Northern Kentucky’s New Riff Unveils Its Oldest Bourbon Yet

New Riff Distilling has announced the release of its 8 Year Old Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, the distillery’s oldest bourbon yet released and an unprecedented “first fruit” of initial whiskeys set back for further aging. Available beginning today, March 8th—a nod to the age of the whiskey—this addition is the newest installment to New Riff’s core product lineup.

A new riff on a coveted classic, this 8-year-old expression of New Riff’s award-winning flagship bourbon is bottled without chill filtration at 100 proof with a mashbill of 65% corn, 30% rye and 5% malted barley.

“As much acclaim as we have received from the bourbon community for our 4-year-old, bottled-in-bond and single barrel offerings, we knew the real excitement would come from genuinely older whiskey,” said co-founder Jay Erisman. “And here it is — the beginning of the future and the next wave of New Riff. Oaky flavors throughout are richer yet, importantly, not at all tannic or drying. Rather, the freshness evident here is exceptional, suggesting a barrel of New Riff bourbon at 8 years old has a long life of aging ahead of it.”

While known for their commitment to bottled-in-bond standards, Erisman said New Riff made the difficult but necessary decision to waive that status for this release, focusing on a wider distribution network than previous specialty releases. Despite meeting all other requirements of a bonded whiskey, due to the comparatively small production from the earliest years of New Riff, this release blends bourbons from two distilling seasons aged a minimum of 8 years.

“New Riff remains entirely committed to producing bottled-in-bond whiskey,” Erisman said. “Ongoing production and future releases at younger ages will absolutely continue with our groundbreaking paradigm of Bottled-In-Bond Without Chill Filtration.”

New Riff 8-Year-Old Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey has a suggested retail price of $67.99.