New Riff Malted Rye Sherry Cask
Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey | 55.9% ABV
Score: 6/10
Good stuff.
TL;DR
In a sea of taupe, a bright new colour appears
When Everything is Taupe
Since my last review, I have to admit – I’ve been in a whiskey funk.
Y’all know I live in a whiskey desert. Really good and capable single and blended malts do not appear in my corner of the world. What I do have are swathes of mediocre bourbons and ryes at my fingertips. Yippee.
I do get some whiskies from time to time – wonderful single and blended malts – through mule networks and auctions, but the constant dosing of mediocrity has worn me down. While I am trying to keep an open mind to find some bourbons and ryes that provide some good and worthwhile flavor profiles, as of late, as you dear readers know, I continually find myself holding a glass filled with taupe.
(For those that don’t know the “taupe” reference, please read my last review of the Penelope Wheated Bourbon, I think folks in the UK might choose ‘beige’ or ‘magnolia’.)
When I go to the local liquor store, I often find rows and rows of bottles akin to taupe. When I go to friends’ homes, they bring out bottles they say are fantastic bourbons, and yet, end up, again, often being more… taupe. When I try different bourbons and ryes at local watering holes, I wind up with different glasses of different shades of uninteresting taupe. First world problems, for sure, but nonetheless vexing.
The energy spent, now almost always in vain, seeking new and interesting whiskies has had an unfortunate consequence. The frustrated efforts have sparked a sense of envy, if I am honest. I hear and see others that have the blessing of being able to find wonderful malts locally; to have fruitful bottle hunts within a manageable distance from home. I read about those malts and those hunts, daily, in the pages of Dramface.
I have been an avid reader of Dramface since its inception. I read Dramface every day. It is a solace as I sip my coffee each morning. To be honest, though, perhaps it’s a stretch these days to refer to my Dramface reading as a “solace”. It had been a solace. Now, here in the desert, reading Dramface is a blessing - and a curse.
The blessing comes from following the characters penning the reviews and their various experiences and life observations. The curse comes from reading about wonderful whiskies that evidently exist on the planet, but will never be seen here in North Carolina. While ashamed to admit it, the curse has, admittedly, built up that aforementioned envy.
The envy, of course, is tempered by that blessing of my fellow writers as I follow them, their personalities, and their lives. I soak in the Ardnamurchan experiences and life perspectives so richly relayed by Doogie Crystal. I love the recent “Official vs Indy” series pairing reviews from Charlie. I go along historical journeys with Eallair and listen to him weave in linked American single malts. I have adored (and miss) the acerbic wit of Tyree who peels whiskies apart with science, analysis, and terse aplomb (do yourselves a favor and go back and re-read his “Diageo Special Releases 2022”).
I can continue to speak about the almost-thirty other writers and how I have come to know them and each of their styles, backgrounds, and views. I love it. I love them. Every morning. And yet… as I am here in the desert, it’s a bit of salt in the wound every morning when I read great reviews about great whiskies. (As I type this, while envious of not having access to a three decade old malt, I am still basking in the glow of Broddy’s review of a 31 year old North Star Sirius – and yes, I’m crying - he’s not. IFYKYK.)
But, as is often said in these pages, whisky will find and surprise you. And a new whiskey did just that to me this past weekend.
Good friends, John and Sue, who live a few streets away have a standing “Friday Firepit” engagement at their house. They have given close friends an open invitation to come to their house each Friday to sit by the fire pit, drink, smoke, tell stories, laugh, and generally carry on.
Friday morning I received a text message that had the customary John straight-to-the-point characteristic. “🔥🥃 … Tonight?”
I looked at my calendar, and responded. “Meeting after dinner, but assuming it’s not too late, will head over.”
Immediately, there was a response on my phone: “It won’t be too late.”
Good friends are worth their weight in gold, and I am blessed with a number of them.
And so, the day came and went – a few scheduled meetings trying to stoke interest in my new venture: an hour devoted to learning a new (to me) computer program for some video shenanigans; a few hours dedicated to a 40-hour certification, and then time planning some new steps with another venture with my buddy, Lou. That led to the after-dinner meeting. After I finished that last meeting, it was close to 8:00pm. I looked at my phone. There I found a message sent at 6:49pm. It was from John. It simply read “Mood for something sherried”.
Direct, he is.
I called Mrs. Shaw to tell her I was coming home to pick her up and head on over to John and Sue’s. Unfortunately, Mrs. Shaw was dead tired and asked me to make her apologies. Before she hit the sack, I requested a favor. I asked her to get my backpack and put into it whatever she found that was a sherried whisky. I also asked her to go to my Golani whisky box – where I keep my smoking items – and retrieve cigars, a cutter, and matches. She said she would, and she’d leave the backpack in the garage so I could just swoop in, pick it up, and be on my way.
