14 Exceptional Barrel-Finished Rye Whiskeys

insidehook | robert haynes-peterson | january 31, 2024

[Excerpt]

If you’ve glanced around the whiskey aisles recently, you’ve probably noticed an increasing number of whiskeys touted as being “finished” in rum, pinot noir or sherry barrels. You’re not imagining things: what was once a technique more common to Scotch than American whiskey has blown up in recent years.

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In the end, “Does it taste good?” is the best measure of a great rye, however it’s aged. Below, 14 of our favorite ryes that have undergone an additional barrel maturation.

Old Elk Rum Cask Finish Rye

Colorado’s Old Elk boasts a fantastic, ongoing Cask Finish Series allowing the brand to play with everything from ex-port and French Sauternes to the 14-year Barbados rum casks (probably from Foursquare Distillery) used here, all under the watchful eye of veteran distiller Greg Metze. “We never want to mask the mash bill or the years of aging we’ve already put the whiskey through in the barrel,” says Production Manager Melinda Maddox. “We intend to enhance the whiskey, so we spend a lot of time tasting our whiskey next to the products that have come out of those casks.” (Want to know more? Check out the site’s cask-finishing video.) This finished release is aged at least five years (“Bottled by Old Elk Distillery,” so it likely originally hails from MGP, as does Metze), then tossed into 53-gallon ex-rum barrels for two to five months. The dark amber juice has a soft nose of oak, cinnamon and other baking spices, and just a hint of green apple. On the mouth, it’s got a soft, sweet open, round and spicy on the mid-palate, with a clean pineapple-cigar finish. 

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