A.D. Laws Secale Straight Rye Whiskey Bottled In Bond

VITALS:
- $80
- 100 Proof
- 4 Years
- Region: Colorado

A.D. Laws is a distillery out of Colorado that seems to have burst onto the bourbon and rye scene. Despite that it's relatively new to our shelves here in Illinois, they are nonetheless stocking those shelves with a variety of different bourbons and ryes, including bottled-in-bond offerings such as this Secale Straight Rye.

Admittedly, I picked up this bottle having no clue what "secale" rye is, and I had to look it up when I got home. It's apparently a type of cultivated wild rye, offering a different flavor than the standard, domesticated ryes typically used for whiskey. However, in this case, it appears to be a Colorado-sourced rye that they use, keeping it local (per the label on the back of the bottle).

The mashbill is an interesting mix of 47.5% raw rye, 47.5% malted rye, and 5% malted barley. This, too, I had to look up after my first sip, because I thought I was getting a LOT more malted barley than just the 5%, both on the nose and on the palate.

The nose is sweet and very malty. It has a very distinct butterscotch scent that is very inviting, but it also has a little bit of bite, a light peppery spice to it that seems to really contrast with that sweet butterscotch note.

The flavor is really unique, and far from any other rye I've had before. It's very much like a 50/50 blend of Scotch and rye. There is a very strong and smokey malted barley flavor, along with the butterscotch flavor that I commonly associate with a Speyside single malt.

It is incredibly sweet throughout, almost molasses like. It still has those brown sugar and cinnamon spices that I get out of typical ryes, but that cinnamon blended with the butterscotch all comes together with almost a rum cask finish to it. While many people enjoy rum cask finished whiskeys and might enjoy that characteristic in this one, I am not one of them.

The finish threw me off a bit with a light mintiness to it that just did not seem to fit in with anything else that was going on, and that mint note seemed to linger forever, to the point where I was taking my next sip just to make it go away.

All in all this was a unique pour with lots going on, but it all just did not seem to work together for me. Certain characteristics on their own were good and tasty, but altogether, it just came across as a bit weird. Nothing about it was inviting me back for more, and I found myself finishing this bottle off more out of desire to get through the bottle to write the review than out of enjoyment of the whiskey.

Grade: C+