry Ebersold, then master distiller there. At first they made a standard rye whiskey, just 51% rye, the rest corn and malt. They wanted more rye flavor so they experimented with a recipe that was 80% unmalted rye and 20% malted rye. Everyone loved the result except the accountants, because malted rye is expensive, so they changed the proportions to 95% unmalted and just 5% malted rye. Still too expensive, said the accountants, so they replaced the rye malt with standard barley malt, and that’s the recipe LDI makes today.

The whiskey was always intended to be an ingredient in blends, not a straight. The company liked it so well for that purpose they decided to make it at their plant in Gimli, Manitoba, for use in Crown Royal and other Canadian whiskeys. They failed because a crucial strain of bacteria, native to Indiana, couldn’t survive beyond one generation in the harsher Canadian climate.

Since Templeton, the LDI rye has appeared as straight rye whiskey from High West, Redemption, Filibuster, Smooth Ambler, James E. Pepper, and now Diageo's Bulleit and George Dickel.

Although Diageo doesn’t own LDI, they’re its biggest customer. For several years, Diageo has worked with LDI to develop rye whiskey products for Bulleit (released last year) and Dickel (coming soon) using the LDI rye. The Bulleit version is very similar to Templeton but the Dickel Rye is different.

According to Dickel Master Distiller John Lunn, the aged whiskey is transported from Indiana to the Diageo bottling facility in Plainfield, Illinois, near Chicago. There it meets up with charcoal sent from the Dickel distillery near Tullahoma, Tennessee. At Plainfield, it goes through the exact same charcoal mellowing process as George Dickel Tennessee Whisky does at the distillery. The only difference is that the Tennessee Whisky is filtered before aging and the rye is filtered after aging. It is done in the same way using the same charcoal, after chilling the whiskey to 40°F.

Compared to Bulleit Rye, the difference in flavor is dramatic. Critics of filtering claim it makes any whiskey less flavorful, but that’s not the case here. There is plenty of flavor, but it’s different. Bulleit Rye is fruity but the fruits it suggests are red grapes, plums, and dark berries. Dickel Rye has a strong citrus flavor, suggesting variously grapefruit or pineapple. It’s appropriately sweet with a little bitterness, like peanut brittle, licorice or sassafras. There’s some soot and also raspberry and apricot.

If Dickel Rye does well it will be good for LDI, since Lunn says there are no plans to distill rye at the Tullahoma plant. “We’re concentrating on making the best Tennessee Whisky we can,” he says. They’re not planning to expand the distillery or build more warehouses either, but they have 600 acres, so there’s plenty of room to grow. There are no other products or projects, such as limited edition releases, that Lunn wants to talk about, “but we’re always looking at innovation, what we can do and what the people want,” he says.

At 42, Lunn is one of the youngest master distillers for a major producer. He was trained by his predecessor, Dave Backus, and even got to meet Ralph Dupps, who built the current Dickel distillery in 1958. Dupps gave him one piece of advice, “Don’t change a damn thing.”

He hasn’t. Dickel is unique in operating almost exactly as it did 50 years ago, with no computerized control systems.

The business has been buzzing about rye whiskey for almost a decade, but in the last year or so several new ryes have been introduced as line extensions of major bourbon or Tennessee whiskey brands, including Jack Daniel’s, Knob Creek, Bulleit, and now George Dickel. This should prove whether or not the heavily-publicized rye whiskey revival really has legs or not.

NOTE 10/29:  Made a correction today based on information received from Diageo. When Lunn said they 'use the same charcoal," I incorrectly assumed they filtered it at the distillery. Instead they send the charcoal to Plainfield, Illinois, where Dickel is bottled. Sorry about that.

Next Time, Take Whiskey.

It is considered good form to take a host/hostess gift whenever you attend a party in a private home. Obviously, there are exceptions, but even when it's not really expected it is almost always appreciated.

