Tasting notes

nose

Rye spice and charred oak lead, with leather, citrus peel, cedar, dark fruit, nougat and charred caramel

palate

Thick; candied oak and toasted sugar with charred orange and a bright, tea-like note, then dried fig, dark raisin, dry cinnamon and leather

finish

Medium; a burst of rye spice, then leather, tobacco and dried raisin, fading fast to dry oak and a mild spice that lingers

Mash bill

Corn, rye and malted barley, with more rye than the standard Peerless bourbon; the percentages are not published. It was the first Peerless bourbon made from a new recipe: until it arrived in 2023, every Peerless bourbon and barrel-finished bourbon came from one mash bill. The distillery raised the rye for its sweet and spicy contribution, and the mash is sweet mash like the rest of the house's whiskey.

Why it's craft

High Rye was the first new whiskey recipe Peerless introduced after its original bourbon and rye, a second bourbon mash with a larger share of rye. Like everything the distillery sells, it is made in Louisville from grain to bottle and never sourced: milled, cooked as a sweet mash, fermented, double-distilled on a 26-foot Vendome copper still and bottled at barrel proof. The distillery is the revival of Kentucky Peerless, which Henry Kraver ran in Henderson from 1889, rebuilt by his great-grandson Corky Taylor and Corky's son Carson.