Castle & Key Restoration Rye 2020 (Batch 1)

This was brought over by a friend along with its sister bottle. Both were purchased directly from the distillery and picked up at the sinking castle itself despite the winding and icy roads. Batch 1 initially excited me with its higher proof. I believe this was bottle 3000-something. Labeled as 3 years I will say it’s youth is present from start to finish. The color is light golden. The nose is sparse and a bit undecided as to what it wants to get across. There’s a dose of green apple and caraway. No true vanilla, not much wood to speak of and honestly not much rye grain either. The palate is thin with... well, not much. Something like lemongrass leads to caraway and then a surge of candy cigarette sweetness and then... just gone. I don’t know what was paid for this but I’d be hard pressed to go over $18 if I had no idea that this was a flagship bottling from an upstart distillery down the road. Punch line - buy batch 2.

A bold, Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey by Castle & Key Distillery in Kentucky crafted with a mash bill of 63% rye, 20% malted barley, and 17% yellow corn, aged for 3.5 years in new American white oak barrels before being bottled at 103 proof. It has an aromatic birth with notes of grains, wood, stone & dried fruits, flowers, herbs & spices; while a slightly creamy & herbal life adds notes of barley, sweet corn, honey, lemon, baked apple, dried cherries, orange rind, maple syrup, fudge, dill & spearmint; that led to a long, dry & warm death with notes of oak, rye, white pepper, cinnamon, allspice, clove, nutmeg, molasses cookies & lemon zest.

NOSE Caramel, fruit, oak, roasted corn, toasted nuts, biscuits, baking spice and some light chalky vanilla. Fairly basic aroma, with far less of a spicy kick than expected. This is a mellow rye, which isn’t a bad thing, just worth noting. PALATE Herbally rye spice, oak, roasted corn, toasted nuts, baked apples, cinnamon, caramel and some light bits of vanilla and clove. Castle and Key Restoration Rye is much spicier on the palate. Less sweet as well with more rustic and earthy tones coming through and it picks up more of that “typical” rye profile. FINISH Med-long -> Herbal, baking spice, oak and fruit with a peppery pop.

👀 light gold 🤥brown cinnamon sugar, 🍊 orange peel. 👅pepper cinnamon bomb! A couple swirls and a chew gets you a sweet citrus coating. Nice silky coating! 🧠 It finished nice... not too long but not too short 😐. Leaves a sort of dry mouth feel like the one you get after eating a mouthful of almonds. 🏅This is Batch 1 and I really like it. For $50 (what I paid for it) it’s something I can really enjoy on a cold evening right before hitting the higher proofers. I am really excited to see this place age and find the sweet spot in the Rick house. For a 2-3 year product... I am impressed

I searched for this one for awhile and finally found it. I was excited to try it, but disappointed. It’s a young, young rye- and unless you enjoy the mouth-burning spice, it’s really just too young. Adding some ice helped to tame that spice down, but it was honestly so overwhelming that the flavor notes pale in comparison. My husband couldn’t even finish it. His comment: “That is RAW!” Finish is short. I think that it could be a very good rye if it ages longer and mellows out a bit. As it stands, I’d only use this in a cocktail.

Starting off on the nose I am getting lots of sharp menthol along with some nutty and floral notes with an underlying hint of vanilla. The vanilla is found again on the palate but then waves of spice and heat take over with a little bit of licorice towards the back. There is a nice long finish with some almost peppermint freshness at the tail end. If you are in to Ryes then this one will not disappoint.