Barton rye?

[sku]

HW's 21yo rye is 53%, though it's not straight as it's been aged in used oak.

Just a technical point on the regs. It's actually not that it can't be called "straight" because of the used cooperage, it's that it can be called "rye whiskey". Rye whiskey, like bourbon, must be aged in new charred oak barrels. If you look at the lable on the 21, it's not "rye whiskey", it's "whiskey distilled from rye mash."

[cowdery]

A 53% rye is a straight rye. An 80% rye is a flavoring whiskey for blends, of which Barton has several. Possibly for use in their Canadian blends, for the 9.9% rule.

Most of the majors (except Brown-Forman) have blends. The whiskey they make as straights can function as a flavoring whiskey for blends too, but I assume they also make some spirits strictly for flavoring blends, like the LDI 95% rye, but it's not something they talk about very much.

[cowdery]

HW's website also gives an interesting history of how LDI's rye mashbill changed over the years.

Nice to see Larry Ebersold getting some credit. He's the guy who created the LDI 95% rye.