One of the Most Impressive Ryes of 2026

Every once in a while, a new brand comes along that catches us off guard. Proof & Precedent is one of those brands. Funny enough, while the brand itself may be new, the names behind it certainly aren't new to the bourbon world. Matt Kusek, Brian Haara, and Marcus Niemann have all been involved in the industry for years, and now they've come together to launch Proof & Precedent.

Proof & Precedent's inaugural release, M11, is an 11-year-old straight rye whiskey built from just four barrels distilled in Illinois in the spring of 2015. The whiskey was aged in specialty cooperage barrels with a #3 char and spent the majority of its life resting in Bardstown, Kentucky.

Chief Blender Marcus Niemann brings extensive blending experience to the project. He selected portions from each of the four barrels to create the final blend, which was then returned to one of the original barrels to marry for an additional month before being bottled at barrel strength, without chill filtration.

What impressed me most about this rye is just how differently it drinks compared to what you might expect from an 11-year-old whiskey. There's certainly that mature oak character and the layered, candied herbal notes you'd want from a rye of this age, but there's also an incredible amount of bright, concentrated fruit throughout.

This is one of the most impressive rye releases I've tasted all year, and we're excited to bring it to you exclusively at Seelbach's.

The nose is surprisingly spry, with these plush, almost candied fruit notes, think of  sugar coated fruit ropes, moving into grape juice concentrate, lemon-lime, and seasoned oak.

For 11 years old this drinks with incredible grace - while giving a nod to those sweet, layered, oak notes and candied herbal notes you expect from a rye this age, it turns and gives you all these chewy, clean, and almost honied fruit notes. Cranberry, dried cherry, raisin, and plum dance in the mid-palate, and saturate damp and sticky almost like an armagnac would.

The finish moves from dried fruit into almost a tropical fruit cocktail, as pineapple, apricot, cherry and rum join these candied apple notes in a long, cascading, sweetly mature finish.