Tasting notes

nose

apple blossom and ripe orchard fruit up front, with apple brandy and baked apple behind them

palate

medium-bodied and soft, with apple fritter and candy apple giving way to gentle baking spice

finish

lingering; pecan and caramelized apple hold on, settling into warm orchard fruit

Mash bill

65% corn, 30% rye, 5% malted barley. This is the house bourbon recipe, a high-rye bill in which the rye pushes spice under the corn sweetness. The grain is cooked as a sour mash, with part of a previous batch carried into each new one, and fermented in open tanks.

Why it's craft

The 2026 Silver Grove is a barrel-picked blend, built around the casks that tasted least like the distillery's regular four- and six-year bourbon, and it is the first Silver Grove bottling to carry six years. It comes out at full barrel strength without chill filtration, sold only at the distillery, with part of the proceeds going to the Silver Grove Community Foundation in the town where New Riff built its largest warehouse. The spirit itself is New Riff's own, made in Newport since 2014 from a sour mash fermented in open tanks.