A bottle of wine is the most common gift. Many people misunderstand this tradition and think the gift is necessarily supposed to be used at that evening's festivities. It can be but it doesn't have to be. It is a gift and as soon as you hand it to your host/hostess it is their property and theirs to use as they see fit.

Don't be offended if they put it away and don't open it. Don't assume that means they don't like it. It may mean they like it very much and don't want to share it. That's their business and you should be okay with whatever they do. That's the etiquette rule. You can look it up.

Obviously, if it's a BYOB party or you have previously agreed to provide wine for the event, that's a different story, but a pure host/hostess gift is just that, a gift.

And it doesn't have to be wine. I've used flowers successfully. Candy or some other treat can be good, though it shouldn't be something perishable that seems to demand immediate consumption. Again, it's a gift. Your interest in it expires the moment you hand it over.

If wine is good, why not whiskey? I just heard from a correspondent who bought a case of Rittenhouse Rye Bottled-In-Bond (BIB) to make that his standard host/hostess gift. Buying a case brings the per-bottle price down to about $20. Rit is a nice choice because it's very good whiskey at any price, and happens to be a good value. In some markets, it's even a few bucks less. That price is here in Chicago.

Rittenhouse Rye BIB has been in short supply lately, but the drought seems to be over. I was in the Lincoln Park Binny's tonight and they had a floor stacking of about 50 cases, priced at $22.99 for the individual 750 ml bottle (less for a 12-bottle case).

Rittenhouse Rye is a straight rye whiskey. The BIB is 50% ABV. There is a 40% ABV version too, but that one is not widely distributed. The BIB is very popular with bars and cocktail enthusiasts. It is a Heaven Hill brand but the current product was made for them by Brown-Forman, before Heaven Hill increased capacity at its Louisville distillery. Now their rye is all made there, but it will be a few more years before that whiskey reaches market.

Knob Creek Rye, Coming Not So Soon.

I heard from a reader that, at a recent bourbon tasting sponsored by Beam Inc., a company rep mentioned that they are coming out with a straight rye under the Knob Creek banner. Currently, the Knob Creek line consists of two bourbons; the standard expression and a single barrel.

I have confirmed that the rumor is true, but the release is not imminent. Look for it sometime in 2012. It will be a straight rye whiskey, but no other details are available.

News From Templeton Rye.

Here is some news from Templeton Rye President Scott Bush that came by way of their email newsletter. I thought it interesting enough to pass along.

Templeton has taken a lot of heat for not being able to keep up with demand in its home market of Iowa while it tries to expand into other areas. To rectify this, they announced they will greatly increase their monthly allocation to the State of Iowa in October, November and December, "so you should have an easier time finding a bottle of The Good Stuff for the holidays."

They say they are on pace to sell 22,000 cases in Iowa in 2011, up from 7,100 in 2010. This is one of the first tangible numbers I've seen for Templeton's sales. Twenty-two thousand cases of a premium whiskey in a smallish market like Iowa is pretty impressive. Whatever else Templeton might be, they are effective marketers.

Bush also points out that Templeton is only sold in four states: Iowa, Illinois, New York, and California. They are a pretty big deal here in Chicago, so they are in my face more than they are for most people. They've been in New York and California for less than a year and their distribution there is pretty much limited to high-end bars in New York City and San Francisco.

The news about that is that they don't intend to add any more markets until at least 2014.

Since this is Templeton, I can't resist a small dig.

Their email newsletter is called "Straight From The Still." That's a laugh since the still in which every drop of Templeton Rye is made is not even in Iowa and is not owned by them. Every drop of Templeton Rye is and always has been made at LDI in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. That's why Templeton has supply problems, they are limited by how much whiskey LDI has to sell.

Templeton is bottled in Templeton, Iowa, and at least some of it is partially aged there as well. They also claim, in one of their videos, that they throw some rye grain grown on Templeton-area farms into the hoppers at LDI.

LDI Determined To Remain A Mystery.

