New Riff Bottled in Bond Bourbon

A little background

While New Riff’s own distillate aged they did what many young distilleries do, source whiskey from the venerable MGP out of Lawrenceburg IN.  This is in and of itself no problem to me, but the fact is many of these new distilleries are having trouble meeting the quality expectations of the sourced whiskey, and that is a problem.  So, let’s dig in and see how this Non-Chill Filtered Bottled in Bond Bourbon with a mash bill of 65% Corn, 30% Rye, and 5% Malted Barley stacks up against others in its age range.  Retail price of around $40.

(Tasted neat from a Glencairn.)

Color in the glass

Medium Gold

Nose

Cinnamon heavy, golden raisins, caramel, slightly doughy, toasted bread, and oak.

Palate

Orange peel, raisins, toffee, buttered popcorn, allspice, cinnamon, vanilla cream pie, and apricots.

Finish

Surprising long with musty oak, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, and black licorice.

In closing

This is how you transition over from sourced whiskey to your own distillate.  Other newer distilleries could learn a lot from what New Riff is doing with its state-of-the-art facility.  Whereas many go for a wheated mash bill for their first distilled whiskey releases New Riff went with what got them notoriety in the first place and that’s a high rye content.   As their barrels age I can see New Riff really moving in on the big dogs’ turf in Kentucky Bourbon.

NOTE: The sample used for this review was provided at no cost courtesy of New Riff Distilling.  We thank them for the sample and for allowing us to review this great bourbon!