Spirit/uality

Kind of sad how rye whiskey has fallen so far out of favor.  I have always blamed Don McLean for this.  “Good old boys were drinking whiskey and rye,” is the lyric.  I call shenanigans - rye IS a whiskey.  We’ve got some dichotomy to work out.

Whiskey is any distilled beverage made from fermented grain.  Rye is a grain.  So there’s your rye whiskey.  Legally speaking, American rye whiskey has to be made from at least 51% rye.  The remainder can be filled out with other grains, like corn or wheat.

Wait, remainder?  Why not 100% rye?  Well, rye is a pretty spicy grain.  Think of all the character it imparts on your Turkey Club.  Corn on the other hand is sweeter.  That’s why they make “Corn Flakes”, and not “Rye Flakes”.  So a Master Distiller, in order to create a more balanced whiskey, chooses the components of his mash very carefully.

Rye is the base for three of my favorite classics, “The Manhattan”, “The Scofflaw” and “The Sazerac”.  Sadly, only “The Manhattan” is well-known, but has been divorced from it’s true rye base in favor of sweeter, rounder whiskeys (especially Bourbon).  But it’s the rye that gives these drinks their character, their gritty American masculinity.  And since sommeliers are, of course, the final bastions of said gritty American masculinity, I am pouring all of the above cocktails with their proper base.

I stock two ryes right now.  The first is the most recognizable of the rye whiskeys at market: ri(1), a fine rye made by Jim Beam in its “boutique” portfolio (which also includes the popular Basil Hayden’s, Booker’s, and Knob Creek bourbons).  The second however, is what drives me to write today.  A monument to pure rye decadance coming by way of Vermont:

“Whistlepig 100/100 Straight Rye Whiskey”

The 100/100 stands for 100% rye, and 100 proof.  The whiskey sees 10 years in new American oak.  What a knockout.  The nose has tremendous spice elements, caramel - all from the oak.  It’s the palate, and specifically the finish, that really blows me away.  There’s a rush of toffee, and the finish is totally arugula.  Lean, herbaceous, and very peppery.

That’s the kind of thing that turns a sommelier on.  From a mixology standpoint, I don’t use this for the Manhattans and Scofflaws, because I don’t want the specific elements to get lost in the mix.  But it stuns in a Sazerac.  The peppery finish goes so well against the vaguely anise wash of the glass and the sweetness of the sugar.

Come on in and try one.