Tasting notes

nose

Wine and cocoa lead, then honey nougat, ripe plum, fig, rye spice and tobacco

palate

Light and airy in texture, with dark chocolate throughout, joined by leather, tobacco, plum, raw honey, rye spice, earth and coffee

finish

Medium-long; very dark chocolate holds the center with coffee, oak, earth, leather and rye spice, and cinnamon arrives late as it fades

Mash bill

70% rye, 15% corn, 15% malted barley. It is the same recipe as Shady Knoll's flagship rye, built on rye and corn grown on the family's farm in Dutchess County, New York. The grain is milled in the distillery's own granary, cooked in its mash tun and distilled with the solids still in the mash, which the distillery says draws more of the grain's flavor into the spirit.

Why it's craft

Each bottle of this rye comes from one barrel and is bottled at cask strength, while Shady Knoll's flagship rye is bottled at 42%. It starts from the same farm-grown rye and corn and the same double distillation on the grain in a French alembic Charentais pot still, then ages at least four years in new charred oak before several months in used Portuguese Port barrels. The Kneipper and Richards families, who began distilling on their Dutchess County farm in 2017, do every step from milling to bottling themselves.