Fans of American whiskey will sometimes see an unfamiliar label on a liquor store shelf and wonder if they have discovered some previously-unknown distillery. In most cases, what they have found is either an obscure brand from a major distiller, or the product of a non-distiller using whiskey bought from one of the majors.

These days it might also be the product of a micro-distillery, but they are easy to spot and their combined whiskey output doesn’t amount to 1/10 of one percent of US whiskey production.

A straight rye might come from a non-US distillery, such as WhistlePig from Canada, but if it’s bourbon and not from a micro or defunct distillery (now very rare), then it was made by one of the thirteen US whiskey distilleries that are currently active.

If a bottle is bottom shelf, possibly a store brand, vague origins are no big deal. If you don’t pay much you don’t expect much.

But if the product has a premium price you are smart to ask questions and the first and most obvious one is, “who made this?”

Which brings us back to those thirteen large distilleries that produce 99.9 percent of the whiskey made in the USA.

Nine of them are so open they give regular public tours. Three of the remaining four give occasional press and trade tours. That leaves one.

Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana LLC, usually abbreviated as LDI.

Lawrenceburg, Indiana is near Cincinnati and developed in the 19th century as the main distilling center for spirits brokered and distributed through Cincinnati firms. Until the American distilling industry began its big contraction in the 1970s, two of the Big Four -- Seagrams and Schenley -- had large whiskey plants there.

LDI is the old Seagrams place. It traces its roots back to 1847, although little is known about its early days. The name was Rossville then and after 1875 it was owned by the James Walsh Company. They operated it up to Prohibition, and even during Prohibition under a medicinal whiskey license.

At the end of Prohibition, Walsh sold Rossville to Seagrams, which expanded it and operated it until that company was sold for parts in 2001. Pernod-Ricard had it until 2007, then sold it to Angostura, the current owner.

LDI is actually two distilleries. The larger one makes neutral spirits (vodka and gin) while the smaller one makes whiskey. It has maturation warehouses and a bottling house. According to the LDI web site, it sits on 78 acres and is one of the largest beverage alcohol distilleries in the world. It makes distilled and compound gin, corn whiskey, rye whiskey, and three different bourbons.

Of greatest interest to the enthusiast community are their rye, which is 95 percent rye grain, 5 percent malt; and their high-rye bourbon, which is 60 percent corn, 36 percent rye, 4 percent malt.

Unlike the other twelve major whiskey distilleries in the USA, LDI makes no brands of its own. It sells its entire output in bulk to other producers, large and small, up to and including Diageo (Bulleit 95 Rye) and Pernod (Seagrams Gin). Some LDI whiskey in current distribution was brokered by Pernod, the rest seemingly comes from LDI directly.

In that word “seemingly” lies the rub. The people who run LDI won’t give interviews, at least not to me. Some of LDI’s customers will provide a little bit of information but they don’t necessarily know very much, except what type of whiskey they bought and the fact that LDI made it.

Being secretive and close-mouthed is what bulk producers do. Heaven Hill has always had a big bulk whiskey business but getting them to talk about it is like pulling teeth. Four Roses and Brown-Forman will both confirm that they sell whiskey to Diageo, primarily white dog that Diageo barrels and ages in the maturation warehouses at Stitzel-Weller near Louisville. Buffalo Trace has been in and out of the bulk business and currently says it is out, including at its Tom Moore Distillery, which sold bulk when it was owned by Constellation. Everybody sells bulk whiskey from time to time, to adjust their inventory or when the price is just too good to pass up.

Neither the producers nor their customers will say much about the bulk whiskey business. Since a bulk producer doesn’t really know what happens to the whiskey after it leaves their plant, and since they don’t own the brand names under which it is sold, their reluctance makes a kind of sense. If a marketing company wants you to think it’s really a distiller, as some do, its reluctance to talk about the real producer makes sense too.

