Tom's Foolery Single Barrel Rye Whiskey...

Tom's Foolery Single Barrel Rye Whiskey (54.9%): Back in January I tasted Tom's Foolery's Applejack Cask Strength here on the blog and I was pleasantly surprised how good it was. In that same post I also happened to mention that I wanted to taste more from them including their Bourbon and Rye whiskeys and the next thing I knew was my good friend Mordechai was on the phone with me asking when he could drop some samples from his own bottles... So, after months of negligence finally today I am pouring the first one into my glass. It is a single barrel straight rye whiskey distilled from a mashbill of 70% locally (Ohio) sourced winter rye and 30% of Canadian rye. The wash yielded only 36.4 gallons after a single distillation run which entered the barrel numbered #127 at 109.8 proof and got bottled 4.5 years later at cask strength exclusively for K&L Wine Merchants.

Color: Light amber, dark yellow gold color with a ring of stationary teardrops around the glass.

Nose: Freshly chopped rosemary leaves, pine needles and green wood. Caraway seeds and fennel seeds. It smells like having a scorching hot summer day stroll in a fir forest... A generous amount of water dials all the intensity down a little: Spruce gum, cream soda and maple candies. Fresh dill and burnt lemon peel. Odd but everything on the nose reminds me of many road trips and summers I spent in Northeast US...

Palate: Pretty hot at this abv... Green peppercorns, pine cones and lots of oak. Red pepper flakes and eucalyptus drops. After much needed water addition it gets way more pleasant to drink: Natural maple syrup, sour cherry juice and pine honey. Mexican hot chocolate and brown Muscovado sugar.

Finish: Long with charred wood, paprika and acacia honey.

Overall: It tastes more or less how you would expect a young craft rye whiskey would taste like but it is definitely one of the better ones... It's resiny, oaky, spicy and young but it is actually a bottle I would like to have in my whisky cabinet to pour when I am in the right mood for it to be honest. A little hot, maybe too oaky and piney but full of flavors and quite warming. Like I said above, it triggered so many good memories as well... It's a pretty wintery almost a Christmasy whiskey.

Price: $50

84/100