Made right in our backyard, Baltimore Spirits Company’s Epoch Rye reflects Maryland’s rich rye whiskey heritage. Unlike Pennsylvania’s spicy backbone or Kentucky’s bolder style, Maryland rye is known for being smoother, softer, and slightly sweeter, a profile that made it one of the most popular ryes of its day.
Prohibition shuttered much of Maryland’s whiskey industry, but today a new generation of distillers is reviving the style, honoring history while crafting whiskeys that connect with modern drinkers.
This single-barrel bottling of Epoch Rye carries that legacy forward: 100% Maryland straight rye, bottled at cask strength (117.8 proof), and finished for a year in a Laphroaig Quarter Cask. When Dee picked the barrel, she told co-founder Max Lents, “...this is the perfect pour for people who think they hate peat.”
While forward to start, the smoke here isn’t sharp or overwhelming, it bends into sweeter, tobacco-laced notes, bridging Scotch fans and rye drinkers in a way that feels both bold and approachable.
Wildflower honey and a touch of smoke on the nose, with juicy nips of raspberry, grape, apricot jam and candied spices - a surprisingly sweet start as the finishing starts to rise in the glass.
The palate is quite the juxtaposition - vanilla coated baking spice and mouth-filling cigar smoke followed by overcooked chocolate orange raisin bread and thin mint cookies.
As it finishes it comes back to these juicier orange slice candies notes with long lasting cocoa powder, fig, and fresh tobacco as the smoke turns sweeter and lingers on with a lovely wildflower honey, much like the start.
