Rabbit Hole Heigold High-Rye Double Malt Bourbon

RABBIT HOLE SHOWDOWN Rabbit Hole Heigold Kentucky Straight Bourbon Rabbit Hole Cavehill Kentucky Straight Bourbon Rabbit Hole Dareringer Straight Bourbon Finished In Px Sherry Casks Rabbit Hole Starlino I was introduced to Rabbit Hole at a tasting I attended a few years ago with the founder, Kaveh Zamanian. I’d seen the distinctive bottles on store shelves, but never pulled the trigger. In my experience, distinctive bottles and labels are often more about marketing than the whiskey they contain. That is not the case with Rabbit Hole. I’m very impressed with the quality, attention to detail, and information transparency that this distillery embraces. Rabbit Hole Heigold Bright orange amber (Pantone 152). Nose shows chocolate covered cherries, a touch of peanut brittle, buttered pancakes, apple cider, balsam, a little spearmint. Pleasantly viscous mouthfeel, with orange oil and clove coming on, followed by a little heat kicking in on the finish, with more chocolate-covered cherries and some oaky vanilla, akin to a woody orange creamsicle (in a pleasant way), followed by a lingering spiciness. Great depth of flavor, sweet, and very smooth. Rabbit Hole Heigold can be found for under $65. Would I buy it again? Yes. 4.25 on the Distiller scale, up from 4.0 on my last review. Fingers crossed that RH won’t start raising prices too much once they have age-statement releases available. 95 proof. NAS. Non-chill filtered. Mashbill: 70% Corn, 25% Malted Rye, 5% Malted Barley Rabbit Hole Cavehill Virtually identical orange amber as the Heigold (Pantone 152). Nose shows caramel apples, Honey Nut Cheerios, balsam, and some ethanol. There’s a whiff of dust that I typically associate with Wild Turkey. Similar light viscosity as the Heigold. I get some peanut on the palate. Some oaky woodiness on the back end, along with cinnamon red hots, vanilla, and again, chocolate covered cherries. The heat comes across a bit more than what one would think given the 95 proof. Rabbit Hole Cavehill is very good, and smoother than the high-rye Heigold, but lack’s the Heigold’s complexity. It’s very good, and can be found for $55-60. Would I buy it again? Yes. 4.0 on the Distiller scale. 95 proof. NAS. Non-chill filtered. Mashbill: 70% corn, 10% malted wheat, 10% honey malted barley, 10% malted barley. Rabbit Hole Dareringer Dark amber with a faint rust tint (Pantone 159). Chocolaty notes of fudge, cocoa powder, Cocoa Puffs cereal, raisins, honey, spearmint. Almost like a mudslide slushy cocktail. Palate has both breadth and depth, and more intensity than the nose. The ethanol, shrouded on the nose, makes an appearance on the finish. Angel’s Envy was the first (or one of the first) bourbons to follow the common Scotch whisky practice of finishing maturation in sherry casks. But Dareringer does it far better (side note: I need to do a sherry-finished bourbon Showdown). Rabbit Hole Dareringer can be found for around $80. Would I buy it again? Yes. It’s very, very good. 4.5 on the Distiller scale. 93 Proof. NAS. Non-chill filtered. Mashbill: 65% corn, 25% wheat, 10% malted barley. Rabbit Hole Starlino A shade lighter amber than the Heigold and Cavehill (Pantone 138). Unmistakably rye. Sweet red grapes, rosemary, sage, rye, baking chocolate, mown grass, and some cooling menthol. The chocolate and herbal notes predominate on the palate; some nice rye spice kicks in on the back and. The higher alcohol is kept in check (despite this being the highest proof of the four), and a sweet medium-length finish follows. Rabbit Hole Starlino is finished in Hotel Starlino Rosso vermouth. I received this bottle as a gift at the aforementioned Rabbit Hole tasting that I attended a couple years back. Only 2112 375ml bottles were produced, and it was available only at the distillery. It does not seem to be available online, and I have no idea what it was priced at. Would I buy it again? Yes, assuming the price was right. It’s very good. 4.0 on the Distiller scale. 105.6 proof. NAS. Bottle #446 of 2112. These four Rabbit Hole bottlings (there are others) are different whiskies. The Heigold is “high rye”; the Cavehill has a four-grain bourbon mashbill; the Dareringer is a sherry-finished bourbon; and the Starlino is a Kentucky rye finished in vermouth casks. I prefer the Heigold to the Cavehill; it is sweeter and more complex. The Dareinger is a different animal, and arguably more complex than the Heigold, with a great depth of flavor. The Starlino, being a rye, is a different animal. Not that these Showdowns are contests: rather, they are exercises meant to show the different aromas and flavors that one can detect when compared against other whiskies or spirits, and hopefully provide a clearer picture of the relative aspects of each, in a way that may offer more focus than in a single-whisk(e)y tasting (though of course I do those as well). When Rabbit Hole was created in 2012, they sourced whiskey from New Riff distillery. However, they’ve been producing their own product since 2018 (I think the Starlino was the first release that was entirely from the distillery). The company touts their offerings as “super premium” on its website, and who am I to disagree? They are very good, and my sense is that Rabbit Hole bourbons and ryes are only going to improve as their stocks continue to age. N.B. All spirits tasted neat in a Glencairn glass.

