James E. Pepper 1776 Straight Rye

[opelfruit]

Not seen these in the UK before so jumped on the chance to get a new bottle of straight Rye.

This is from sourced casks (read: Independant bottling....they don't distill this).


Mash: 90% rye
Abv: 50%
Filtered: No chill filtering
Age: no idea.


Nose:

Yikes, rye! Very floral, clove, violets, maybe some lavender. Toasty nuts and plenty of pine. There is some yeasty/mustiness in there too.

Palate:

Hot entry. Oranges again and loads of clove. Yeasty/doughy breadiness, little bit of oak and some vanilla. Some almonds and a bit of sweetness. Pine again and that mustiness from the nose - like old hessian sacks. Not much cask influence and plenty of heat - I'm guessing this is young, probably not much more than it's statutory 2 years, certainly no more than 4 years old.

Finish:

Loads of spice, really really spicey. Like grinding black pepper into your mouth. Very Long. Heat dies of and spice fades nicely to leave clove, cinnamon, some sweetness...maybe honey.



Well, certainly an experience. It's young and as such the rye influence is massive. It's like when you have a young peated whisky, the spirit drives the entry and the finish. I really like it, it offers a very different taste profile to stuff I've had before. Certainly the "biggest" rye whisky I've had - a rye bomb if you will.....it's not for everyone this.


I'd really like to see how this takes age, another couple of years in the cask would do wonders for it and I don't think it'd loose it's character at all - just needs rounding out but it's got bags of complexity.
_________________
"Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whisky is barely enough."

[Quaich1]

Hi Opelfruit. This one sounds right up your alley. What was the price? Just curious.
_________________
"Always carry a large flagon of whisky in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake."
W.C. Fields (1880-1946)

[opelfruit]

In the UK it's around £45 - which I think is a bit steep. It's a really nice whisky, but it's young. We always end up paying a lot for American over here but I think this is priced too high - £30 max would be more realistic.
_________________
"Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whisky is barely enough."