Or consider this. Diageo confirms that its new Bulleit 95 Rye is LDI. The LDI high-rye bourbon mash bill is the same as the one Four Roses makes, which is no surprise since both plants used to be owned by Seagrams.

That bourbon recipe happens to be the Bulleit Bourbon recipe. Is Diageo taking spirit distilled in Indiana, aging it in Kentucky, mixing it with the all-Kentucky bourbon from Four Roses, and calling the whole thing “Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey”?

Can they? The rules say producers may not misrepresent where a product was manufactured, but they don’t define ‘manufactured.’ They do say that when distilled spirits are bottled by or for a rectifier, the phrase ‘manufactured by’ may be used in lieu of the phrase ‘bottled by.’

If mere bottling is considered ‘manufacturing’ then surely aging is too.

Beyond the TTB’s general misrepresentation rule above, no entity regulates the use of ‘Kentucky’ in the phrase ‘Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey.’ Nowhere is it decreed that whiskeys using the phrase must be distilled and aged in Kentucky.

So I’m not saying Diageo has done anything wrong if they are doing this, but it sure would be interesting to know.

Maybe that tells you why nobody wants to talk about LDI. The problem, of course, is that when you can’t get information from authoritative sources, the rumor mill takes over. I may hear something that doesn’t sound quite right but if I can’t get a company to confirm or deny a rumor there’s not much I can do to set the record straight.

The best hope is that LDI’s customers will convince them to open up. The place makes good and interesting whiskey. Somebody should be bragging about it.

Find It If You Can.

It's Fleischmann's Rye, a straight rye whiskey made at Tom Moore (Sazerac's distillery in Bardstown). It's the only straight rye they sell, only sold in northern Wisconsin, only in handles (1.75 L plastic bottles). It's not great (too young), but not bad. It's cheap.

Fleischmann's is an old brand that has passed through many owners. There is a Fleischmann's Preferred American Blended Whiskey that is more widely distributed but apparently the rye sells well enough in this one part of Wisconsin to justify its continued production. 

I wonder if by "premium taste through the years" they mean "but not right now."

How We Almost Lost Bourbon and Rye.

In 1972, a new type of whiskey debuted in the United States. It was called ‘light whiskey.’ Light whiskey was supposed to save the American whiskey industry from unfair foreign competition. It was a drink made like the imports but tailored to American tastes. It was expected to capture 10 to 12 percent of the U.S. distilled spirits market by 1982.

It didn’t. Light whiskey was a huge failure.

But it could have been a lot worse.

Today American straight whiskeys, in particular bourbon and rye, are popular all over the world. It wasn't always that way. At one point about 40 years ago, it got so bad that some of the largest bourbon and rye makers wanted to fundamentally alter the product to, in their minds, make it more competitive with the imported scotch and Canadian whiskeys that were eating their lunch.

They wanted to abandon flavorful low-proof distillation, low-proof barrel entry, and aging in new, charred oak barrels.

Some producers--the smaller, family-owned, Kentucky-based ones mostly--objected. If the majority had ruled, the rules would have been changed, but the federal government regulators decided to leave those standards alone. Instead they created a new category with the specifications the large producers wanted, and called it light whiskey. It bombed, big time.

If it had gone the other way, if the feds had yielded to the big producers and changed the rules, bourbon and rye as we know them would have disappeared. They would have missed the revival that began in the late 1980s. Today they would be but a distant memory.

The complete story is in the new issue of The Bourbon Country Reader, Volume 12, Number 6.

Subscriptions to The Bourbon Country Reader are $20/year for U.S. addresses. $24.50 for Canada, and $28.50 for everybody else. It is published six times a year. Well, maybe not, but your subscription always includes six issues. Click here to subscribe with PayPal or any major credit card.

Potemkin Craft Distilleries.

Thanks to High West Distillery & Saloon, I have coined a new term: Potemkin Craft Distillery. It’s a play on the term ‘Potemkin Village,” which is defined as "something that appears elaborate and impressive but in actual fact lacks substance."

