It’s been a little more than two years since we got started with our Blind Tasting section in the magazine, and the first spirits we featured were blended whisky and rye whiskey. So we thought, given the ongoing interest in the rye whiskey category, that we’d revisit it for this issue.
Two years is a long time in the bar business — two years as a bartender being more like dog years and all that — and there has of course been many a rye released onto the Aussie market in that time.
That includes the 40% ABV Wild Turkey in this lineup, as well as WhistlePig, Michter’s US*1 Rye, Belgrove’s Aged Rye, and this tasting’s top scorer, Knob Creek Rye.
In fact, the only unchanged rye in that time is the Hudson Manhattan Rye — even the faithful companion Rittenhouse has had a label update.
And in those two years, the Brisbane bar scene has changed too. We invited bartenders from some of Brisbane’s finest bars to head to The Gresham, (itself no stranger to rye whiskey — they’ve got a wonderful pyramid of whiskey stacked behind the bar) and indulge in a little pre-shift, daytime “tasting”.
The Blind Tasting Panel
Let’s get some of that regulatory stuff out of the way, too: To be labelled a rye in the US, the whiskey must be distilled from at least 51% rye (though it may go higher) and be aged in new, charred American oak.
The standard of this month’s tasting was right up there — take a look at the results.
