The Rebirth of Rye Whiskey

[LostBottle]

It looks like NPR Morning Edition has a story about the rye resurgence.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/201...the-good-stuff

[shoshani]

I have to admit, as I read that article I am popping popcorn for when Col. Cowdery sees it.

[Kalessin]

"The Salt" blog at NPR posted about rye whiskey:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/201...the-good-stuff

[callmeox]

The two threads have been merged to keep the conversation in one place.

[UncleJohnsBarrel]

For what it's worth, I give credit to WR if they are really going to wait until 2016 to release their rye after it ages a little. With Jack (not gonna touch the JAck/COLA issue here) and other brands coming out with rye in the form of white dog, I respect WR resisting the market trend and being willing to age their rye for what I assume they feel is a sufficient amount of time (at least 4 years it sounds like).

[HighInTheMtns]

For what it's worth, I give credit to WR if they are really going to wait until 2016 to release their rye after it ages a little. With Jack (not gonna touch the JAck/COLA issue here) and other brands coming out with rye in the form of white dog, I respect WR resisting the market trend and being willing to age their rye for what I assume they feel is a sufficient amount of time (at least 4 years it sounds like).

I haven't thought about that but I agree. It's interesting especially considering that these are both Brown-Forman brands.

Maybe this belongs in the White Dog thread, but I think the choice is either unaged or >4 years. No major distiller is going to come out with a rye that is aged but doesn't qualify to be NAS; the competition in that range is not very expensive.

[squire]

Isn't that a lark? The templeton guy says the story is so good you can't make it up when in fact the whole story is made up.

I'll wait for the WR stuff.

[LostBottle]

I like that NPR seemed to have done their homework for this story. They nail the fact that Templeton Rye is contract produced by someone other than Templeton and they informed us about the back story. I will also add that while I do not care for Woodford bourbon, it is cool they are laying down barrels and waiting for them to age rather than releasing young "artisinal" rye.

[BourbonRob]

Well I have been drinking more rye lately, my favorite being EH Taylor rye BIB. old tyme rye taste and is well worth the $65 price tag

[IowaJeff]

I was excited to hear about a WR rye as well. Hopefully they will put a bit more age on that one. There are a lot of ryes on the shelves right now, but they are all in the 4-6 age range, and a lot are a really high % of rye. For the sake of variety I'd like to see a 'regular' release with a little more age on it, maybe 8-10.

Templeton rye, by the way, is everywhere in Iowa now. For a long time you couldn't get a bottle, now you can get it at gas stations and Walgreens. They've also changed the back label from a hand-written batch and bottle number to a silly 'endorsement' from some progeny of Al Capone. Looks like now that the market is flooded with similar quality rye whiskey they're doubling down on Capone. I haven't had a bottle in a couple of years so I can't comment on the taste of the current batches.