And so, I made it home roughly fifteen minutes later, opened the garage, grabbed the backpack, and made my way to John and Sue’s.
I pulled up to their house, walked through their back yard, and came upon John sitting in front of a robust fire. The evening was slightly cool, and perfect for sitting around a fire pit. As I came around the back of the house to the patio and fire pit, I hollered at John.
“Where’s the red carpet? No one to serenade me as I make my appearance?”
“Ogie! You just missed Zach and Arthur. They were complaining about how late it was.”
“Clearly their priorities are all wrong.”
John nodded profusely. “Absolutely. Pansies, they are!”
I walked over and shook John’s hand and as I turned to grab a chair I asked John where his wife was.
“When she heard that your better half wasn’t coming, she figured she’d let the boys hang out.”
As I sat down, John turned to me and with raised eyebrows, asked, “were you able to fulfil the mission?”
I reached into my bag and pulled out the bottle being reviewed here. Admittedly, when I saw the bottle that my better half had packed for me, I was a bit astonished.
John looked at the bottle and muttered, “never seen that one before.”
I had purchased this bottle about a month ago as a consolation during one of my trips to the ABC liquor store. “Consolation” as there had been three or so trips immediately prior without any purchases as nothing of interest caught my eye, and nothing interesting was there for the taking. And then, I saw this bottle on the shelf and thought I would take a flier on it. It wasn’t necessarily what I was looking for, but it had a few things going for it.
First, it was from New Riff, with whom I previously had a good experience. Second, I remembered the very positive review given by Aengus and Broddy to New Riff’s 6 year old malted rye a few years ago. Next, seeing a label stating the whiskey was a malted rye but also with a sherried cask finish just sounded interesting. Finally, it was a whiskey at roughly 56% ABV. That was the icing on the cake that made me take the bottle to the register. Despite those four items, I remember walking out of the store hoping this bottle wouldn’t suck. (Ogilvie’s outlook on in-store purchases here in North Carolina is laid bare with that last statement…)
I had taken a neck pour when I had brought it home a month earlier, and whether it was due to the fact that it was a neck pour needing time and air in the bottle and/or I was just not in the right mood, I was unimpressed by the whiskey. Not bad, but nothing that made my eyes open wider. And, into the back of the bourbon cupboard it went. Out of sight and out of mind. I hadn’t seen it since. Evidently, when Mrs. Shaw went to the cupboard she rifled through the bottles, saw the large “SHERRY FINISH” on the bottle, and retrieved it.
I grabbed two empty tumblers from a side table and passed a glass of this malted rye to John. For the aforementioned reasons of the recent history of whiskey purchases here in the desert, I have to admit I was a bit concerned about the reception this whiskey would receive.
John nosed the glass, raised his dram, and toasted: “to completing the mission.”
We clinked our glasses together, nosed our respective drams, and then each of us took a sip. We sat and pondered for a moment, turned to each other, and as it turned out, we had the same reaction.
Review
New Riff Malted Rye, Straight Kentucky Rye Whiskey, Sherry Finish, 6yo Rye whiskey finished in Pedro Ximenez and Oloroso sherry casks, 111.9º Barrel proof, 55.95% ABV
US$70 paid (£51) & spotty availability
When John made the request for a sherried whisky, neither he nor I had any thought about a bottle of malted rye. But, that is what we were sipping.
New Riff does have a malted rye expression in their core range of whiskies (again, take a look back at Aengus and Broddy’s review), but this particular bottle is a limited release. It is 100% malted rye, aged six years, and finished in both Spanish Pedro Ximenez and Oloroso sherry casks.
Score: 6/10
Good stuff.
TL;DR
In a sea of taupe, a bright new colour appears
Nose
Dark red fruits. Raisins. Date nut bread. Clove and allspice. Slight hint of vanilla – the scent from scraping a vanilla pod and rubbing the pod between your fingers. Petrichor and oak. The rye spice is lingering, but it isn’t sharp. Christmas date pinwheel cookies.
Palate
Bold with fruits and spice. Fig Newtons. Warm sherry and oak tones. Stewed plums and raisins. Inviting sweet-ish oak. Pumpernickel bread with apple butter. Spicy prickles are in my cheeks and on my tongue.
This has heft. It’s meaty, in a way. There is a cereal-grain note that weaves through the background. Ripe Bartlett pears. Mid-palate, a tingling and building spiciness is felt on the tongue and in the cheeks. This has rye spices, but they are sweeter and more tame than traditional rye whiskies. The sweetness here borders on savory.
At the finish, the oak and sweetness meld and recede a bit as cloves, a bit of menthol, and ripe plums come forward. Rather good. Nice mouthfeel.
