Tasting notes

nose

Soft milk chocolate and cocoa with a flicker of cherry, clover honey, dry hay and orange cream, plus a cool hint of spearmint over grainy rye spice

palate

Chocolate opens and thickens into caramel, then cocoa returns as apricot, nectarine and bright orange and lemon peel move through the middle, building toward peppery rye

finish

Long and warm, with cinnamon and peppery rye holding on beside marmalade, apricot and a little cherry, drying toward toasted oak and a faint lemon edge as it fades

Mash bill

Rye, corn and malted barley; the split for the finished bottle is not published. Its straight rye comes from an 80% rye recipe, which the distillery chose for a bold spice without hard, angular oak notes. That rye is married with a portion of the distillery's high-rye bourbon, which the blended rye class allows.

Why it's craft

Breckenridge's first rye pairs a straight rye from an 80% rye recipe with a measured share of its own high-rye bourbon, using the blended rye class to tune the spice. The whiskey is made and aged at 9,600 feet, where big daily temperature swings drive spirit in and out of the oak. The founder set out to make a rye without harsh oak edges.