Tasting notes

nose

deep oak with dark fruit and pine needles, then clove, black pepper and warm baking spice

palate

rich and balanced; fig, raisin and honeyed currant open up before deep oak and dark spice build through the middle

finish

long, resinous and dry; oak tannin, pine and black pepper hold on, leaving a last trace of dark fruit

Mash bill

Corn, rye and malted rye; the grain split of the finished blend is not published. Half the blend is an 11-year-old bourbon made with malted rye, a quarter is an 11-year-old rye from the house recipe of 95% rye and 5% malted rye, and a quarter is a 10-year-old Balboa rye. Balboa is an heirloom rye variety from the 1940s, grown for New Riff by one of its corn farmers, with a smaller kernel and lower yield than modern rye. All three were cooked as sour mashes and fermented in open tanks.

Why it's craft

Every component in this blend is at least ten years old, drawn from the oldest stocks of a distillery that only began distilling in 2014, and each is a recipe the house makes itself, including its heirloom Balboa rye. The blend is half malted-rye bourbon and half rye, bottled at full strength without chill filtration. Sales fund Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Cincinnati and Tri-State Trails.