This week, we’re offering two reviews for the price of one as we examine a couple of rye whiskeys from Cedar Ridge Distillery in Iowa. Since tomorrow is a holiday, and yesterday was crazy with work, I thought I’d combine both posts into one, as it seemed thematically appropriate.
So first, my bias. I am not a native Minnesotan, but I have lived here for almost twenty years. The reason I live here has more than a little to do with my time in college at the University of Minnesota. It wasn’t the main reason I moved here, but it didn’t hurt that I’d spent a particularly enjoyable part of my youth in the state. And as a Gopher, I am duty-bound to hate all things Hawkeye, which includes the state they live in and all things associated with it. I mean, the Hawkeyes can get fucked. (If you know how college football rivalries work, you’ll understand that last bit. Don’t worry, I feel the same way about my birthplace of Wisconsin due to my hatred of the Badgers, too.)
So now that I’ve disclosed that my bias is a mild dislike of all things Iowa based on the fact that I hate their Big Ten college football team, let’s move on to the whiskeys.
While I did the tastings for these, I was under the impression that they were the same whiskey with different ages and proofs. But I was excited to learn that these are completely different mashbills. The Straight Rye that we will be looking at first is 12% corn, 51% malted rye, 34% rye, and 3% malted barley. The Bottled-in-Bond leaves out the unmalted rye and uses 85% malted rye instead. That’s very cool. For a long time, it was hard to get rye whiskey from a big distillery. Jimmy Russell used to say that Wild Turkey spent one day per year distilling all of the rye they put out. But these guys have at least two mashbills of rye that they produce. As a rye whiskey lover, this is a good time to be a fan.
Let’s start with the Cedar Ridge Straight Rye Whiskey, part of their core lineup.
Cedar Ridge Straight Rye Whiskey
Purchase Info: $37.99 for a 750 mL bottle at South Lyndale Liquors, Minneapolis, MN
Price per Drink (50 mL): $2.53
Details: 3- years-old. 43% ABV. Mashbill: 12% corn, 51% malted rye, 34% rye, 3% malted barley
Nose: Cinnamon, cedar, mint, and stone fruit.
Mouth: Cedar, cinnamon candies, and stone fruit.
Finish: Medium in length and warmth. Notes of dried grains, mint, and cedar.
Thoughts: I'm not a fan of this one. It tastes a bit too much like dried grains for my tastes. I know that there are very good rye whiskeys on the market that are even younger than this, so it isn't an age thing per se. I'm guessing it's a combination of age and climate. The average high in this part of Iowa is over 10°F lower than it is in Kentucky for most of the winter, which could lead to aging taking longer unless they use climate-controlled aging spaces. I don't know for sure how they age their product, so that's only a guess. All that said, this isn't a bad whiskey. It just doesn't align with my palate, mostly due to the very grain-forward nature of the finish.
Now let’s do the Limited Edition Bottled-in-Bond Rye.
Cedar Ridge Bottled-in-Bond Rye
Purchase Info: $49.99 for a 750 mL bottle at South Lyndale Liquors, Minneapolis, MN
Price per Drink (50 mL): $3.33
Details: 50% ABV. 4-years-old. Mashbill: 12% corn, 85% malted rye, 3% malted barley. DSP-IA-15001
Nose: Cedar, cinnamon, dried grains, and biscuits.
Mouth: Caramel, stone fruit, cinnamon, cedar, and oak.
Finish: Medium length and warmth. Notes of cinnamon, mint, and cedar.
Thoughts: It's amazing what another year, a bit more proof, and the elimination of non-malted rye will do for a whiskey. This has a nicer mouth feeel, is sweeter, and shows more barrel influence than the 86 proof. And even though I don’t usually care for malted rye in a whiskey, I like this one. This particular Iowa whiskey is better than any of the Minnesota ryes I’ve tried.
See I can say something nice about Iowa.
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