Never Say Die Rye Whiskey

I’d like to thank the producer for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

It was almost three months ago, to the day, that we looked at the Small Batch Bourbon from Never Say Die and gave away a branded winter hat to a lucky reader. The producer of that bourbon appreciated the giveaway enough that he not only sent a new hat to replace the one I gave away but also sent a bottle of their Rye whiskey as well. Now, as it was only three months ago, I’m not going to drill down into their company history again. But here is a quick overview of the life of the whiskey we are talking about tonight.

  • A distillery in Kentucky distilled a mash bill of 56% Rye, 33% Corn, and 11% Malted Barley using a sweet mash process.

  • That distillery ages the whiskey in new charred oak barrels for five years.

  • The whiskey is then shipped across the ocean to England, getting nice and agitated while being exposed to the sea air during the crossing.

  • The whiskey is then aged further in Derbyshire, England, before being bottled at 52.5% ABV. A small portion of that whiskey then comes back to the US to be sold online by Seelbach’s.

  • I drink a bit of that whiskey.

I’m going to go out on a limb and speculate once again that this came from Wilderness Trail Distillery. Wilderness Trail uses a sweet mash process and the exact same mashbill for their rye, so I think that metaphorical limb I crawled out on is pretty sturdy.

So now that you’ve got a quick overview of the whiskey and some speculation as to its provenance, let’s dig in.

Never Say Die Rye Whiskey

Purchase Info: This bottle was provided at no charge for review purposes. A 700 mL bottle can be purchased online at Seelbach's for $84.99.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $6.07

Nose: Floral mint, cardamom, cherry, caramel, oak, and cocoa.

Mouth: Spicy and sweet with notes of cinnamon, red fruit, honey, cardamon, and oak.

Finish: Warm and on the longer side of medium. Sweet and vibrant notes of cinnamon, cardamom, honey, bubblegum and mint.

Thoughts: The nose is complex and ever-changing. The mouth is spicy and sweet, and the finish explodes with flavor upon swallowing. Overall, I like this, and even though $6 per pour is more than I’d like to spend on a rye whiskey, I will certainly enjoy the rest of the bottle. I tend to use ryes in cocktails more often than I drink them neat, though, so I don’t usually tend to spend a premium on them.

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High West Bottled in Bond Rye

I’d like to thank High West for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

It has been a long damn time since we took a look at any products from High West around here. And it’s not because I didn’t like them when we last looked. No, this has to do with shelf placement.

The liquor store that I frequent most often is a small place packed to the gills with wonderful libations. It has narrow aisles and high shelves. High West sits on the top shelf at the end of the whiskey aisle. Below it are Wild Turkey and Russell’s Reserve, 1792, and Four Roses. Good company if you can get it—well, if you are a normal consumer.

I am far from normal.

I go in looking for things to write about, and, in my mind, that end of the aisle is filled with wonderful things to drink, but nothing to write about, so High West tends to get forgotten about on my local shopping trips. This is really too bad because they make some delicious whiskeys, and some of them are even decently priced at around $30 for a 750. So when their PR person reached out to me offering me a taste of their first ever Bottled in Bond Whiskey, I jumped at the opportunity to reexamine the offerings from this company that I had neglected. And boy, am I glad I did.

But before I get ahead of myself, let’s run down a few interesting items they included in their press release. This bottled-in-bond whiskey is four years old, having been barreled in the Fall 2018 distilling season. As a bonded whiskey, it is 100° proof. The mashbill is made up of 80% rye and 20% malted rye. It was distilled by High West in Wanship, UT. It was released in February 2024 and will be available “across the nation” for a suggested retail price of $79.99 (though at the time of writing this, it is currently sold out on the High West website).

So, onto the most important part: how does it taste?

High West Bottled in Bond Rye

Purchase Info: This was sent by the producer for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $79.99 for a 750 mL bottle.

Price per Drink (50 ml): $5.33

Details: 50% ABV. Batch: 23L19 H218. Mashbill: 80% rye, 20% malted rye.

