Monday, November 28, 2011

High Rye Low Age: Redemption Bourbon

Last year, I reviewed Redemption Rye, a rye made at Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana (LDI) for Dynamic Spirits. Dynamic also now bottles Redemption Bourbon, a high rye bourbon also made at LDI. Redemption Bourbon is 60% corn, 38.2% rye and 1.8% barley.

While there are a lot of LDI ryes on the market these days, there aren't as many bourbons, so I was interested to try this one.

Redemption Bourbon, 46% abv, "over 2 years old" ($25)

The nose is...young rye with all its vegetal qualities. The palate begins with a huge sugar-syrupy sweetness, then you get those young rye notes, raw and vegetal. The finish is rye dominated as well. This is simplistic, syrupy and vegetal, but I have to admit, it's sort of fun to drink as a light whiskey that you don't have to put a lot of effort into thinking about. It's worth trying and a bit more interesting than the Redemption Rye.

5 comments:

SteveBM said...

Redemption Rye is one of my favorite ryes right now. It's really easy to sip and like you said, not much effort needs to go in to thinking about it. Definitely strong vegetal/herb notes but smooth as hell for a 95% rye mash. I'm looking into getting some of their Redemption High Rye Bourbon and the Temptation Bourbon.

sku said...

One of the things I like about the Dynamic Spirits whiskeys is that they are well prices. $25 is just about right for this bourbon, and that's something you don't see enough in today's whiskey market, especially among the smaller producers.

SteveBM said...

Exactly. That's where the inspiration for my best bourbons under $30 post came from. Sometimes you just wanna spend a little just to have something to drink because life without whiskey is, well, boring!

BMc said...

I bought a bottle of the bourbon a few weeks ago, and boy, has it changed in the bottle! I'm guessing it's the air getting to it, but it went from strong rye to cherry cola to a muted sort of "whatever" whiskey. At no point did I get any bourbon flavor, I should add. That didn't bother me because I'd already had it at a bar and knew what I was getting into.

When it got to the "whatever" stage, I decided to play with it and made an old-fashioned with ice. The treatment brought out some yummy chocolatey notes I hadn't even had a faint impression of in previous tastings. There's the bourbon! I overdid it with the ice (2 cubes when at most 1 would have been okay, or maybe I should have just chilled the glass) but I'm really happy at the new life of this bourbon.

Anonymous said...

Works well in a Manhattan cocktail.