New Riff Bottled-in-Bond Rye Review
In-Depth Review
If American whiskey is your thing, you’ve no doubt heard of New Riff. The new kids on the block have burst onto the scene to all kinds of fanfare. With an entire lineup of products distilled in-house at their distillery in Newport, Kentucky, New Riff seems hellbent on giving the titans of Kentucky whiskey a run for their money. And while many have focused on their stellar array of bourbons and experimental grains, New Riff is also tackling the burgeoning rye category with a series of core products and a robust barrel pick program.
The expression I’ll review today is their Bottled-in-Bond Rye. It’s aged at least 4 years, bottled at 100 proof, and features non-chill filtration (like all New Riff products). It features a 95% rye mashbill with the reaming 5% being malted barley. I recently picked this up at K&L Wines in Hollywood, CA under a recommendation from their fantastic spirits buyer David. So let’s dig in and see if this is as good as the latest single barrel bourbon I had from the folks at New Riff.
Age: At least 4 years
ABV: 50%
Cask: New Charred Oak
MSRP: $45
Distillery Name: New Riff
Review Date: 9/15/21
Color: Light Caramel
Nose: Vibrant nose with notes of honeysuckle, toffee, green apple, pear, and toasted Crème Brulee sugars playing a central role. Underneath the sweet notes there is an herbal, floral note that never strays too far into medicinal, but reminds you of that classic 95% rye mashbill. This opens up nicely in the glass and starts becoming sweeter and fruitier as it breathes.
Palate: On the palate, more of an herbaceous minty quality comes through, with the front of the palate coming off as bright and clean before moving into darker flavors of cocoa and angostura bitters on the back end. In between you can pick out flavors of chocolate orange, an earthy rye spice element, and clove. The mouthfeel is never thin but leans towards the lighter side of the spectrum. Even neat, the heat is very restrained on this 100 proofer, which makes it a perfect candidate for those cool Fall evenings.
Finish: Medium finish with darker flavors of pine, bitter chocolate, toasted wood, and rye spice. There is more barrel char on the finish than the palate, leading to an interesting finish that never feels hot.
Final Thoughts: New Riff is quickly becoming my favorite new distillery in Kentucky; with a lineup of products that can compete with some of the big legacy producers of Kentucky. This bottled-in-bond rye shows that New Riff can successfully make a 95% rye product that doesn’t hit you over the head with stereotypical medicinal notes. It may not be my favorite rye, but this is much more elegantly put together than something like Wild Turkey rye which can at times feel disjointed and hot. And while it may still lean a touch too far into the minty and pine notes for me, I really appreciate what New Riff is doing here. I highly recommend picking up any of New Riff’s expressions and explore one of Kentucky’s hottest new producers before the rest of the world finds out and it disappears from shelves.