The original term refers to Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin, who allegedly had elaborate fake villages constructed for Catherine the Great's tours of the Ukraine and Crimea, in an effort to show his colonization efforts there were successful. It came into common usage during the Cold War, to refer to similar Soviet efforts to portray living conditions in the USSR as better than they actually were.

I call High West a Potemkin Craft Distillery because the company’s most highly touted products, its Rendezvous and Rocky Mountain Ryes, are whiskeys High West did not make but, rather, merely bought and bottled. In the fine print, High West explains that they “sourced the whiskey from back east while we are waiting for our own whiskey to age."

I am skeptical in part because no one who has taken this approach has subsequently replaced their third-party product with a house-made one.

In High West’s case, the High West Distillery & Saloon in Park City, Utah, just opened in December of 2009, but High West has had a still and a distilling license for four years. They could have a four-year-old whiskey of their own creation on the market right now, but they don’t.

The splash page of High West’s web site talks about "award winning small batch mountain crafted spirits." Another page talks about how "High West Distillery & Saloon started with one man’s passion to make a great Rocky Mountain Whiskey." It doesn't mention that his dream is, so far, unrealized.

Finally, on the product page, after the words, "High West Distillery crafts products for people who want great taste and appreciate quality ingredients, small batches, and the distiller's personal touch," comes the admission that the whiskeys were made somewhere else by someone else. It is hard not to conclude that High West’s intention is to fuzz the distinction.

Why do I keep harping on this? Because I have repeatedly had the experience of someone raving to me about this terrific whiskey made by this little distillery in Utah. When I explain that the whiskey was most likely made in Indiana, not Utah, they express disbelief and disappointment. Until High West calls its business "High West Distillery, Saloon & Rectifier," I will continue to call them a Potemkin Craft Distillery.

There are micro-distilleries such as Finger Lakes, Dry Fly, Garrison Brothers and others who have eschewed the course of buying spirits for resale and have, instead, found a business model that allows them to only present products of their own manufacture. I tend to regard those companies more highly than I do companies that take the other approach. That's my prerogative as a consumer.

So while I commend High West for making some exceptional orphaned whiskeys available to the marketplace, I continue to find the company's Potemkin Craft Distillery pose disingenuous.

What's New In The Bourbon Country Reader.

The new issue of The Bourbon Country Reader, Volume 12 Number 4, went into the mail just before Christmas. No doubt its arrival warmed hearts much like a holiday toddy.

Sometimes people ask if the articles in the newsletter also appear here, on the blog. Usually, no, and in this particular case, 100 percent no.

Here's the line-up.

The headline for the lead story probably speaks for itself; "Decoding The Bottom Shelf; The Quest For Good, Cheap Bourbon."

We also mine a document filed in the Wild Turkey acquisition last spring for tidbits about the brand's future under new owner Campari.

Is the rye renaissance real? We have data.

And we review two of the 2009 Buffalo Trace Antiques, the Weller and the Handy.

You may wonder why we still publish a paper newsletter sent through the U.S. mail. The real reason is because it's still hard to sell information on the web for what it's worth. The romantic reason is that we're writing about an industry that values tradition, so we do too. Take your pick.

You may also wonder why I'm affecting the imperial "we." We don't know, it just sounds right.

Click here to subscribe, with a credit card or PayPal. We publish every other month, or thereabouts, and you get six issues for $20.

If You're In Northcentral Ohio, Come See Me This Thursday.

This Thursday, September 24, I'll be doing a tasting in Mansfield, Ohio; at Martinis on Main, 108 North Main Street, to benefit the Mansfield Art Center. The cost is $20 for the flight of five whiskies, or individual tastes for $5 each.

