Tasting notes

nose

toasted rye bread drizzled with honey and maple

palate

candied orange and black tea, medium-full and balanced

finish

lingering, with dark chocolate and a hint of coffee

Mash bill

95% heirloom rye, 5% heirloom malted barley. This is Laws' original rye recipe; the distillery has since moved its rye to 100% rye, so these barrels preserve the early mash bill. The rye is a low-yield, semi-wild heirloom that the Cody family has grown since the 1930s at about 7,400 feet in Colorado's San Luis Valley.

Why it's craft

This release comes from eight barrels of Laws' original 95% rye recipe, laid down before the distillery switched to an all-rye mash and held for more than a decade, which makes it some of the oldest rye Laws has bottled. Laws' San Luis Valley rye was the first rye whiskey bottled in bond in Colorado. The distillery, founded by Al Laws in Denver in 2011, distills everything it bottles on site.