Nose: Honey, vanilla, cedar, and mint.

Mouth: Cedar, allspice, vanilla, honey, mint, and oak.

Finish: Medium length and warmth with notes of cinnamon, mint, and oak.

Thoughts: Bright and vibrant with good spice. This is delicious. It reminds me of an MGP rye with depth and a nutty under current. And even though I’ve long thought that I didn’t like malted rye in my whiskey, I really like this one. It must be that I only disliked the ones that I tasted first. This is why I try not to write off an entire ingredient’s usage. It also makes a killer Sazerac cocktail. Though at $80 per bottle, this probably won’t be going into many cocktails in most peple’s homes. All in all, I really like this one.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Penelope Tokaji Cask Finish Rye

I’d like to thank ByrnePR and Penelope Bourbon for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

Fun story. Until I sat down to write this, I had no idea tonight’s whiskey was a rye whiskey. I hadn’t read the press release yet when I did the tasting on Saturday afternoon, the bottle was in another room, and the company is referred to as Penelope Bourbon. Toss in a healthy dose of not paying attention, and in my small, smooth brain, that meant that the whiskey I was tasting was a bourbon.

My original thoughts on this were weird. I liked it but felt that the “bourbon” would be divisive among people who were expecting typical bourbon flavors. I really gave a lot of credit to the influence of the finishing cask in the flavor profile. All in all, it made me feel like a real dumbass when I started reading the press release at the start of my research tonight. Especially when I read, “Distilled in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, aged eight years and bottled at 106 proof, its two-grain mash bill consists of 95% rye and 5% malted barley. The rye whiskey features…”

That was a pretty big hint that I had no idea what was going on. So, let’s start over and learn together, shall we?

The Penelope Bourbon Tokaji Cask Finish Rye Whiskey (see why I was confused?) is an eight-year-old version of MGP’s 95% rye recipe. According to Whisky Advocate, after aging for eight years, it was then finished in Hungarian tokaji wine barrels for an additional eight and a half weeks before being bottled at 106° proof.

So you might be asking, what the heck is tokaji wine? I know I was. Based only on the name, I thought it was a Japanese drink. The spelling looks very Japanese. But no, it is Hungarian. The style is named for the Tokaj wine region, which is spread across the border of Slovakia and Hungary. The region is known for its sweet wines, primarily those made from grapes that have been infected by the Botrytis cinerea fungus. If the infected grapes are treated correctly after infection, they can produce a sweet wine with very concentrated flavors.

Ok. Now that we know what this is (for real this time in my case), let’s get on to how it tastes, shall we?

Penelope Tokaji Cask Finish

Purchase Info: This sample was provided by the producer for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $89.99.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $6.00

Details: 8 years old. 53% ABV. Tokaji Cask finished. Mash bill: 95% rye, 5% malted barley.

Nose: Honey, spearmint, oak, sandalwood, and a faint bubblegum note.

Mouth: Sweet and spicy with floral sandalwood, cinnamon, honey, and oak.

Finish: Sweet, warm, and of medium length. Notes of honey, oak, spearmint, and cinnamon.

Thoughts: This is a really nice twist on the traditional MGP 95% rye flavor profile. It is much sweeter, but still spicy and delicious. We all know by now that the 95% rye from MGP is one of my favorite styles of rye whiskey, so it is not surprising that I really am enjoying this. The cask finish seems to amplify the sweetness, add a very nice mouthfeel and bring out even more cinnamon and sandalwood notes than are normally in the base rye. Bottle that at over 100° proof and, well, “chef’s kiss” is all I can say about it. It’s quite tasty.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Union Horse Reunion Rye Barrel Proof & Union Horse Rolling Standard

I’d like to thank the producer and their PR team for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

Tuesday we revisited the bourbon and rye whiskeys from Union Horse Distillery in the Kansas suburbs of Kansas City. We’d first covered those whiskeys over seven years ago, way back in 2016. Tonight, we take a look a couple of the items that they’ve released since that time.

