Tasting notes

nose

Butterscotch and caramel chews give way to rich oak, vanilla, tobacco and a touch of dark chocolate

palate

Toffee and vanilla lead into almond pastry and pistachio, then blackberry and plum as sweet oak darkens toward char

finish

Long; seasoned oak and rye spice open onto root beer, black cherry, tobacco and candied almond, then dark chocolate and old oak linger and slowly dry

Mash bill

Corn, rye, malted barley and malted rye; the split for the blend as a whole is not published. The label lists five lots: 14% bourbon distilled in 2008 and 15% from 2016 on a 21% rye recipe, 19% from 2014 and 35% from 2016 on a 36% rye recipe, and 17% from 2017 on a 49% rye recipe. Those recipes are 75% corn, 21% rye and 4% malted barley; 60% corn, 36% rye and 4% malted barley; and 51% corn, 39% rye and 10% malted rye. Series X is the first Repeal Reserve to use the distillery's rarely seen LISV recipe, alongside its LBSV and LESV bourbons.

Why it's craft

Remus is the house brand of Ross & Squibb, the Lawrenceburg, Indiana distillery that George Ross founded as the Rossville Distillery in 1847 and that is best known as a supplier of bourbon and rye to other brands. Here it bottles its own whiskey: Master Distiller Ian Stirsman blends five lots the distillery made between 2008 and 2017, and the label prints each lot's share, year and rye content. Series X marks ten years of the annual Repeal Reserve, released each autumn to mark the end of Prohibition, and is the highest-proof edition so far.