New York Distilling Co. Writer's Rye
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Chasing the best rye whiskey in the country isn't an easy task. But, last July we set out to do that. The Seelbach’s team spent a night in Brooklyn tasting through a wide range of barrels from New York Distilling Co. The goal was to select the follow up barrel to our 2022 Ragtime Rye “Writers Rye” barrels. Except this time in a private label.
The whole process got me thinking. How do we select superior barrels? The best answer I could think of was to start with an incredible source. Then put together a tasting team with experience. The two faces on the Writer's Rye bottles are well versed in the spirits world. Aaron Goldfarb is the author of Hacking Whiskey and writes for everyone from Esquire to VinePair. He’s a judge in the San Francisco wine and spirits competition as well. Robert Simonson wrote several influential books in the spirits world as well as articles for Forbes and others. He's also a James Beard Foundation nominee for his book 3-Ingredient Cocktails. (Fun fact, Robert wrote the New York Times article which we derived the name "Seelbach's" from). With this tasting panel and the whiskey Allen Katz and NY Distilling are producing, I was optimistic we could find something exceptional.
NY distilling experiments with different varietals of rye which is unique from what most distillers use. Like other grains, different ryes produce different flavor profiles. After tasting multiple varietals at different ages we landed on two barrels. Both barrels were made using proprietary Pedersen Field Race Rye. This rye grain is from Seneca Falls NY named after the farmer and his family, Rick Pedersen. The first barrels is 8-years 6-months old and highlights notes of brawny, baking spices, dark cherry, caramel. The second barrel is 6-years 7-months old and showcases a profile of grassy, Nutella, herbal, medicinal.
$69.99
