Stauning "Second Opinion"

Stauning Rye Second opinion 48%
Distilled 2009/2010 Bottled 2011

Nose: A powerful sweet rye with clear, but a fresh, youthness. The rye spices reminds me of a wet resinous morning in a pine forest

Palate: Again powerful rye. Loads of butterscotch.  A dry toasted woodyness and a light alcoholic burn. This is a bit of an infight of components I find good and not so good. I really like the butterscotch and the rye flavour of this whisky, but the toasted wood and the light alcoholic burn is not my favourite. I reckon some, if not many, will like the woodyness while most will also struggle with alcohol. This is just more or less archetype young whisky and anyone enjoying unaged spirits at higher ABV's will know of this.

Finish: Shortish to medium. But  luckily with the rye and butterscotch dominating. As typical with very young whiskies the sensation sits at the front of your mouth.

Rating 82 

The best released danish whisky I have tasted so far and this isnt really whisky as its not 3 years old. Still young and fighting, but its a clear improvement from their first release.

This is a vatting of 1 200 liter cask and 12 50l casks, all new wood. Small casks usually speeds some woodiness into a whisky

Willet 25yo Rye Barrel 1372

Willet Distillery

I recently visited Willet Distillery. Willet distillery was founded on a farm outside Bardstown in 1935 by Thompson Willet, and operated until the early 80's. The property of the distillery was purchased by the founders son-in-law, Even G Kulsveen and the world was introduced to a company called Kentucky Bourbon Distillers. KBD operates as what us scotch drinkers would call an independent bottler, which is buying whiskey from other distilleries and then maturing and bottling it until they find it to be right time. I was told by their distillery staff that they actually went one step further than this, by actually sending their own staff into other distilleries and producing their own make. A bit similar to a ghost brewery like Mikkeler!

Until now that is. Willet Distillery reopened here in 2012

Willet Distillery. The Tower hosts the column still

Bottom of the column still

Willet Potstill

Kentucky Bourbon Distilleries are behind many labels of bourbons and ryes. If you see a label, that you can't obviously connect to a real specific distillery, chances are great, that the whiskey was bottled by or sourced through KBD. 

The Willet itself is just one of very many KBD labels. It's a range of single casks bourbon and ryes in all imaginable ages and should be considered a KBD top shelf product. So far this has proved to be one of my favourite ranges.

1. Willet Rye Barrel #1372 25yo 47%

Distilled 10th May 1983

 I found a bottle of this at Limburg festival. Limburg is an abundance whisky. Thousands of bottlings. But not much bourbon. I reckon I was able to locate just a handful of bottles. This was one of them, and the sample bottle was all the stand had. Not possible to purchase a bottle. But I talked them into to selling me the dreg, probably around a third of a bottle.

 The colour is dark, even for a bourbon. The first thing that meets me is this fantastic floor varnish old liquid wood nose with a notable rye hint in the background. Simply fantastic and one of those legendary noses you just can sit back and sniff forever. 

 The palate is magnificient complex....

It's dry in a sense like the whiskey is jumpings off your tongue. Licorise, oriental flowers, floral rye spicyness, perfumes, all on a background of loads of heavy delicate wood and floor varnish. 

Almost all the taste sensation is at the very back of your mouth and tongue, which is typical of old and well matured whisk(e)ys. This is a dram to savour. One of those to drink laid back with eyes closed. It's like being in heaven for a few seconds. It's a constant conflict between nosing and drinking as I really just wants to sit and nose this forever, but I also wants to sit and drink this forever. This is a prime example why I think ryes really first comes to its greatness at older ages, where the spicyness and woodyness can blend into a magnificient balance of fantastic flavours.

Rating 94

Stauning Rye First Impression versus a couple of other ryes

Last week Stauning Distillery in Denmark released their first bottling, a rye and as a rye fan I had to stock up :-)

It's distilled in 2009 and 2010 and the rye has been matured on 50 liter and 200 liter casks

The mash bill is malted rye, malted barley and unmalted rye. For some odd reason Stauning won't tell me about the exact mash bill, but they are thinking about it :-)

I think they should. Anyone following the american micro distilling scene know that origin, recipe and cask history is what the whisky fans are interested in these days. With a huge extend in bottlings available, mashbills and innovative experiments I feel it's important for us consumers to know what we are drinking. It's nice to be able to pinpoint your taste for further purchases. Maybe you DON*T like high rye mashbills but really like low rye mashbills, but it's better to know that than just "I like this whiskey and I don't like that whiskey". Good enough if you always got the same bottle on your shelf, but who has that?. I don't for sure :-)

Rant over

1. Stauning Rye / first impression

Distilled 2009/2010 Bottled 2011 52.5%

850 bottles

Nose : Vodka, or something similar to other unaged distillates like grappa, raki or vodka, with a faint spicy woodiness

Palate : Gin-like, the rye spicyness often makes people associate it to gins, so this is not uncommon, especially with young ryes, where the rye and not the wood is dominating. 

