Today, we’re taking a virtual trip over to the east coast to the Hudson Valley region of New York to review the second bottle in Taconic Distillery’s core range: their Founder’s Rye
Rye whisky production is experiencing a bit of a revival these days. Although still bourbon’s little sibling in terms of production, the rye renaissance is being driven by a renewed interest amongst bartenders and consumer alike.
Most mass produced rye still leans towards a mashbill that hues close to the legal minimum of 51% rye. The large proportion of corn in these mashbills gives these ryes a sweeter flavour so as to appeal to the everyday bourbon drinker.
In terms of “high rye” rye, Midwest Grain Products of Indiana (aka MGP) and Alberta Distillers Limited are the largest producers. Their whisky, in turn, is bottled by them under various brand names or shipped to other distilleries for blending and bottling under their own labels.
Lately, craft distilleries have tried their own hand at rye distilling using high-rye mashbills. This leads us back to Taconic, whose Founders Straight Rye Whiskey has a mashbill of 95% rye and 5% malted barley. It’s aged for at least three years in virgin American oak barrels and bottled at 45% abv.
Nose: this is quite floral and herbal right off the bat. I had to sniff around my spice and dried herb bottles a bit before I settled on ground coriander seed. It’s a little bit sour and floral at the same time. The floral note isn’t very strong and it’s not pungent like a rose. I’m trying to tie it to something in my garden. A faint whiff of Peony, maybe? I’m getting rye bread in here for sure. Not surprising, I guess! Some brown sugar and toffee bubbles up as it sits in the glass for a while. Definitely cinnamon and allspice as well. More than a hint of peach and orange comes up from the glass. Interesting sweet and sour combinations going on here.
Pallet: That interplay between sweet and sour continues during the entry. Orange, vanilla cream, toffee and a little bit of milk chocolate. It’s not super creamy, but it’s enough to coat the mouth. The transition into the development is gentle and not super spicy either, but it’s enough to make the tongue and gums tingle a little. Cinnamon is joined by a pretty decent amount of ground cloves. The oak starts to come into play towards the end of the development and is pretty tame. Especially when I smack my lips, that orange note from the entry is turned up. Sponge toffee is definitely there from the mid-development onwards along with a bit of cracked pepper.
Finish: The finish is medium, I would say. The oak ever so slightly wins out over the citrus to make this mildly drying. The sponge toffee gently fades away. A little bit of old leather and a tiny bit of dark chocolate linger at the end.
With water added…
The nose is a little more oaked and the cloves I got on the development are here now. A little bit of cocoa powder is in there for sure. This is more sweet and less sour on the entry and development now. I was worried that this might be over oaked, but thankfully that’s not the case. Lots of light brown sugar and the custard of a creme brûlée are in the entry. It’s a little more spicy in the development and that helps to cut through the added sweetness. It’s the same cinnamon and clove mixture as before. The finish isn’t that much longer than without water, but that added sweetness gives me a nice spice cake kind of feel that slowly fades away.
Conclusion
This was really nice both with and without water. Having reviewed a few craft whiskies over the summer, there was a tendency for them to fall apart a bit with a few drops of water. This whisky was having none of that. If you like things a little sweeter, try water. If you like a herbal, slightly citrusy and sour rye, take it without.
Taconic’s Double Barrel Maple Bourbon seems to be their top seller due to it’s unique flavour, but their ryes are legit. If you want to know what the barrel strength version of this tastes like, PWS’s own Sean Kincaid will provided you with the answer on Friday.
Instagram: @paul.bovis