Best Rye Whiskey of 2024.

 Greetings!

Thanks for stopping by, as you can probably see this is a blog dedicated to the appreciation of spirits, wine and beer among other ferments from around the world.

A major part of my 2024 journey was fine tuning my own personal palate for a whiskey that I have grown to love over the years. Rye Whiskey. More on the history and my affinity for this delicious foundational American spirit in future posts but for now, as the clocks tick down to the new year. I enlisted the help of my wonderful wife and inquisitive 8yr old to set up a blind of the rye whiskeys I was most excited about this past year.  

The Top Ten Ryes of 2024 

According to the Bottle Forager... 

I brought together my selections from the cellar and labeled them 1-10 on the bottoms with painters tape.

Then I left the room and sat down to cleanse my palate with water and a few pretzels. 

Apparently my kiddo picked 5 of the bottles randomly and my lovely wife poured a 1.5z pour of each offering and labeled it according to which bottle.

With two flights of 5 ryes, I judged each flight based on its nose, taste, mouthfeel and overall appreciation of these fine crafted whiskeys.

I took notes, went back and forth and slowly assigned points to each glass and organized them from best to "worst", because honestly I would be super grateful to sip any of these offerings, hence why they made it in my favorite ryes of 2024.

the Bottle Forager deep in contemplation.

After scoring both flights it was time for a final showdown of the top 3.

I also blindly guessed which each offering might have been and was quite surprised on how accurate those results were!

THE FINAL RESULTS 

1. WILLET SINGLE BARREL RYE 11YR

(Barrel No. 2396 (bottle 95/147) 

118.6 proof (59.3%)

SCORED 95pts

2. 15 STARS FINEST WEST RYE 

(105 proof (52.5%) 

SCORED 94pts

3. HARD TRUTH SWEET MASH RYE

(Rackhouse 001 Batch 007 30barrels)

(116.1 proof (58.05%) 

SCORED 94pts

4. WILD TURKEY MASTERS KEEP TRIUMPH

(104 proof (52%)

SCORED 93pts

5. MICHTERS BARREL STRENGTH RYE

(Barrel No. 24EO197)

(110.6 proof (55.3%)

SCORED 92pts

6. BULLEIT 12YR RYE

(92 proof (46%)

SCORED 90pts

7. LITTLE BOOK CHAPTER 8 PATH NOT TAKEN

(118.2 proof (59.1%)

SCORED 89pts

8.HEAVEN HILL GRAIN to GLASS RYE

(123.2 proof (61.6%)

SCORED 88pts

9. EH TAYLOR STRAIGHT RYE

(100 proof (50%)

SCORED 88pts

10. KNOB CREEK 10YR RYE

(100 proof (50%)

SCORED 88pts

Thanks for stopping by... check back in for much more bubbles to review as the new year finishes up and many more layers of exploration into Japanese Whiskey, a scotch novices approach to Scotch Whiskey and a smorgasbord of wine regions that I look forward to share and review as the corks pop and our palates evolve!

Cheers and here is to a Happy Healthy 2025!

Bubbles to the New Year... Hush Heath Estate Balfour 1503

Hush Heath Estate Balfour 1503 

Classic Cuvee

This offering is coming in from Kent-England!

from the website:

Established in 1503, Hush Heath Manor has been the Balfour-Lynn family home since the 1980s. 

Set amidst 400 acres of ancient oak woodland in Kent’s Weald, the manor overlooks its vineyards. In 2002, Richard Balfour-Lynn began planting vines with a focus on crafting fine sparkling rosé. Assisted by Stephen Skelton, MW, and guided by Owen Elias, a four-time UKVA Winemaker of the Year, the winemaking journey began.

Today, Fergus Elias oversees day-to-day winemaking. With 40 acres of Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Chardonnay, and select Champagne varieties, Hush Heath remains England’s only dedicated Rosé sparkling wine vineyard, committed to producing world-class wines.

" the 1503 Classic Cuvée is beautifully balanced with lively citrus, apple fruit, and vibrant English acidity. It is the perfect introduction to English sparkling wine.

Approachable in style, the quality of the Kentish fruit is the star. A superb example of a fruit-forward yet complex traditional method English sparkling wine, it is arguably England’s best value traditional method sparkling wine.

Technical Info

• Blend: 56% Chardonnay, 23% Pinot Noir, 13% Pinot Blanc, 7% Pinot Meunier
• Dosage: 9g/l
• Vineyards: Multi-vineyard, all from clay soils

My Thoughts:

 Pours a pale golden color with a big frothy foam that dissipates quickly leaving a spritzy nose of a glass full of rising bubbles. 

