Whiskey: Rittenhouse Very Rare Single Barrel Rye
Distillery: Heaven Hill
Age: 25 Years Old
Proof: 100
Bottle: Sample sent from the distillery, open for 4 days.
Notes: The sample is actually short of the 25 years since the whiskey was barreled on 11 October 1984 and this was bottled on 7 August 2009.This was bottled un-chill filtered.
Tasted in a Glencairn glass.
Color: Rich Amber Red.
Nose: Fruit with berries and ripe apricot with some floral scents and sweet spices. Just a hint of oak wood and a little caramel. The longer it sits in the glass the more it opens up. Some rich milk chocolate comes after about 30 minutes of letting it breath.
Taste: Very good mouth feel with a nice oily texture that is almost chewy and very little heat from the alcohol. A wonderful fruitiness of ripe apples and pears with sweet spice (nutmeg) and oak wood. Caramel is not a dominant flavor in this whiskey with only a hint of vanilla or caramel sweetness in the taste.
Finish: A long lasting finish that starts fruity and spice but begins to dry out with oak wood before becoming spice again with a little anise or liquorice.
Notes: This is a very good sipping whiskey. Pour yourself a glass and take your time. It will change every 15 minutes or so and you will be richer for letting it do so.
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Mike Veach
I received an email from Larry Kass of Heaven Hill. They have made a mistake and the bottle sent me was not a single barrel product, but a mingling of barrels 1, 2 and 3. They are sending me another bottle of single barrel product this week. I wish they would make more mistakes like this – I like getting good 25yo whiskey sent to me!
Mike Veach