We're not going to taste anything unusual. It's mostly an American whiskey orientation tasting. The original list I submitted included JTS Brown BIB, Old Grand-Dad BIB, George Dickel No. 12, Maker's Mark, Wild Turkey Russell's Reserve Rye, and Woodford Reserve. I'm not sure what made the final cut. The idea was to taste as much variety in producers and styles as possible in five or six drinks, keeping in mind the limited selection available through the Ohio Division of Liquor Control.

(Mansfield, Ohio, is where I was born and raised, and learned to drink.)

Advance tickets are available, or guests can pay at the door. To register, call 419-756-1700.

You can read all about it in the Mansfield News Journal, here. (Be sure to read the comments!)

Coming soon, the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection.

Here are the aging and proof specifications for the 2009 Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, which should be in stores by the end of October. Quantities are limited so if you’re interested, talk to your whiskey monger now.

• Sazerac Rye 18 Year Old. This 90° proof straight rye whiskey was aged on the first floor of Warehouse K.
• Eagle Rare 17 Year Old. This 90° proof rye-recipe bourbon whiskey was distilled in the spring of 1992 and aged on the third floor of Warehouse K.
• George T. Stagg. This uncut and unfiltered rye-recipe bourbon whiskey was aged on the first and third floors of Warehouses I and K. It was distilled in the winter of 1992. The proof is 141.4°.
• William Larue Weller. This uncut and unfiltered wheated bourbon was distilled in the fall of 1998 and aged on the fifth floor of Warehouses N and O. The proof is 134.8°.
• Thomas H. Handy Sazerac. This uncut and unfiltered straight rye whiskey was distilled in the spring of 2002 and aged on the third floor of Warehouse K. It is 129 proof.

The Antique Collection was introduced nearly a decade ago and continues to grow in popularity. For more information visit http://www.greatbourbon.com/

How Much Do I Love Rittenhouse Rye BIB?

How much do I love Rittenhouse Rye Bottled-in-Bond? Not, it turns out, as much as I thought.

Rittenhouse Rye is an American Straight Rye Whiskey. It is a Heaven Hill product, made for them by Brown-Forman. There is a standard 80° proof expression but I've always preferred the 100 proof bond. It's a very good rye and until now was one of the best bargains in American straight whiskey. Not anymore.

When I first discovered Rittenhouse Rye BIB it was $11.99. It was still sublime at $12.99, which is how much I paid for it nine months ago. It's now up to $18.99. The bottle was actually in my cart before I started to think about it. Then I noticed 8-year-old Old Charter for $12.99, Elmer T. Lee for $26.99, and Weller 12-year-old for $24.99. The Weller won.

Now, obviously, I know one is a straight rye while the other is a wheated bourbon, but as a pure value proposition, Weller 12 for $25 is a great deal. I'll grant that Rittenhouse BIB is probably worth $19, but it is no longer a value at that price.

In other smart shopping news, I went to pick up some triple sec liqueur. Now when I say triple sec I don't mean Cointreau or Grand Marnier. I'm looking at DeKuyper, Bols, Hiram Walker, that bunch. You probably would have trouble picking one from another in a blind taste test, so I was looking at price, but discovered another differentiating factor: proof. They ranged from 42° up to 60° and the lower proofs were not necessarily cheaper. The best value seemed to be Du Bouchett, at 60° and just $7.99 for the 750 ml.

DuBouchett, as it turns out, is a Heaven Hill product, so they lost me on the Rittenhouse but got me back on the triple sec. And they didn't really lose me on the Rittenhouse, because I will buy it again, just not today.

It pays to read those labels.

Beam’s New Rye Is Not As Superficial As You Think.

I am an American whiskey enthusiast. So are many of my friends.

By that I mean the object of our enthusiasm is American whiskey, a category that includes several different types, primarily bourbon but also Tennessee and rye.

Recently, much has been written about the revival of rye whiskey. Rye dominated the 19th century, then nearly died out in the 20th. Its current popularity is tied to cocktail culture. Many classic whiskey drinks were historically made with rye.

