Bone Snapper Rye

Served: 1 Finger pour with 5 drops of water to bring out the flavors. Notes: (I’m comparing this alongside Bone Snapper X-Ray Rye. This allows me to explain how the age changes the notes.) After my finger pour, I bring her up to the nose for a first smell. I set her down, and bring her up again. The aroma presents candied apples, cinnamon & carmel, followed by buttered bread. I go in for a small sip, and I’m immediately greeted with similar tastes that I recieved from the prior smell, albeit slightly different. This rye is oily and it coats the mouth with suitable viscosity. I’m immediately hit a buttery & oily mouthful that brings bitter apples, allspice, cinnamon, cardamom, and pepper to my palate. All of these noted are encompassed with a perfumey carmel that lingers throughout the whole sip. The aftertaste once again presents a rich butter, this time with a faint earthiness to finish the notes. It is slightly salty, hence why I added the briny tag. This Rye is far from simple, so for those that desire something complex, this is it. Comments: When comparing this to Backbone Bourbon Co.’s X-Ray, the palate of the regular bone snapler rye offers a sweeter smell than the taste, while X-Ray offers a more bitter smell than its taste. This is presumanly due to age, and it seems the kick of the regular Bone snapper mellows out after another year. The regular bone snapper reminds me of a sofisticated gentleman’s drink of choice while bringing about enough spicy and tannin-like qualities to leave Rye lovers smiling. As of this review, this is my favorite rye of all time, and for very good reasons. It’s complex in all the right ways, offering amazingly complimentary flavors. If this doesnt put Indiana on the map for a serious bourbon/rye distillery, I don’t know what will. Highly underrated and a must try. Why isn’t it a 5/5 you might ask? There’s always room for improvement, and I think that’s how every distillery approaches their next bottled release of rye or bourbon. Although I don’t know what those improvements could be, very few Rye’s meet the cachet of 5/5.

My first experience with Bone Snapper was Christmas 2013 ( I think) in Indiana. My father-in-law had a bottle of batch #1. It was amazing. Since then, Batch #1, #2 and #3 has become my personal standard of a good rye. I carry a flask with me always to share with new and old bartender friends. And it helps when looking for a new whiskey on my travels. Three sips: First sip is like a bitch slap to the face. You go back for a second and by the third sip things settle in for good evening of enjoying the snapper. Batch #4 was disappointing - all bone no snap. But now they are distributing all the way out here to CA. Keeping an eye out for the early batches and hanging on dearly to the bit that I do have left of each.

First sample was a really solid rye, but when I purchased a bottle it tasted like a mold bomb. I've been scared to go back to this ever since, and have only recently purchased their X-Ray Rye (which is a HUGE improvement, upper 80s score from me on that one). This one however, I can't justify rating higher than mid 70s based on the fact that while one pour was great, the bottle was trash. From what I remember though, the other review that says "Peppery hot with sweet cinnamon cakey flavors" is spot on; add in some smoother vanilla notes and that's where my pour was at.

Batch 10, 54% ABV, aged 26 months Do you like MGP Ryes? If so, check this one out. I liked it best in an old fashioned with fresh dill. It’s decent neat, but a bit hot. Nose: cardamom, dill, sugar, mint, fresh cut grass. Definitely some ethanol. Straightforward young MGP rye. Palate: average to thin mouthfeel. Notes of mint, black pepper, light brown sugar. Lots of dill character with quite a bit of heat. The finish is short and a bit sour and bitter with lingering mint aftertaste.

BATCH 13, 108 proof, 34 months. Very oil, you start off with some hevay caramels, some herbality mostly menthol and fennel, them the oak and spice hits with a pretty robust punch. Once it get the the finish there is a tobacco spice at the end thats medium length but not overly hot for its proofing. Solid sipper with a pricetag that wont make you cry.

A great spice, but it isn’t harsh. Doesn’t have the heat I would expect from this proof.