7 Single Barrel Ryes You Need to Try
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The concept behind single barrel American whiskey is a simple one, and it’s not hard to see how it became synonymous with quality. For a single barrel bottling, the whiskey-maker picks out a particularly fine barrel and bottles an entire production run from just that one cask.
Back when the first single barrel American whiskey was introduced, with Blanton’s Bourbon in 1984, rye whiskey was the neglected stepchild of the industry. Then rye enjoyed a little bit of serendipitous timing several years ago, when the sudden revival of interest in rye coincided with the start of the American craft whiskey boom. When rye became popular, it caught the big distillers off guard and many small distillers stepped in to meet some of that demand. Unlike with bourbon, many of the single barrel offerings out there come from craft distilleries.
What is more, last time rye was anything like as popular as it is today, neither single barrel whiskeys or craft distilleries were around. That makes the modern range of single barrel ryes out there a vibrant, growing and wholly new thing, and here are seven that you should look at.
Braddock Oak Single Barrel Rye ($35)
When it comes to making whiskey, Virginia’s Catoctin Creek focuses on rye and rye alone, and whiskey made from a 100% rye mash bill at that. Braddock Oak is essentially the single barrel iteration of their popular, better known Roundstone Rye, and it’s a serious bargain buy. Craft whiskeys and single barrel offerings often come with an elevated price tag, but Braddock Oak Single Barrel Rye Whisky is priced quite reasonably, and is among the cheapest in its class.
Cody Road Single Barrel Rye ($45)
Coming from Iowa’s Mississippi River Distilling Company (MRDC), one of the “Four Kings” of craft whiskey, Cody Road Single Barrel Rye is a simple, pleasant, easy drinking whiskey. Put it on the rocks and make the most of its mellow-but-spicy qualities this summer.
Beyond its easy drinking virtues, however, it’s also interesting because it’s a 95% rye, 5% malted rye whiskey, but not one of those sourced from Indiana’s MGP Distillery. Many of the rye whiskeys you see on liquor store shelves, such as that of James E. Pepper, George Dickel and their fellow Iowans Templeton Rye, are sourced from MGP’s 95% rye, 5% malted rye recipe. Cody Road was made in-house, by MRDC, so it serves as a showcase for how a similar mash bill can still lead to different results in the glass.
Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Rye ($50)
Jack Daniel’s Rye is based on the distillery’s first new mash bill since before Prohibition, but that isn’t its most noteworthy characteristic. What really stands out here is the use of their signature spin on the Lincoln County Process (LCP), or sugar maple charcoal filtration. At approximately four years old, JD’s single barrel rye is just over the line for proper maturity, but the LCP helps whiskey mellow out at younger ages. The result here is a middlingly spicy Rye that is buttery smooth.