Joined Sep 2003
9K Posts | 0+
Puerto Rico/NYC
Despite its annual release as a member of The Antique Collection, through the years I have always regarded this as a single product. I mean, if you're going to get right down to it, every distillation of a mass produced whiskey like Knob Creek could potentially be a "different" product than the last release.
So, in an effort to create some sort of guideline for myself, and after I found out how much those lists of mine have caught on as guidelines for others, I've always treated this as a single product. This particular product happens to occupy No. 6 on my all-time rye list. And despite the new ryes being released over the past few years, including the supposedly unique, super-aged ryes which are simply too ridiculously expensive for me to even think of spending that money on even when I do have it, the world of rye whiskey is still a pretty bare landscape.
The Sazerac 18 year old rye, always 90 proof, is a label that has stood the test of time. After not having it for the past few years, and falling in love with it during the early part of the century, I recently came upon a bottle of the Fall 2007 release.
God has obviously blessed the land the grains grow on, the aquifers that Kentucky water flows through, and the efforts of the distillers that produce this masterful rye whiskey. Year after year, bottle after bottle, with only slight variation in flavor profile, and all of them being anywhere from very good to outstanding, this rye has remained a consistent winner.
With Nos. 1-3 on my all-time rye list now being extinct, No. 4 being an annual release which may vary widely in its impressions, and No. 5 being almost impossible to come by, this would be the one to look for if you want top quality rye whiskey. Of course, it's not going to come cheap but it's well worth the bucks if you have them, and if the piddling amount your local liquor merchant gets ever leaves a bottle available to you.
The basic flavor profile is candy, liquid candy, with a gentle touch of that rye spice, softened markedly by its extreme age, covered with a wash of oak and maple syrup, with hints of orange peel throughout each sip. And that's the story on this worthy old favorite of mine.
So, in an effort to create some sort of guideline for myself, and after I found out how much those lists of mine have caught on as guidelines for others, I've always treated this as a single product. This particular product happens to occupy No. 6 on my all-time rye list. And despite the new ryes being released over the past few years, including the supposedly unique, super-aged ryes which are simply too ridiculously expensive for me to even think of spending that money on even when I do have it, the world of rye whiskey is still a pretty bare landscape.
The Sazerac 18 year old rye, always 90 proof, is a label that has stood the test of time. After not having it for the past few years, and falling in love with it during the early part of the century, I recently came upon a bottle of the Fall 2007 release.
God has obviously blessed the land the grains grow on, the aquifers that Kentucky water flows through, and the efforts of the distillers that produce this masterful rye whiskey. Year after year, bottle after bottle, with only slight variation in flavor profile, and all of them being anywhere from very good to outstanding, this rye has remained a consistent winner.
With Nos. 1-3 on my all-time rye list now being extinct, No. 4 being an annual release which may vary widely in its impressions, and No. 5 being almost impossible to come by, this would be the one to look for if you want top quality rye whiskey. Of course, it's not going to come cheap but it's well worth the bucks if you have them, and if the piddling amount your local liquor merchant gets ever leaves a bottle available to you.
The basic flavor profile is candy, liquid candy, with a gentle touch of that rye spice, softened markedly by its extreme age, covered with a wash of oak and maple syrup, with hints of orange peel throughout each sip. And that's the story on this worthy old favorite of mine.