Hello friends and family to yet another Whiskey of my Wednesday, where I tell you about Whiskey, and you just, uh… Read? I sure hope so. Today I’m coming out of the left field and giving you a little diddy from a grain I haven’t reviewed in quite some time, let’s get it going with the Rittenhouse Rye!
Rittenhouse Rye
Heaven’s Hill Distillery
Bottled in Bond in Louisville, KY
50% / 100 Proof
$24.99
Nose - BANG! Huge spice upfront if you put your nose “too close”, or, average nosing distance with a Glencairn. This is full nosing rye with tons of cinnamon and straight rye grain with hints of a dry, processed white sugar on the end, similar to Valentine’s heart candies.
Palette - Similarly strong and spicy on the tongue, nearly unforgiving and relentless in the spice and alcohol burst. Despite the high rye content of Turkey 101, this vesche makes the prior seem like a honey and oak paradise of candy and caramel. I’d dare say it is more “alcoholic” than even High West’s “Double Rye”.
Finish - Spice and rough heat that disappears as quickly as it came on, the finish is where the Rittenhouse Rye truly declares, “I am for mixing, punk.” This is wild rye that, in my opinion, would certainly tune-up any mixed rye drink, and could do with the taming of sugar and seltzer.
Thoughts - I might be a bit disagreeable with the Rittenhouse Rye, as I’m already pretty deep myself into several bourbons and even a Japanese whisky that I just killed (RIP, Nikka Coffey), so moving into a rye may have been a bit of a… hasty(?) decision, but, it is my duty as your trusted whiskey advisor to give my amateur tasting notes without pause nor cease. I’m not a big fan of the Rittenhouse, but I also really don’t want to drink much more tonight. But typically, when I go back to nose something, I am coerced by its seductive nature, and give in to the simp, then the dram, then the glass, and good lord, the bottle. But suprisingly so, not with Rittenhouse.; Have I reached my limit? Am I too far gone for my own good? It can’t be, I’m still typing, I’m still talking, and yet, despite my hefty day of hiking an 80lbs pack up and down Butterfield Canyon, I’m left thinking, “No thanks, I’ll be fine with bourbon or scotch.”