Two Private Barrel Releases
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We have two new private barrels as well as some cool new products from New Riff. The Balboa Rye and Maltster are EXTREMELY allocated. There are only a few cases of each. I was able to try them at the distillery and they were fantastic! I'll continue to press New Riff for more Balboa Rye as it becomes available in 2021.
New Riff private barrels need no introduction. They continue to impress with their ability to produce fantastic barrels. The Old Elk was a surprise for me. Although, it shouldn't have been considering their Master Distiller is MGP legend, Greg Metze. This wheated bourbon barrel gives any 6-8-year-old wheated bourbon (*cough* Weller) a run for their money. It has a wonderful blend of fruit and caramelized notes. I hope you enjoy them!
New Riff Distilling - Seelbach's Pt. 5 "Toasty Vanilla"
Barrel: 16-1999
Proof: 105.5
Age: 4-Years 1-Month
Barreled: 9/27/2016
Bottled: 11/5/20
Tasting Notes: Low-pitched elements of rye spice with brambly birch barck and sassafras root. Toasty vanilla. Plum skins and oak.
Old Elk Wheated Bourbon - Selected By Seelbach's
Age: 5 years old
Mashbill: 51/45/4 Corn/Wheat/Malted Barley
Barrel #: 567
Bottle Yield: 204
Proof: 115.4 (57.7% ABV)
Source: MGPI Distillery
Tasting Notes: This starts off with a traditional wheated nose. There are notes of vanilla, ripe cherry, and caramel. It mixes sweet oak as you dive deeper. It continues to open with blackberries and graham cracker. I was expecting more sweetness on the taste. Note of oak, orange peel, and charred banana is a pleasant surprise. The finish fades to the graham cracker crust from the nose. It finally ends with a floral and pepper.
New Riff Distilling Maltster Wheated Bourbon
Introducing Maltsters, a project that explores different malted grains used in a Bourbon recipe. Our distilling team delved into their background as craft brewers and pulled out of their hat a couple of magical recipes. This unique mashbill offers a bold interpretation of traditional Bourbon styles. Our Maltster a Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey made with Malted Wheat offers a darker and deeper riff of a classic wheated Bourbon.
From the opening aroma of our Malted Wheat Bourbon, there is shade of dark, husky grains to the whole production; yet it also drinks in a classical Bourbon fashion with plenty of oak. A splash of water releases a whiff of dark fruit. In the mouth, it enters large-scaled and full-bodied, tending to dryness. There’s plenty of oak but, behind that, lies that notion of dark (black currant?) fruit. A wood spice element tinges the finish, which grows on the taster precipitously.
Bottled in Bond Without Chill Filtration. Aged at Least 5 Years. 100 Proof.
Mash Bill: 65% Corn, 18% Bohemian floor-malted wheat, 10% unMalted wheat 7% dark wheat
Proof: 100 proof
Age: 4-Years
Mash Bill: 95/5 Heirloom Balboa Rye/Malted Rye
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Clean ripe oak, controlled & even. With time, develops waxy/honeyed (yet not sweet) fruits. Water yields colorful (black-blue-red skinned) rye fruits and spice
Taste: Rounded and full-bodied, midpalate of spiced fruit compote
Finish: Very long and simply gorgeous, as the fruits are subtly shaded with many spices (clove, wintergreen, nutmeg)
In addition to our flagship New Riff Bourbon and Rye, our distilling team has stretched their creative muscles over the years, producing a number of what we call "specialty whiskeys". Balboa Rye is one of the first specialties we made. Our corn farmer Charles Fogg has been growing heirloom rye on his family's farm for many years. His chosen variety was Balboa rye, an heirloom grain which dates back to the 1940s as a rye variety popular in Indiana. He offered it to us and we distilled it into rye whiskey, probably the first time in decades that Balboa has been made into whiskey and quite surely the only example on the market today.
