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Rye article


Vange
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Here is the latest article on Rye whiskey that I co-authored. We did rye since it is making a big comeback from its former glory days.

WEBLINK

http://www.app.com/goodlife/Fall2007/topshelf/topshelf.html

PDF FILE OF ACTUAL MAGAZINE SPREAD

http://www.app.com/goodlife/topshelfarchives/topshelfarchivesimages/rye_fall2007.pdf

ARCHIVE PAGE TO SEE ALL PAST ARTICLES

http://www.app.com/goodlife/topshelfarchives/topshelf_archives.html

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There've been so many articles about the revival of rye that it surprised me when the plant manager at Brown-Forman told me they still make all the rye Heaven Hill needs for the year in about a day.

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There've been so many articles about the revival of rye that it surprised me when the plant manager at Brown-Forman told me they still make all the rye Heaven Hill needs for the year in about a day.

I received a similar message from HH as well. I was told they used to distill rye twice a year. The "rye revival" has forced them to distill 4 times a year now. Bourbon is still king it seems. I didn't ask how many times a year they distill bourbon though.

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They're using Bernheim to capacity, that's why BF is doing rye and probably some other things for them. Efforts to increase Bernheim's capacity are in the works.

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They're using Bernheim to capacity, that's why BF is doing rye and probably some other things for them. Efforts to increase Bernheim's capacity are in the works.

Good news. Better news would be if PA started stocking it. I bought a bottle on vacation in NC. It lasted about 4 days down there (i.e., I thought it was very good). I brought 2 back with me.

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We received a bottle of the 22 rather than the 21 because Preiss Imports had run out of the 21 or they had very little of the 21 year left. The 22 is the next release. I cannot confirm exact dates though. (although I think a 1200 bottle run and thats it)

There is some story that goes with that rye, but I couldn't 100% verify anything so we didn't want to add rumor to the article.

Here is what shoppers vineyard has on their website about it, I tried to get all the facts, but there wasnt enough time and some other players were involved that I did not have access to.

"I was recently talking to the National Sales Manager from Preiss Imports because I wanted some additional information on Hirsch Selection 21yr Rye, which they handle. As we were talking he told me about a conversation he had with Julian Van Winkle, from Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery, at Whiskyfest 2005. Preiss Imports was tasting the Hirsch 21yr when Julian came over. He tried the Hirsch and said it was excellent and then went back to his booth. About an hour later he came back and tasted it again. He then proceeds to tell the Sales Manager that the whiskey was originally his. I'm not exactly sure how the story goes, but apparently the Van Winkle Distillery bought some 18yr old barrels from someone. Julian thought they had reached their aging peak and bottled it as a limited edition Van Winkle 18yr rye. What Julian didn't know is that the company that supplied him with the barrels only sold him half of their supply and sold the other half to the company that sells Hirsch. Now, they thought the whiskey could still age a little more and held it for another 3 years. As the story goes, Julian said that if he knew the whiskey would have tasted that good he would have held on to his for another 3 years.

I'm not exactly sure if I got that story 100% correct, but that was the basic gist. It really says a lot when Julian Van Winkle, who is considered an expert, says it was overzealous of him to bottle whiskey that could have vastly improved with more aging."

Either way, an amazing rye!

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