Straight Rye Whiskey
45% ABV
paid $27
Color: light gold with orange tint.
Smell: there is definitely a rye backbone of dill and pumpernickel bread, but it is joined by fresh orange citrus notes. There seems to be a small hint of clove/allspice, but it's much more in the background.
Taste: some sweetness on the entry - citrus and dill in equal parts. Introducing air brings in a bit of the spice box. The transition injects some leather/oak influence as well as an herbal tea taste. Relatively brief finish with some lingering leather/spice warmth. Smooth sipper.
Overall: It's good, not great. Despite all of the tasting notes above, it is a bit too muted and thin in its delivery for me to recommend it as a complex sipping whiskey in its own right. You could do a lot worse for the money, however. This is shoulders above Dad's Hat Rye (albeit not on the nose), but nowhere close to Lot 40 in terms of an overall complex package. The BTAC Sazerac (18 years old), which I was lucky enough to taste, retains this whiskey's sweetness, citrus, and rye character (dill, etc.) while injecting more than a decade of barrel influence in the form of leather, allspice, clove, cinnamon, etc. flavors.