Aromas tingle the nose with layers of citrus, white peach, crusty bread and soft underlying hints of gravel and green tea.

Palate is hyper focused and damn this is so lovely!

Nice rolling flavors from stonefruit. green apple and white flowers to a more rustic yeasty complexity that mingles with wet wood and intertwines mid palate with a long creaminess on the finish that lingers with hints of vanilla bean and anise. Complex, delicious and just a pure pleasure to sip from start to finish!

(FINAL SCORE 88/100)

Bubbles to the New Year... Keush Ultra 2018

 Keush Ultra 2018

Brut Nature/Blanc de Noir

From Armenia comes this unique offering of old world bubbles from the Khachik Village, Vayots Dzor.

Crafted with Areni grapes which are know as Armenian Pinot Noir. Armenias wine histroy dates back to 400 BC. I'd say that pretty old world!

MY THOUGHTS:

Light faint nose with a little lift of lemon peel and anise mingled with some peppercorn and a touch of bready yeast.

The palate follows and is bright and crisp with lots of citrus that falls into a baked apple mid palate and proceeds to roll alongside some warming spice and medium acidity on the finish. 

Cideresque but elegant in mouthfeel and bubble.

Fun to try, not as exotic as I expected or hoped for but still and easy bottle to polish off!

(FINAL SCORE 82/100) 

Bubbles to the New Year... Ravines Sparkling Riesling 2019

Ravines Sparkling Riesling 2019

With this entry we dip into the Finger Lakes region of New York state! An up and coming wine region in the US that seems to have found its footing in the market as of late. Started in 2002 with roots in the family leading back to Domaine de Castel Roubine where the wine maker Morten Hallgren started his journey of viticulture to Chateau Cos d'Estournel in the Medoc region of Bordeaux and finally to the cellars of Dr. Frank Konstantin. The wine maker is no stranger to the industry and the wines being put on the market are worth taking notice. This bottle is no different!

 MY THOUGHTS:

Pours a pale golden straw color with two fingers of gaseous fizz that builds and dissipates quickly leaving a steady flow of tight bubbles rising from the epicure.

Aromas of wet stone minerality and soft stonefruits with hints of lemon and lime zest.

Palate follows the nose nicely with bright focused acid that is medium plus in strength and is balanced nicely with the focused layers of evolving fruit; honeycrisp apple, lime, under ripe nectarine and grapefruit.

Exquisite wine that far exceeded my expectations!

Would like to put this side by side with the Steininger which is right at the same price point and has always been one of my favorite sparkling Rieslings. 

(FINAL SCORE 85/100)

 

Bubbles to the New Year... Aubry Rose Brut Champagne

 L. Aubry Fils Rose Brut NV

Premier Cru Champagne

 (Disgorged July 2023)

One of my all time favorite producers for the money and its been a good while since I grabbed the Rose offering to enjoy! This wine is made up of 30% Meunier, 30% Chardonnay, 35% Pinot Noir and 5% mixture of Arbanne, Petit Meslier and Fromenteau.

MY THOUGHTS:

Pours a light salmon rose color with some reflective orange golden nuance. Frothy mousse carries to the lip of my tall glass. Laid back aromas of fresh croissant, red raspberry leaf, toasty yeast and soft whispers of citrus peel, fresh apple skins and spring rain. Palate sings a notch or two higher than the nose but with the same harmony and timing from opening flavors to the encore. Fine bubbles tingle the entrance with a gentle introduction as the first notes of crushed summer berries, tart watermelon rind, and expressed mandarin oils interplay with the bass notes that linger into a creamy strawberry soaked shortbread finish. Wow!

(FINAL SCORE 90/100)

Bubbles to the New Year... Illahe Capitol Fizz

Illahe Vineyard Cap Fizz NV

Originally released as Capitol Fizz, the CapFizz is a bit outside the box from Illahes' other labels and offerings. A generational family run winery that is well known for their complex pinot noirs planted on the slopes of Mt. Pisgah in Oregon's esteemed Willamette Valley.  Along with Pinot Noir they have also been experimenting with a slew of other varietals in limited quantities and I assume some of these grapes are what is used for this current bottle in my glass.

A word from the vineyard and really the only information I could find on this wine:

"Cap Fizz from Illahe Vineyards, is a dry, pink bubbly bottle of refreshment for workers, picnickers, fishers, makers, singers, and watchers of the western sunset. Picked early at harvest, it has lively acid and a pretty aroma enhanced by its sparkle and joined together with the feeling of seeing a rainbow behind a waterfall.