Earlier this year I attended a bourbon tasting with Rabbit Hole's founder, Kaveh Zamanian. I'd seen some of Rabbit Hole's bottlings at local stores, but had never tried them. The tasting changed that, and I was converted. Kaveh is building a world-class distillery that is focused on quality. I've been able to purchase the Dareringer and Cavehill locally, but had been unable to find the Heigold. This past weekend I visited New Hampshire and found some in one of NH's state-owned liquor stores at $50--roughly $15 below what I've seen online--and pulled the trigger. Clear oiled-teak color. Sweet nose shows caramel, vanilla, orange blossom, some ethanol, and licorice. On the palate, bitter orange, char, and a dusting of spicy white pepper. Vanilla lingers on the finish. Overall impression is sweet and easy drinking, with some rye spiciness (the Heigold is RH's high-rye mashbill: 70% corn, 25% malted rye, and 5% malted barley). The 95 proof is not as apparent as the number would suggest. The age is only "over 3 years," suggesting that the best is yet to come. N.B. All spirits tasted neat in a Glencairn glass.

Flat golden brown color and average legs in the glass. On the nose, brown sugar and vanilla, but under that a grassy mushy apple and cereal smell. Burnt sugar, leather and tannic vanilla oak on first taste. Orangy citrus sneaks in there. Malt cereal gives it a soft but rather thin mouthfeel. The rye spice (grassy, then growing more peppery) starts later and carries through an average finish. Ice cube tempers the tannins and the rye spice, leaving this less interesting. A good sip, but definitely rate this below both the Cavehill and Boxergrail, especially given that this is a pricier juice ($70--ok, it's the price point relative to other really good high rye bottom-shelf bourbons that bugs me), and that's disappointing. The Dareringer sherry cask is better too at similar price. Still not a fan of their tall rectangular bottles, but do like their labeling design (although the labeling isn't very informative as to mashbill and aging info).

You smell the sweetness from the corn in the nose, maybe some candied orange, which isn’t surprising from the mash bill. Taste is citrus and caramel or butterscotch, and the rye comes in on the finish with pepper and spicy notes as well as leather and a little dark fruit. Drop of water and/or chilling it with a whiskey stone makes the flavor come through much better in my opinion, because when it’s at room temp the spicy finish can overpower the citrus and sweet flavors at the start. Think this stands up much better than the average rating it gets on this app and elsewhere.

Maybe it’s the suggestion of the name but the nose has a “golden” aroma which for me equates to honey and vanilla and graham cracker with a crisp rye edge. Taste reminds me of baklava: nuts, butter and cinnamon with more honey and vanilla. Rye is the paper thin phyllo dough adding enough structure to prevent it all from being a gooey mess. Soft honey finish. After trying a couple of Rabbit Hole bourbons, i’m getting a handle on what they’re about. Pleasant and harmonious whiskeys that lean sweet and are a bit overpriced.

This is a very good bourbon beginning to end. Extremely pleasant nose with a light oak and spicy. Some classic sweetness and light fruit. The highlight is definitely the taste and finish … consistent with the nose. Love the spicy finish as it’s not a proofy finish but a nice peppery spice. My only minor criticism is that it’s not what I would call complex but rather a very nice lower proof daily albeit more expensive one. Heigold is definitely my favorite of the Rabbit Hole standard offerings. Recommended.