Tincup Straight Rye Mountain Whiskey

VITALS:
- $28
- 90 Proof
- 3 years
- Colorado/Indiana

When I find myself traveling and staying in a hotel for the evening, I frequently hit up the closest liquor store, hoping to find something unique, local or just something I can't normally get back home. A few months back we took the kids to St. Louis, to do the Arch and all that touristy stuff. I made my obligatory side trip to the local store and just didn't find anything that really moved the needle.

However, there on the bottom shelf was Tincup rye. It wasn't a special or limited bottling, and it's certainly available in my area. But, it had just been released and I had yet to see it, so for under $30, it became my pour for that evening.  I figured that although it is young, it's at least MGP rye so it shouldn't kill me, right?  I've never been big on Tincup whiskey, but I was willing to take a chance on this.

On the nose I get a healthy amount of cinnamon and sweet vanilla, like vanilla frosting. There's also a slight citrus note, kind of like lemon zest. It also had a bright minty aroma to it as well, kind of like spearmint. Oddly, I also got some rich, dessert notes too, like dark chocolate covered cherries. It was quite the cacophony of smells, ranging from light and bright to dark and rich.

While the nose had a whole lot going on, unfortunately the flavor didn't exactly follow suit. It certainly tasted young and grain forward. It did have a lot of pine and cinnamon notes, though they weren't as rounded as I'd like, but rather seemed to have sharper, jagged edges.

It did have a light, vanilla sweetness on the front end, in line with the vanilla frosting note that I got on the nose. This seemed to translate into a sugar cookie note from time to time as well. The vanilla with the pine seemed to really work well, and was one of the more redeeming qualities of this whiskey.

After I had the bottle open for a while, the young quality seemed to dissipate a bit, though not completely. as a result, the sharp edges seemed to soften a bit, and rather than the pine, cinnamon and vanilla, and even mint from time to time, clashing with each other, they seemed to mix together better. I also got a sweet bread note in later pours, with wheat and corn grains coming forward as well as a bit of a honey note.

One odd thing I noticed was on the finish, though, where I got a certain vegetal flavor, almost like green pepper. Between that odd flavor on the finish, the overall thin texture of the whiskey, and the flavors that I typically attribute to young whiskies throughout, this just ended up being a whiskey that I kept wanting to find enjoyable but had too many reminders of why I found that hard to do.

Grade: C+

Breckenridge Whiskey PX Sherry Cask Finish

VITALS:
- $65
- 90 Proof
- 3 years
- Batch No. 1
- Colorado

Sometimes my friends at work can be real assholes. Then other times they do things like buy me bottles of whiskey for my birthday, whiskey they know I haven't tried before. Such is the case with this particular bottle. I've had plenty that Breckenridge has to offer, but I never got around to trying this, that is until my buddy showed up in my office one day with the bottle in hand.

When we first cracked it open, both of us had a very hard time getting past the cloyingly sweet aroma that seemed to pour out of the bottle. It was like powdered sugar and artificial raspberry flavors. It was a bit much right from the start.

Hesitantly we went in for the first sip, expecting the sweetness in flavor to match the nose. I guess in this respect it didn't let us down. It is very sweet up front. The sherry cask influence here is anything but subtle. Rather it smacks you across the mouth with a sweet but tart raspberry flavor. To its credit, though, on the palate that raspberry comes across as more of a natural flavor.

The bottle eventually came home with me, and from time to time I would revisit it, hoping that a little bit of time and air would soften the harsh edges. While that did not prove to be the case, it did, nonetheless, improve a bit over time. Although the sharp, sweet and tart raspberry never went away, other flavors did manage to make their way in.

Vanilla and cinnamon started to come through a bit. The cinnamon was particularly noticeable on the back end, after each swallow, a sort of combatant with the sweet fruitiness and a welcome challenger. And the vanilla notes seemed to mellow it a bit. It also seemed to increase in dryness, as though the wood influence was finally coming through.

I wanted to like this. I really tried. Unfortunately it paled in comparison to its older, port-finished brother. I found it relegated to being my second or third pour of the night, rather than my first. It's possible that sherry finishes in bourbons just don't work for me, and perhaps they work for others, but for me, I think I'll stick to having my sherry finishes in my Scotch rather than my bourbon.

Don't let it be lost here, however, that it was nonetheless a very generous gift and I was glad I got to try it, even if my buddy is otherwise a bit of a turd (I say it because I know he'll eventually read this)!

Grade: C+

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+