We are 3rd generation family farmers in the Willamette Valley. Lowell and Pauline still reside on the original farm in West Salem that was established by Pauline’s father, Grandpa Brad in 1943. The foliage on the label represents native Oregon wildflowers used in our cover crop or growing on the farm to create more biodiversity, including a few local crops that represent the bounty of the valley. Pauline has a few fig trees and is known for her fig jam, as well as her daffodill stand that she has put up along Wallace Road every spring for the past 25 years, where she sells flowers for her grand children’s college fund." (Illahe Vineyard Website)

My Thoughts:

Pours a rose tinged pale copper color with a fizzy bubble that dissipates before any noticeable froth or foam forms. Small amount of streaming bubbles are left rising on the settled glass.

The aromas are pleasant with lots of unripe berry leaning towards strawberry and raspberry with hints of underipe stonefruit and just an overall fruit salad smorgasbord.

On the palate there is a bit more vinous fruit with some medium acidity that is quickly balanced by that fruit cocktail smorgasbord from the nose. A bit juicy but super refreshing, kind of a wine drinkers fruit punch sparkler that is both playful but focused enough to lock in on notes of golden raspberries, rhubarb and some backend citrus pith that creates a little bitterness on the linger but works to dry out some of that fruity midpalate.

Easy to drink, dare I say chuggable, and I would be all in at the $12-18 range, but in my opinion at the $26 price range I think there are better values to be had. That being said this is unique and knowing Illahe is a small horsepowered, hand harvested vineyard, much of that higher cost is probably warranted.

 (FINAL SCORE 80/100)

Bubbles to the New Year... Dirler-Cade Cremant D'Alsace Brut Nature 2020

Dirler-Cade Cremant D'Alsace Brut Nature 2020 

Just brought this bottle in at the shop and was excited to pop the cork after a hard days work.

As a way of kickstarting this blog back to a place where I feel it relevant and useful to myself and hopefully some long lost readers, I've decided to follow my current passion and not force content. Lately I have been heavily invested in whiskey but also have come to a realization that drinking spirits night after night is not necessarily sustainable. Bubbles have been a growing segment in the market since I started buying wine around 2007 and the amount of offerings and representations keeps me excited and I figured with the holidays fast approaching and a shelf in the cellar heavy with bubbles from easily attainable to more celebratory, that maybe I should firmly plant my flag in the I love bubbles camp! 

 

Bottle Info... and a nice description from our local distributor that peaked my interest even more:

"Dirler Cade is a brand new addition to the Devenish portfolio and we’re super excited to work with this famous Alsatian house. Dirler Cade was created when Jean Dirler married Ludvine Cade in 2000. Both families had been making wine in the Alsace for generations and decided to combine wineries under the name Dirler Cade. Almost half of their 18 hectares are within Grand Cru vineyards and then they have vines in 5 lieux-dites as well. The land is all farmed biodynamically as the Dirler domaine adopted biodynamics early on in 1998. The fields are plowed 4-5 times per year by horse, they remove flowers instead of green harvesting, they let natural cover crops grow in the vineyards, and only use herbal teas and copper sulfate for vineyard treatments. It all combines to create a healthy biodiverse ecosystem. They have a team of 5-6 people who work year round and expand to 20 people for harvest. All the grapes are hand harvested. The picking teams and family all eat and share wine together on the belief that the harvest will go better if everyone is in a good mood and happy to work together with positive energy. In the winery they use whole cluster presses, spontaneous fermentation, and long macerations on the lees." (courtesy of NED SWAIN-DEVENISH WINES)

My Thoughts:

Pours a light pale golden hue with a foamy froth that quickly dissipates into a stream of fine bubbles rising quickly from the epicure.

The aromas are faint with whiffs of crusty baguette bread, fresh peeled apple skins and a crisp clean morning airiness that reminds me of a cool spring dew wrapped around emerging chamomile in the garden.

The palate is prickly with good translation from nose to tongue. Elegant and crisp from the first sip with nice progression from start to finish. A bit of bosc pear midpalate with a backdrop of black oxford apples as the wine opens and evolves a bit. As the fizziness tamps down the wine emerges with a subtle creaminess that softens the finish and evokes some complex accents of dried mango and just a kiss of fresh sweet cicely pods on the finish.

 Solid offering punching in at about $28 on the shelf and a perfect balance of value and complexity.

(Final Score 88/100)

the Bottle Forager Returns!

Greetings!

As 2024 comes to a close and 2025 is just around the corner, I have decided to reignite this blog.

Stay tuned for weekly and sometimes maybe even daily reviews of some of the most interesting wines, beers and spirits that have been showing up in my glass recently!

Follow this link for a brief synopsis of  "Who is the Bottle Forager?"