Beam Global Spirits and Wine has long made rye whiskey at its distilleries in Kentucky. Beam makes Jim Beam Rye, obviously, but also Old Overholt, a venerable 19th century brand that originated in Pennsylvania.

Other Kentucky distilleries also make rye whiskey and have, in recent years, developed new products or line extensions. Some tout long aging, as much as 23 years, to justify a premium price. These products, like many others, are aimed directly at whiskey enthusiasts, i.e., me and my friends.

So earlier this year, hearing rumors that Beam was getting ready to drop its own premium rye, many of my enthusiast friends asked me about it. As I learned what Beam intended, my message became, "sorry, but it’s not for us."

That product is now here. It is called Rye One, aka (rī)¹.

The gimmicky name, high-style packaging and deluxe price (about $45) was all enthusiasts needed to see to know that we are not the intended audience. Clearly, the target is buyers of premium vodka and other luxury spirits, the type who think "Effen Vodka" is clever too.

I sympathize with my enthusiast brothers who have already rejected (rī)¹, but now that I’ve tried it, I say we should get past all that, because it’s a very nice whiskey. Price is still an obstacle, so let’s just pretend it isn’t and consider this rye only on its merits.

I like it. I like it very much.

What I like best about it is that it captures the whiskey at just that point in the aging process when the wood has softened most of its harshness, but before the barrel takes over completely. That’s a neat trick and it shows me that the people who developed this product did, in fact, spend as much time getting the whiskey right as they did getting the package and imagery right. Bravo! Good for them.

(rī)¹ has the same basic flavor profile as the other Jim Beam ryes except as noted above, and it also seems drier. It has rye’s spice, especially white pepper, but little of its muddiness. From the wood it takes a lot of vanilla, a little oak, but no ash, smoke or char. There’s citrus, but of a preserved lemon variety. That’s about it. (rī)¹ does not have multiple layers, but what it has is crisp and well-mannered.

Is it complex? Not particularly. Is it challenging? Not at all. If that is what you want, especially if that is what you are willing to pay $45 for, don’t bother. But if you want a rye that tastes good, mixes well, and looks fabulous, here you go.

Because (rī)¹ doesn’t hit you over the head, some enthusiasts find it bland. I prefer to call it subtle and sophisticated. It’s not a rye that makes you say "wow," it’s a rye that makes you say "nicely played."

This is what rye whiskey never tasted like before, but probably should have. More people would have liked rye and maybe even kept drinking it, instead of dropping it like a bad habit when lighter, milder drinks became available during and after Prohibition.

Most American whiskeys bear little resemblance to scotch or Canadian, but a few do. Blanton’s and Basil Hayden’s, both bourbons, are often compared to scotch. (rī)¹ falls into that category, with its subtle flavor and sophisticated character. (rī)¹ also makes me think about the better Canadians, which flaunt vanilla and some of rye grain’s friendlier qualities.

The main similarity is approachability. American whiskey, as a rule, is the most flavorful of the world’s spirit types and can easily overwhelm drinkers who come to it from milder drinks. Instead, (rī)¹ goes down easy.

Wild Turkey Russell’s Reserve Rye is a similar product that came out about a year ago, but didn’t go so far with the packaging, positioning, or price. They tried to have it both ways, with something for cocktailians and bourbonians. Beam went all in cocktailian, with launch events at the leading cocktail bars in major cities. In spite of all that, it’s a terrific whiskey that bourbonians should not ignore.

By the way, Beam has suggested there will be a (rī)², (rī)³, and so on.

This could get interesting.

High West Checks In

I heard from David Perkins of Utah's High West Distillery about Sunday's post. The High West web site has the full text of the Rendezvous Rye back label, where it clearly says, "In this tradition of importing whiskey from back East (while we age our own whiskey), we crafted Rendezvous from two exotic straight rye whiskies."

