Balcones Texas Rye Cask Strength

Barrel No. 19998 Barrel pick by Spec's Age 2 years Bottled on 04-29-20 Open 5 months Smell: Malt with notes of chocolate coffee, stout, rye, dry wood, and charred marshmallow, plus potent ethanol. Taste: Flavors of ground coffee and cocoa, unsweetened dark chocolate, rye bread, hints of toffee, a massive hit of oak and ethanol. Lingering finish featuring dry, hot oak, rye spice, and ethanol. It might be too much heat and oak if you're not careful with your sips. My view of this changed a lot from the start until now. When I shared this with a friend, we both thought it might be the best thing we'd ever experienced. It reminded me of Brown Forman cask strength bourbon, just with a bit more rye bread, chocolate, and molasses. It was a definite 5/5. However, after it had been open for a few weeks, it transformed. The sweetness diminished, and it became much hotter, oakier, drier, and more grainy. All I get with every taste is cocoa beans, coffee grounds, and oak chips. I don't drink coffee, which I believe significantly impacts my perception. Even if you enjoy this kind of profile, the intensity and thickness will overpower your senses. This is the type of whiskey where you'll nurse a single glass for 45 minutes and likely not want another.

Alcohol content is 63.9%. The scent bursts from the glass with notes of brown sugar, molasses, hay, oats, barnyard funk, rye crisp, baker’s chocolate, damp earth, nutmeg, and sage. It's robust and intricate. The ethanol presence is surprisingly low... could this really be close to 128 proof? The taste mirrors the brown sugar, molasses, and chocolate from the aroma, plus orange peel, almond, tobacco, and woody tannins. A comforting warmth builds over time. However, there's a noticeable amount of unwelcome astringency. The finish is lengthy and potent, featuring caramel flan, spearmint, cinnamon sugar, black pepper, rye spice, leather, and mesquite wood. The mouthfeel is medium-bodied and oily, though with a slightly grainy texture. This is an intriguing spirit with many appealing qualities, but it's also quite unrefined. It doesn't resemble what one might expect from a rye, and while that's not inherently bad, it's not necessarily a positive for me. At $60, the value is certainly there; I only wish the overall experience was a bit smoother and more unified. It falls short of a repurchase at 3.75.

Intense coffee and malt dominate, with hints of bitter chocolate and dried fruit like raisins or prunes towards the end. The finish is hot. This single barrel select, bottled at 63.4% and purchased on sale for $29.99, was certainly worth that price and no more. It strongly resembles a coffee stout transformed into a spirit. It's a highly distinctive rye; one must truly enjoy coffee and chocolate profiles to appreciate this bottle, which isn't quite to my taste. While I usually drink pours neat, this one required an ice cube to mellow and become palatable, which was surprising. It would likely perform well in a cocktail, and I plan to find some chocolate or coffee old fashioned recipes to use up the remaining spirit.

A specialty bottling from a liquor store, bottled at 66% alcohol and aged for 42 months. The nose is dominated by chocolate and coffee, with surprisingly little ethanol given the 66% bottling. The palate is quite similar to the nose, featuring dark chocolate and coffee, with a finish that is slightly bitter, akin to drinking black coffee, and a hint of raspberry. There's a slight burn on the way down, but the finish leaves a lingering warmth in the throat. It's decent, but the chocolate/coffee notes are quite prominent and are essentially all I'm detecting. Perhaps it will grow on me, but at this moment, I likely won't purchase it again. Worth trying if you enjoy chocolate and coffee flavors.

Opened for 10 months Nose - Coffee, cocoa powder, toffee, molasses, rich stout malt, vanilla, strong oak, and ethanol. Palate - Light and subtle sweetness at the start, gingerbread, molasses, toasted rye, coffee cake, and wood pulp. The finish is long with coffee grounds, oak extract, rye baking spices, and moderate ethanol heat. A sample shared by a friend last Christmas. I lack barrel details for this, but it strongly resembles the previous Balcones Rye CS we shared. This isn't my typical preference, but I recognize it as a skillfully crafted, distinctive rye that many will appreciate.

I'm a big fan of their 100 proof rye because of its chocolate character. This cask strength expression amplifies all the tastes. It's an intense burst of oak, tannins, chocolate, and spice. A companion brought this along for a weekend excursion to the lake. We finished off most of the bottle. We both favored drinking it neat with a large ice cube, allowing it to gradually dilute and alter the flavors. The spice mellows with water, revealing more of that chocolate sweetness as the ice melts. Excellent spirit!