FEW 2017 Straight Rye Whiskey | 4 Year Old | Sauternes Finish | Berry Bros

Straight Rye Whiskey
Bottled By: Berry Bros & Rudd 70cl / 57.6%

Despite the trappings of their status as the UK's oldest wine merchant - the 17th century premises next door to Prince Charles's gaff, the cavernous cellars stuffed with ancient claret, the unlimited yardage of tweed - Berry Bros & Rudd remain defiantly innovative, with spirits head honcho Doug McIvor always happy to bottle curious experimental casks that happen to cross his desk - as long as they meet his quality standards.

You won't find many more experimental outfits than craft distillers FEW Spirits, who make urban whiskey and gin down a back alley in one of Chicago's suburbs. This Berry Bros FEW 2017 vintage straight rye whiskey was aged for three years in American oak before a further year in a Sauternes wine cask for extra honeyed fruit flavours and has been bottled at its potent natural cask strength of 57.6%.

Attributes

Official Tasting Notes

American Rye Whiskey with a year’s secondary maturation in an ex-Sauternes barrel; what a combination!

Nose: The nose offers up sweet, sticky notes of peaches in syrup and dried apricot balanced against a more savoury spicey note akin to fresh rye bread, very unusual and equally enticing.

Palate: The palate is huge with zaps of spicey rye tempered by sweet fruity notes from the wood, flavours of marmalade, dark chocolate, pineapple and black pepper - incredible.

Finish: Sweetness and spice continue to mingle on the finish leaving one in need of another sip or two to figure out exactly what just came out of that glass.

Doug McIvor Says

“Few’s founder, Paul Hletko, was inspired to build a distillery in honour of his grandfather who lost his brewery to the Nazis during WW2. This was not an easy task to undertake in this part of Illinois given that it was the historic home of temperance but his legal training and persistence rewarded him when he overturned several regulations allowing him to commence production in 2011. Few products are multi award winning artisanal whiskies made with passion and pride.”