Old Overholt
Straight Rye Whiskey
40% ABV
Cheap - $15-20/bottle
Color:
Pale gold/yellow. Definitely lighter than the shade of brown glass that the bottle is made from.
Smell:
Pretty mild overall, not picking up a whole lot on the nose. I guess vaguely spicy/peppery...a little bit minty, too, along with some mild herbal tea-like smell.
Taste:
Definitely a little harsher in the mouth than its smell lets on; noticeably astringent at first. Unlike bourbon, no big sweetness or caramel comes into play for me. Little bit of oak, but pretty mild flavors overall.
Swallow:
Not a huge burn, but not super smooth, either. Overall, nice warmth. Pretty clean finish, doesn’t leave any huge aftertaste.
Overall:
I like it, but nothing to write home about. Pretty undeniably great value for a rye whiskey, and great for cocktails.
I use this all the time for Manhattans: stir 2 oz of this, 1 oz of Dolin Rouge, and a couple dashes of Angostura bitters with a ton of ice until it’s cold as shit and then strain into a glass. Garnish if you’re feeling fancy.
Also great for an Old Fashioned-ish cocktail: coat a teaspoon of sugar or ½ teaspoon of agave syrup with a few dashes of bitters in your final drinking glass, add a tiny bit of warm water, and stir as best as possible. Add 3 oz of rye (2 if you’re not feeling frisky) and some cracked ice, stir to dilute, and then throw in a few bigger ice cubes to keep you company while you drink. As before, garnish if you have it.
Finally, a simple Hot Toddy or, as I like to call it, “whiskey tea.” The lazy man’s approach, if you don’t want to go “full Wondrich” after working all day: nuke an almost-full coffee cup of water for 1:30, pour in a teaspoon of sugar and stir, pour in 2 oz of whiskey, squeeze in a lemon wedge, stir a little bit, and then put a dash or two of powdered cinnamon on top of the whole thing. Yay, winter!
What others have said:
Lots of varying opinions over on BourbonEnthusiast; maybe my palate isn’t all that sophisticated. For what it’s worth, people smell - variably - sharp fruit, sharp spice, leather, tangerines, corn sweetness, oak, honeysuckle flowers, grass, and yeast. They taste fruit, spice, cinnamon, vanilla, tobacco, cereal, and nut bread. The finish is described as long and lingering for some, with a characteristic rye spiciness.
S.D. Peters over at The Whiskey Reviewer gives it a “C” rating. For what it’s worth, he/she provides a pretty interesting background on the whiskey and, particularly, some historical context. Peters waxing poetic about its smell:
“A few dashes of white pepper impart the spiciness for which Rye is known. Sprinkle it over a bouquet of ripening summer fruit, scented with trace of cracked vanilla beans, and you have a fairly standard Rye. Step away, return, inhale again: similar notes return, but now… is that fruit specifically late summer apples, lingering in an afternoon meadow?”
I totally agree with Peters’ overall assessment of Overholt as “an average rye.”
Josh Peters at The Whiskey Jug rates it an 83/100. The nose for him is caramel frosting, spice, graham and cinnamon. The taste is spice, lemon pepper, grains, wood, fruit. And the finish is green apples, graham crackers, and sugared oak.
Mike Flaminio at Whiskey Lately harshes all over Overholt, bestowing upon it a 1.0/5.0 rating and noting that its phenolics are off-putting and it’s otherwise thin and shitty.
I found a really interesting horizontal tasting comparison by Sku, in which he tasted a 1984 Overholt against the current version, noting that “Modern Overholt is sweet, light and fruity without any of the deep complex notes of the older version. The Beam version lacks the depth and richness of flavor of the older version. Indeed, it is a completely different whiskey, which bears little resemblance to its older brother.”
Finally, Chuck Cowdery goes into the history of Old Overholt without diving too deep into his impressions/tasting notes. Interesting read, though!
