Wigle Oaxaca Rye

Wigle Oaxaca Rye Wigle is a whiskey company based in Pittsburgh, PA. This is my first time trying their products, but I have heard many good things. With the increase in new distilleries, it's difficult to keep up with all the new Rye whiskies I see entering the market. This one stood out because they used Mezcal barrels for finishing. Once I heard about this, I had to seek it out. Here's what Wigle has to say – this is a description from their site: "Oaxaca Rye combines two regional spirit traditions – Pennsylvania Rye and Oaxaca Mezcal. We reached out to a small distillery in Oaxaca to partner on this project. The 5th-generation family Wahaka Distillery reminds us of Wigle in many ways, and they were excited to trade barrels. They sent us used espadin Mezcal barrels, and we sent them our used Rye Whiskey barrels. The first time we tried this exchange, the Mezcal barrels were stolen in Austin! Fortunately, our second attempt worked, and we were able to transfer our Straight, 2-year-old Monongahela Rye Whiskey into their Mezcal barrels for another year of aging. The resulting Whiskey has a soft, herbal smoke that reveals its time and contact with spicy mezcal oak." Details – 40% ABV. 65% Rye, 13% Malted Barley, 12% Wheat The aroma is full of cinnamon and cheap Fireball whisky. The taste is interesting – but too heavy on the artificial candied cinnamon, like Atomic Fireball. Spicy rye with menthol and hot cinnamon, and maybe some ash. I'm not really getting much of the mezcal smoke, but the drying ash is there. It almost gives you immediate cottonmouth. I have never tasted anything quite like this. It has some of the rye characteristics you expect from Rye, and I'll give them some credit for that bit of ash, but this is really pretty awful. The finish is quite long; the rye and dill spice lingers for a long time, along with some of that Atomic Fireball taste lingering too long. This is a pretty wild Rye whisky. At first, you think it drinks hot for such a low ABV, but it's not hot; it's just really spicy. Dill, Rye, Cinnamon, and Fireball all contribute to this intensity. This thing is such a crazy and wild whisky. While I appreciate the wacky side of whisky sometimes, this is not something I can get behind. It's essentially a craft version of shitty ass Fireball. At $70, this pushes me even further away. Overall Grade: D

The most fascinating whiskey I've encountered. The spicy rye combined with vegetal mezcal notes are difficult to describe, and you should experience it yourself.