The first is a barrel-proof version of the Reunion Rye that we looked at on Tuesday. The other is a unique mixture of their new American Single Malt and a Wheated Bourbon. It is called Rolling Standard and here is what they have to say about it:

Rolling Standard Midwestern Four-Grain Whiskey is a very interesting approach to creating a four-grain. Instead of using all four grains together in the same mash, Union Horse Distilling distilled a wheated Bourbon and distilled an American Single Malt, aged both for five years, and then blended them together. After the blending process, the whiskey is then returned to those barrels another 18 months together before being blended again as a small batch. It is non-chill filtered and bottled at 92°.

We have a lot of tasting notes to get through tonight so I’m going to jump right into those. First we will be taking a look at the Barrel Strength Reunion Rye Whiskey followed by Rolling Standard.

Union Horse Barrel-Strength Reunion Straight Rye Whiskey

Purchase Price: This review sample was provided at no cost by the producer for review purposes. The suggested price is $57.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $3.80

Details: 100% Rye. 60.7% ABV. 4-5 years old. Batch 12. Barreled at 110° proof

Nose: Mint, cinnamon, and cedar.

Mouth: Cedar, mint, ginger, clove, cinnamon, and chocolate.

Finish: Warm and long with mint, cedar, cinnamon, and ginger.

Thoughts: I really enjoyed the standard Reunion Rye and I like this barrel proof version even more. It’s the same, just dialed up to eleven. It is really damn good! It makes me wish it was distributed here in Minnesota (though next time I’m in Kansas City, I may see about bringing one back).

Union Horse Rolling Standard

Purchase Price: This review sample was provided at no cost by the producer for review purposes. The suggested price is $33.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $2.20

Details: 46% ABV. Batch 21. 18 months old. Mash Bill: 45% corn, 20% wheat, 20% malted barley and 15% rye.

Nose: Butterscotch, cinnamon, chocolate, and roasted peanuts.

Mouth: Very malt forward with caramel and cinnamon.

Finish: Medium warmth and length. The notes remind me of a snickers bar, chocolate, caramel, malt and peanuts.

Thoughts: I like this one, but I like it a lot more as a cocktail ingredient than I do out of a tasting glass. It has a lot of good qualities, but doesn't quite align with my palate when neat. That said, I really enjoy the "Snickers Bar" finish. But the malt-forward notes in the mouth aren't quite for me. All-in-all, if you like a whiskey that has malted milk style malt notes in the mouth and a candy bar finish, you should certainly pick this up if you are in a market where it is sold. It makes a killer old-fashioned so I will be using mine for that.

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REVISITED: Union Horse Reunion Rye & Union Horse Reserve Bourbon

I’d like to thank the producer and their PR team for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

It has been two thousand six hundred and forty-four days since I last reviewed Union Horse Reunion Rye and Reserve Bourbon. Just over seven years. It was one of the very first review samples I accepted, and I mostly did it because I got an interview filled with reader questions out of the deal. At the time I stated of the rye:

This is one where it had to grow on me. In my initial tasting, I felt it tasted a bit young. After spending almost a month with it, I've warmed up to it. This certainly is a unique whiskey and is outside the normal American Straight Rye flavor profile, which threw me at first. But I've come around.

And of the bourbon:

I am not a fan of smoky whiskey. I can appreciate it, but seldom like it if it is too pronounced. In this case, the smoke flavors are just light enough that it doesn't bother me too much. My wife on the other hand likes this a lot and has been the primary consumer of the bottle above.

I can tell you right now that in the intervening years, one of my reservations about the whiskeys has been addressed. They are no longer two years old, instead landing in the four- to five-year-old range. It looks like they still use no malted grains in the mash, instead using commercial enzymes to accomplish the starch-to-sugar transformation (which I think is pretty cool). And the bottles still look very nice.

But most importantly, do they taste better than they did seven years ago? We will start with the Rye first.

Union Horse Reunion Straight Rye Whiskey

Purchase Price: This review sample was provided at no cost by the producer for review purposes. The suggested price is $45.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $3.00

Details: 100% Rye. 46.5% ABV. 4-5 years old. Batch 43. Barreled at 110° proof

Nose: Cedar, cinnamon, mint, and just a hint of smoke.

