Sunday Evening Review

Rye not review a rye today? (Okay I will stop right away before it gets out of hand) Today I pull out Rabbit Hole Boxergrail rye and see what I find at the bottom of said rabbit hole.

Make sure you put in the comments any bottles that you would like me to review.

NAME – Boxergrail Kentucky Straight Rye

PROOF – 95

AGE – No age statement but rumored at 3 years

COLOR – rose gold (1.2 chestnut, oloroso sherry on the Whiskey Magazine Color Chart)

NOSE – Fresh fruit cocktail with grapes, peaches, blueberries and strawberries, brown sugar, vanilla crème, hint of herbal

TASTE – Sweet toasted oak paired with rye spice, brown sugar sweetness, still summer fruits but not as outspoken as in the nose, earthy tones and then some vanilla to round it out.

FINISH – I would call this a medium finish. The rye spice lingers the longest but you have the toasted oak and vanilla also stick around a little bit.

REVIEW – For a 95% rye you are expecting either a mint field or peppery spicy dram. There is a little but it is mingled nicely with fruity sweetness along with the brown sugar and vanilla. The toasted oak note also give a solid footing to let the other notes do their thing. To be honest I usually like barely legal ryes that are in the low 50% rye in the mash bill. Most 95% get too much of herbal or peppery for me and doesn’t allow other taste profiles a chance to round out the whiskey. This one is surprising and is a really well balanced rye that still have rye notes in it but give room for the other tasting notes.

FINAL COMMENTS – Boxergrail name comes from the Louisville boxing culture (Muhammed Ali creates that almost by himself). There are gyms all over the city that have taken underdeveloped talent and have turned them into champions. “Turning average joes into prizefighting world champions,” is what they say at Rabbit Hole.

One of the processes that Rabbit Hole does is they toast barrels for 20 minutes before doing the charring process. They believe that it coaxes more wood sugars and other flavors from the wood. They get their barrels from the Kelvin Cooperage.

Boxergrail name comes from the Louisville boxing culture (Muhammed Ali creates that almost by himself). There are gyms all over the city that have taken underdeveloped talent and have turned them into champions. “Turning average joes into prizefighting world champions,” is what they say at Rabbit Hole.

One of the processes that Rabbit Hole does is they toast barrels for 20 minutes before doing the charring process. They believe that it coaxes more wood sugars and other flavors from the wood. They get their barrels from the Kelvin Cooperage.