WhistlePig Creates Classic American Rye
Rye, the backbone of the original recipes for the Manhattan, Sazerac, and Old Fashioned, spent much of the last few decades losing ground to bourbon and Tennessee whiskey. Now, the most American of liquors – George Washington distilled the stuff at Mount Vernon – is having a resurgence, thanks to a modern mix of nostalgia and craft. One of the leaders of the rye charge is Raj Peter Bhakta, who founded WhistlePig in 2007 on a farm near the shores of Lake Champlain in Vermont. His goal: Establish the nation's first "farm to bottle" single-estate distillery.
And he's making progress. Though the whiskey currently bottled on the WhistlePig premises is distilled in western Canada, all production takes place under the auspices of legendary whiskey distiller Dave Pickerell, who, after a 14-year run at Maker's Mark, chose in 2008 to focus on a less-heralded spirit. The inaugural batch of WhistePig 100/100 was introduced in 2010. 'Wine Enthusiast' gave it a 96, its highest score to date for an American whiskey. Similar accolades followed.
What makes a rye like WhistlePig so spectacular is, well, the rye. Technically, one can blend a 51% proportion of rye with corn or other grains and still call the whiskey rye (the same quotient applies to bourbon, with corn being the majority component). WhistlePig's 100/100 is 100% rye, which leads to a more assertive and complex flavor devoid of the sweetness carried by corn.
Another factor in high-end rye production is the attention to aging. Ten years minimum in a barrel is required, but many mass whiskey producers age both their bourbon and rye in the same barrels, resulting in a conflation of flavors that compromises both products. The finest producers of rye, including WhistlePig, produce only rye, in limited amounts, insuring the flavor is not informed by disparate elements. It's American rye – simple as that. [$80; drinkupny.com]