I apologize for implying that High West claimed it distilled the rye it's selling. They do disclose on the label that they did not make it. However, they're not discouraging publications like the Park Record from giving the impression that they did.

He also complained that I should have contacted him first. I tried to find him but failed, though perhaps I didn't try hard enough. However, just now I Googled "High West Distillery" and got a lot of references, including this blog, but not the one-page High West web site.

Perkins correctly pointed out that I forgot one of the "usual suspects." Barton Brands at its distillery in Bardstown also makes straight rye whiskey, which they sell only in northern Wisconsin under the name Fleishmann's Rye. I often forget them because the Fleishmann's is in such extremely limited distribution and not very good. Nothing wrong with the basic distillate--Barton is a good distiller--it's just very young whiskey.

Perkins says he is contractually bound not to disclose the whiskey's maker. That still leaves a lot of questions he should be able and, I assume, willing to answer about the whiskey. The big one is to clarify if he is really saying someone 18-years-ago made a batch of rye whiskey from a mash that was 80 percent rye grain, and further saying that six years ago that distiller, or another one, made a batch of rye whiskey from a mash that was 95 percent rye? If so, why would they do that, since that's not typical of American straight rye whiskey? Or of any American straight whiskey, for that matter. The only thing an American producer would normally make with that high a proportion of a single grain would be corn whiskey.

The label talks about "a higher proportion of rye" and he mentions that in his email too, but a 60 percent rye mash bill would be a higher proportion than the norm, why 80, or 95? It's so far outside the norm as to be suspicious, but I'm still not sure that's even what he is claiming when he says "95% rye" and "80% rye."

I hope he can also clarify his reference to "unmalted rye." Is he saying the mash bill was, in one case, 95% unmalted rye and 5% malted rye, and likewise in the 80/20 case? If not, then why mention "unmalted" rye? All rye in American straight rye whiskey is unmalted except for the whiskey Fritz Maytag makes, which is 100% malted rye. So I hope he will shed some light on how this very unusual whiskey (his use of "exotic" is apt) came to be made, since it is so outside the norm.

Maybe he can't tell us who made it but how did he find out about it? There's a lot he can tell us about the whiskey itself without naming the distiller.

Perkins says "'Straight Rye Whiskey' isn't necessarily a better classification" than "a blend of straight rye whiskies." I suppose we can just disagree about that. To most American whiskey drinkers, "blend" is a dirty word in any context. It's also an unfamiliar classification. On the other hand, I suppose he wanted it called a blend because he wanted to talk about the two constituent whiskeys. However, my reading of the standards for "a blend of straight rye whiskies" is that that classification is only to be used when the constituents are straight rye but non-conforming as to the standards for "straight rye whisky," which would point to them having been made in different states. He can confirm or deny that without disclosing the maker(s).

If both were made in the same state, then why are they non-conforming? If they conform, then did TTB give him the option of using either classification? That is contrary to my reading of the rules, but he went through the label approval process and I didn't, so maybe he will enlighten me.

As I wrote Sunday, I like the idea of mixing an old straight rye with a young one, ideally to capture the best of both. I applaud that. I never denied this might be a good, even exceptional whiskey.

I said all of these things and more to him in a reply to his email and will let you know if he answers back. He is also, of course, welcome to post a comment here and say it in his own words.

The final and, perhaps most important question? Has High West distilled anything? Have they laid down any rye whiskey that they made? The web site makes it clear that the answer to that question is no. They bought an old stable in Park City, which they are restoring as a "distillery and saloon."

Far be it from me to strangle a baby in its bed, and I get the idea about getting some products out to get some cash coming in and some publicity going out, but the buzz you're creating is about people wanting to try that 18-year-old rye made in Utah, when it's nothing of the kind. I still have a problem with somebody calling himself a distiller and his company a distillery putting out a product he merely bought and bottled. It's not good for him in the long run. It's a bad way to start.

Maybe his publicity just got ahead of him, or maybe my post did exactly what I wanted it to do.