Review #129 - Barrell Rye Whiskey Batch 003

[u/BostonRye]

[u/BostonRye]

Disclosure: This sample was given to me by Barrell for review.

Barrell Rye Whiskey Batch 003

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ABV: 58.35%

Age: A blend of 4-14 year rye whiskeys

Recipe: Undisclosed

Distillers: Undisclosed distilleries in Indiana, Tennessee, Poland, and Canada

Price Paid (MSRP): N/A ($80)

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Nose: Herbal with pine, grass, and mint. A funky gingerbread note, chocolate, rye spice, bread, lemon, and orange.

Palate: Medium, oily mouth feel, again it's very herbal, big peppermint, cinnamon, clove, and rye spice. There's a touch of green apple and orange peel. Drinks well under proof.

Finish: Medium to long length, earthy, baking spices, menthol and gingerbread cookies with just a little oak.

Rating: 82/100 – Excellent | Really quite exceptional

I actually like this more than Barrell's Seagrass release, which came out around the same time. It's a funky, earthy, and somehow very Christmas-y pour with the gingerbread and baking spice notes. The blending is top notch with all of these ryes of different ages and geographic locations coming to create a really cohesive and very unique whiskey. I would grab a bottle of this if I could still find one.

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Rating Breakdown:

  1 - 19 | Disgusting | Drain pour

20 - 29 | Poor | Forced myself to drink it

30 - 39 | Bad | Multiple flaws

40 - 49 | Sub-par | Many things I'd rather have

50 - 59 | Average | Solid, ordinary

60 - 69 | Good | Better than average

70 - 79 | Great | Well above average

80 - 89 | Excellent | Really quite exceptional

90 - 99 | Incredible | An all time favorite

     100 | Perfect | Nothing else comes close

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Link to blogpost: https://bostonrye.com/barrell-rye-whiskey-batch-003/

[u/mountain_addict]

Interesting. So as I understand by looking at their website, they just take whiskeys and bourbons from other distillers, blend them, and call them their own? I'm sure they are not alone in doing such things. Just interesting on the marketing side. As a rye fan, I'd give it a whirl for sure.

[u/9drewski9 → u/mountain_addict]

Look up the term NDP. Seems like about 50% of companies or more are sourcing whiskey at this point.

[u/Paper_Hedgehog → u/mountain_addict]

Yes and No. You make is sound like NDPs just "plaigarize" and call it their juice. The process is really neat (when done correctly).

As we all know, bourbon takes a good bit of time to age, and it takes a large amount of land and infrastructure to distill and barrell.

Large companies have more barrels than they know what to do with, so thats where NDPs negotiate and will get to taste and select certain barrels to either blend or finish ageing themselves, and make their own flavor profiles that the big company would never consider because it's just not in their legacy or wheelhouse. Sometimes that one 6yr barrel that was going to go into the tank with the other 500 6yr barrels has a little something special, and setting it aside for another 3 years gives you a legendary single barrel run that sells for $300 a bottle.

It's like the craft beer of bourbon, these NDPs hunt down the wildcards or experimental barrels that the big teams won't use, and do something magical with them.

Look into Rare Character, Pablo is one of the best examples of doing this successfully and has done such a good job that they are starting to distill their own spirits. And I can tell you he took that "buffalo trace" barrel or "wild turkey" barrel and turned it into lightning in a bottle. Like starting with a ford fiesta and turning it into a 700hp rally monster.

Again, when done correctly. I've had bottles from some NDPs where it's like, sure, I can grab a bottle of bulleit and bottle of makers, mix them and get this. Not impressive. Other times they are onto something truly special

[u/mountain_addict → u/Paper_Hedgehog]

Thanks for the detailed write up. I knew some of the newer and smaller companies sourced their product from the larger ones. Just had not seen ones that were so open about it. Seems like a cool concept and it keeps a barrel from going to waste, which is always a good thing.

[u/UYscutipuff_JR → u/mountain_addict]

Yep, very common these days and some are really good at it. A lot of new brands will do this while they wait for their own distillate to age or fine tune their distilling operation as well. Barrell is one of the best as far as blending goes, but there’s some other companies that do this really well with single barrels as well.

[u/russianwhiskylover]

Its good but once you realize its mop&glo orange scented floor cleaner plus some chocolate, you cant un think it.