Finish : Very good, looong and powerful. The finish is surprisingly fantastic, considering the nose (unaged spirits) and palate (young rye). The true rye flavour emerges... creamy oily rye flavours with a slight woodyness. The finish is really enjoyable and more-ish

Water : A bit of water doesnt harm this rye, it can in fact take quite a bit of it. It actually removes some of the impressions saying this is a very young whiskey, and highlights the qualities of the finish, with vanilla tones coming out more clear

Rating 73  - The finish is well worth an 80 score thou

EDITED summer 2011 aftera few retastings

Yes, a hard one to rate as the very long and delicious finish really makes a huge difference to a whiskey where I initially thought "This clearly needs a couple of more years"

I am really looking forward to Stauning Rye when older, this first impression isn't putting me off at all! 

Read more about Stauning here, their first malt whisky isn't ready yet http://www.stauningwhisky.dk/

PS : Danish whisky distilleries usually comes out at horrible and very silly prices, especially first editions. I still think this should have been slightly cheaper than 495 Dkr for 50cl but it's actually nice to see something bottled at a somehow fair price. I know it's not cheap to start up a distillery, but if you insist on bottling very young whisky at the prices of single casks 70's Ardbegs I think you more interested in money than bottling quality whisky. This is the first product from Stauning. 

It's wellknown that scottish whisky needs 3 years in cask by law, but there's no law regarding whisky in Denmark. Rye is an american style of whiskey and there's no minimum age requirements for ryes in America, but a "straight rye" must have been in a cask for at least 2 years. I am still thinking about why the term "straight" is used :-)

2. Old Potrero 62.2% 

2yo single malt whiskey made from 100% malted rye

Bottling date 20/4 - 2001, barreled 9/12 -1988 bottle 422/4005

Old Potrero is from San Francisco and is made by the Anchor Distilling Co. Anchor is a lot more known for their Brewing Co. making excellent craft beers 

Old Potrero is more clearcut in it's rye expression. It doesn't show the same extent of youthness in the whiskey, but this is probably twice the age and has been matured in a warmer climate, which does speed up the maturation. Last time I checked the weather is considerable better in the Bay area than at the west coast of Denmark. The finish is no way near the finish of the Stauning. In this whiskey its the finish that reveals this is a young whiskey!

Rating 81

3. WhistlePig Rye 10yo 50%

WhistlePig (Canadian word for Groundhogs) is a canadian rye bottled by an american company. It's supposed to be distilled at Alberta Distillery in Calgary known for Alberta Premium. Hiram Walker also prodcues a 100% rye (malted) so thats a 2nd guess

100% ryes are made as flavouring agents for blends in Canada

This is bottled as straight rye, so being canadian this whiskey must obey all the straight rye regulation which are american. This means more than just mashbill, also alcohol strength of distillate and wood policy has to follow the same rules as applys to bourbons

(read about that here : http://bit.ly/gIgQMX )

This is a very good example of how rye whiskey taste. It's delicious but somehow onedimensional. If you like this dimension..great for you. I do, as it's the rye dimension, and I am a rye fan. 

We are back to longer finish with a bit of fudge butterscotch in it, the years in new wood is showing its face. It's remarkable less effected than bourbons at similar ages. Canadian enviroment when maturing or is the rye opposed to corn ? I don't know

Rating 82

If Stauning are considering going 100% rye or 100% malted rye I would say they should also consider whiskey/whisky with a lower rye mash bill. My favourite "younger" rye products have been Bourbons with a high rye content like IW Harper and "blends" from High West like Rendezvous Rye and BouRye. Don't forget that a Rye has to be just 51% rye to be a Rye according to the American rules. As well as a bourbon has to be at least 51% corn. It's the last 49% that's the art :-) and it seems like I prefer a rye a content of 30-50%