The Dregs
So, the sherry mission… this isn’t the same as a Glenturret 12 or a Tamdhu barrel strength, but it isn’t supposed to be. Not that a single malt aficionado would think that a malted rye would be the same as a single malt, but just being clear.
Regardless, as with a Glenturret or a Tamdhu (in my experience) both of those distilleries use good quality sherry casks. It appears that New Riff has done the same. To my palate, the casks used with this New Riff were not tired vessels. There are clearly flavor overlaps with the aforementioned single malts. Both the malts and this New Riff deliver rich and expressive sherry notes and that translates into a luscious and flavorful sip. No taupe here.
While the cask influence is important, the other major factor yielding layers of flavor here is the fact that the rye has been malted. Most other ryes I have experienced have been of the non-malted variety. And, those experiences have provided a rye palate that has been what I would respectfully call spiced, sharp, and limited.
Most of us have had rye experiences that have been rather sharp due to the spice – dill, pine, eucalyptus, pepper, spearmint. Most ryes, in my experience, if not blended or otherwise finished, have a limited spectrum of flavors and are somewhat raw and sharp. If one enjoys spiced, sharp, and limited ryes, then bottles such as Old Overholt’s 4 year old straight rye, Whistle Pig’s 10 year old straight rye, and George Dickel’s chill filtered rye are up your alley.
Someone’s alley, respectfully, but not mine.
The malting process done with the rye grain here has revealed more layers of flavor. That, combined with the sherry casks, has produced “good stuff”. Malting – as it is done with barley in single malts – unlocks the flavors, sugars, and complexities from the grain.
As we know, malting is a process where the grain is first steeped in water before being allowed to germinate. This germination activates enzymes in the grain that convert starches into sugars; it opens up the grain’s inner flavor. Once germinated, the grain is dried to halt the sprouting process. At this point, the distiller has malted grain that can provide a range of flavors in the subsequent fermentation process of whiskey production.
Without the malting, as said, a standard non-malted rye whiskey has rye flavors that are raw and sharp; they have not been tempered and expanded by the enzymes and unlocked sugars. With this New Riff malted rye there is a subtle sweetness – noticeable even apart from the sherry cask influence, though the flavors drawn from the casks do marry quite well with the malted grain in this respect. Yes, there are raisins and stewed fruit flavors from the sherry casks, but my glass also yields hints of nuttiness and cereal-forward breads. Also, while subtle, I can parse out some very ripe pears and Fuji apples.
Another contrast between this malted rye and a usual, non-malted rye is in the finish. Most traditional rye whiskies have a distinct sharp, peppery finish. The finish on this malted rye has a nice spicy tingle from the mid-palate onward, but it is far from what I have experienced as a peppery finish.
I am intrigued by this malted rye. This is akin to other blended or finished ryes that have received good scores from yours truly. Immediately coming to mind are Sagamore’s Double Oak and High West’s A Midwinter Night’s Dram. This New Riff is interesting, flavorful, and without the usual bite or sharpness of an unmalted rye. Certainly not taupe.
As said, this expression is a limited edition from New Riff. I am not sure what kind of outturn was made, and how long these will be on the shelves. If you can find it, give it a try. Yes, this is different from an ex-bourbon cask aged single malt. That said, this is interesting. With baking spices, Christmas cookies, dates, sherry, oak, and a sweet and mellow baked bread presence, I imagine this would be a hit during the Christmas holidays. Regardless, even in spring here in North Carolina, I am enjoying this bottle, and am glad to have found something in the whisky desert that is new, something that brings layers, and causes me to spend time nosing and parsing out different flavors.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it, as did John. We sat and chewed the fat while we talked about the whiskey, what we were finding in our respective nosings, and what we were finding on the palate. We both lit cigars that I had brought for the festivities, and both of us agreed that the dram was good alone, but even better when paired with a rich cigar. We sat, sipped, puffed, and chatted for three hours. Good friend. Good cigar. Good whiskey. Doesn’t get much better than that.
Not taupe
I’m glad that my whiskey ennui is ebbing, and glad to have locally found something interesting. Helping to erase that ennui is the knowledge that five auction bottles are en route, and I look forward to writing about them.
Until then, I wish you all pleasant surprises from your whiskey stashes, great people with whom to share the whiskey, and having a fire pit with a roaring fire on a cool spring evening. Those things don’t suck, and when experienced together, can help banish some of the taupe from our lives.
Score: 6/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. OS
-
Dramface is free.
Its fierce independence and community-focused content is funded by that same community. We don’t do ads, sponsorships or paid-for content. If you like what we do you can support us by becoming a Dramface member for the price of a magazine.
However, if you’ve found a particular article valuable, you also have the option to make a direct donation to the writer, here: buy me a dram - you’d make their day. Thank you.
For more on Dramface and our funding read our about page here.
