Designer Dram Custom Whiskey Blend “The Rye”

A little background

Designer Dram is a new and unique concept allowing individuals to create their own custom blend of whiskey using a combination of premium bourbon, rye, wheat, and malt whiskies that are aged between five and ten years. According to Designer Dram, they source their whiskey from MGP Ingredients, as their whiskey is world-renowned for being of consistently excellent quality. When creating your custom blend of whiskey, you’re in full control of the blend, allowing you to create something that’s 100% unique, down to the custom label that goes on the bottle.

For this review, we created a blend of 50% Barley Rye and 50% Pure Rye Whiskey, which was bottled at 47% ABV and called “The Rye”. The cost for a bottle from Designer Dram is $139 USD, which includes the blending by their Master Distiller, a custom label, a stunning decanter and box.

(Tasted neat from a Glencairn Glass)

Color

Light Copper

Nose

Sweet and spicy with notes of sweet caramel, vanilla, candied oranges, baking spice, and rye spice.

Palate

Pleasantly oily and viscous with sweet notes of caramel, vanilla, crisp green apple, and baking spice.

Finish

A wonderful long and complex finish filled with layers of the spice, sweet caramel, oak, lemon citrus, and a few dill-like herbal notes that finish out the pour.

In closing

I must say, our custom blend of 50% Barley Rye and 50% Pure Rye Whiskey turned out to be quite impressive! The nose has a wonderful sweet and spice quality, making it apparent from the start that this was a Rye Whiskey. The rest of the tasting experience was equally as exciting, filled with wonderful notes of vanilla, caramel, brown sugar, baking spice, and plenty of rye spice on the finish. What Designer Dram has created is something truly special, giving users the ability to create a 100% bespoke bottle of whiskey.

For the $139 price tag, I feel that you get a really good bang for your buck, considering the incredible packaging and high quality whiskey that goes into the bottle. This would make for an absolutely amazing gift, even for that whiskey enthusiast that has every bottle under the sun. If you haven’t already, give the Designer Dram website a visit. We promised that you’ll be impressed and have a blast playing around with the interactive “Make My Whiskey” tool.

NOTE: The sample used for this review was provided at no cost courtesy of Designer Dram. We thank them for the sample and for allowing us to review it with no strings attached.