Old Overholt is a legacy Beam brand that has been around forever, a low-rye (likely 51 percent, but not disclosed) example of the style in keeping with the Kentucky tradition of rye whiskeys that have just enough rye content to qualify for the label. Old Overholt Bonded Rye Distillery: Beam Suntory ABV: 50% (100 proof) Price: $22.99 (although bizarrely, Total Wine is selling 750 ml of regular Old Overholt for $20.99, but 1L bottles for $16.99. The Rankings: All 6 Rye Whiskeys, Ranked From Worst to BestĦ. Entries were judged by how much we enjoyed them for whatever reason, not by how well they fit any kind of preconceived style guidelines. Rye whiskeys were judged completely blind by how enjoyable they were as individual experiences and given scores of 1-100, which were then averaged.
All rye whiskeys in this tasting were acquired directly from liquor stores in Georgia, with the exception of the Old Forester, which was a press sample. Pepper (32.99) missed the tasting by a few bucks, as they can’t reliably be had for less than $25. Please note, the $25 cutoff means certain mid-shelf brands such as Wild Turkey ($26.49), Redemption ($25.99), High West ($32.99), Jack Daniels ($29.99) or James E. Some of the bottles we used in the tasting were merely pints, but every brand on this list was available for $25 or less on Total Wine at the time of purchasing. This is a tasting of rye whiskeys, with a strict price limit of $25 or less for a 750 ml bottle. So let’s answer the question: With $25 in your pocket, what’s the absolute best bottle of rye whiskey you can buy? This mega-distillery doesn’t bottle its own products, but it sells its popular 95 percent rye whiskey at various ages to many different distilleries, including Bulleit, Dickel, High West, Templeton, Redemption and many others, who dilute, bottle and additionally age it as they see fit-some more affordably than others. As a result, the ultra-value stuff is especially sketchy and hard to reliably find-you can find tons of listings on Total Wine for obscure brands like “Darby’s Reserve” or “Deadwood Rye” but good luck actually finding those in person, or at a bar.Īnd then of course, there’s the elephant in the room when it comes to rye whiskey: MGP of Indiana. This is not to say that ultra-cheap (and probably blended with non-aged spirit) rye whiskeys don’t exist, but unlike in the world of bourbon, there really aren’t any major “ultra value” rye whiskey brands, coming from the biggest whiskey distilleries of note.
When it comes to rye, you just expect to pay a bit more. Something cheap in the rye world-say, Old Overholt or Rittenhouse-is still likely to cost you almost twice the price of the winner of our bottom shelf bourbon blind tasting, Very Old Barton. Today, the primary “bottom shelf” brands of rye-the kinds of bottles you’ll find in the wells of your average bars-simply command a higher dollar price as a result. There are fewer rye whiskey brands in general, and although rye was somewhat ignored during the beginning of the brown liquor revival, that only led to its premiumization later when more brands appeared. Bourbon’s spicier, cocktail-friendly cousin exists in a world of its own.įor starters, defining “cheap” or “bottom shelf” rye whiskey requires a more lenient starting point than in the world of bourbon. You’d be forgiven for assuming that the rye whiskey landscape is basically the same as the bourbon landscape, but the two are more different than initially might meet the eye-and it’s not just the mashbills that separate them. Click here to view all entries in the series.
#BULLEIT BOURBON VS WHISKEY PIG SERIES#
This list is part of a Paste series of bottom shelf liquor and craft beer style tastings.
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