Mouth: Cedar, mint, cinnamon, ginger, clove, honey, caramel, and a hint of cocoa.

Finish: Warm and on the longer side of medium length. Notes of chocolate, cedar, and cinnamon.

Thoughts: Vibrant, sweet, complex. I'm really enjoying this. It needs no water and I’m enjoying the heck out of it neat. It also makes a mean Sazerac.

Union Horse Reserve Bourbon

Purchase Price: This review sample was provided at no cost by the producer for review purposes. The suggested price is $41.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $2.73

Details: 46% ABV. 4-5 years old. Batch 64.

Nose: Cinnamon, maple, cedar, and toffee.

Mouth: Cinnamon candies, cedar, clove, toffee, and dried grains.

Finish: Medium length and warmth. Notes of cinnamon, clove, and cedar.

Thoughts: Spicy and flavorful with a lot of baking spices. The finish has a nice burn but isn't hot by any means. It doesn't have your stereotypical bourbon flavor profile, but that's kinda what I like about it. And even better, at least for me personally, I detect almost no hint of smoke, even though it is listed in their official tasting notes.

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Rossville Union Bottled in Bond Straight Rye Whiskey, 2023

I’d like to thank ByrnePR and Ross & Squibb Distillery for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

Well, hello there, neighbor. I was just sitting down to learn more about Ross & Squibb’s latest rye. Would you like to learn about it, too?

Ok, that’s enough with the Mr. Rogers thing. So, I’m still working my way through the massive number of samples that arrived while I was on vacation, and the next on the docket is one of a couple from Ross & Squibb, formerly known as the retail brand portion of MGP.

Rossville Union Bottled-in-Bond is a six-year-old Bonded Rye distilled in March 2017. It uses their 51% rye / 49% malted barley mash bill. They produced 3,000 6-bottle cases. And the suggested retail price is $49.99. Quoting from the Press Release:

“I’m proud to continue Ross & Squibb’s tradition of creating high-quality rye whiskey that dates back to 1847. Since that time, we have worked to perfect our craft, giving our rye whiskeys unmatched character,” said [Master Distiller Ian] Stirsman. “For our Rossville Union Bottled in Bond Straight Rye Whiskey we combined our industry leading rye expertise with a new high malt mashbill to create something truly special.  We then let the barrels mature for a minimum of 6 years, resulting in aromas of sweet malt, dark chocolate, raisin and saddle leather with tasting notes highlighted by caramel and mocha with a rich, candied-fruit body, followed by a slight green-apple, malted-chocolate and cinnamon finish.”

So, they mention that this is a new mash bill. Looking back on past reviews that I’ve done for Rossville Union, I see that I mentioned this mash bill, as an aside, back in 2018 when I reviewed my first bottle from the brand. But I no longer see it on the MGP product sheet, so either they stopped making it and are using up the stocks or pulled it for in-house use. After tasting it, I’m guessing the latter, but that is just a guess.

Now onto the important part, how does it taste?

Rossville Union Bottled in Bond Straight Rye Whiskey, 2023

Purchase Info: This sample bottle was provided by the producer for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $49.99

Price per Drink (50 mL): $3.33

Details: 50% ABV. 6 years old. Mash bill: 51% rye, 49% malted barley.

Nose: Cedar, spearmint, and a touch of vanilla.

Mouth: Sweet and spicy with notes of spearmint, caramel, oak, stone fruits, apple, and cinnamon.

Finish: Sweet, warm, and long with notes of spearmint, cinnamon, and stone fruit.

Thoughts: With just rye and malted barley, I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one. Corn can help add a nicer mouthfeel to a rye, and I wondered if this would be an issue here. But nothing to worry about in that respect. This is a pretty damn good rye! I'm enjoying the heck out of it. It’s sweet and spicy with a very prominent spearmint note. It has really nice fruit notes. If you like a well-balanced rye, pick this one up. $50 for a limited release is a pretty good price.

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