New Riff Maltster Bottled in Bond Bourbon Review

Corrected December 15, 2020

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B+

Covington’s New Riff Distillery has carved out quite a name for themselves in recent years. They started with the excellently curated OKI series of sourced bourbon, and then wow’ed the enthusiasts and critics with their inaugural releases of bonded bourbon and rye whiskeys. They’ve continued to build on that momentum. It’s an impressive showing from a group of people who, as New Riff co-founder Jay Erisman put it to me once, “had never made whiskey before” (true, although they got some good advice from Larry Ebersold, the former Master Distiller of what became MGP).

The folks at New Riff weren’t exactly novices, though. Even today, veteran whiskey-making hands are in short supply, and most recruits come from either other spirits industries or from craft brewing. Drawing on the latter base of experience, New Riff put together a pair of new expressions that use on malted grains other than the usual barley (that most often relied upon for breaking down grain starches into sugar and not as a flavoring element) to take their flavor profile in a different direction.

In the case of Maltster Bourbon, they made the most unusual choice of making a malted wheat bourbon. Although not unheard of — Cedar Ridge has a malted wheat whiskey and Woodford Reserve used some malted wheat in its Distiller’s Select Five Malt — it’s still an unorthodox choice. This whiskey uses 65% corn, 18% Bohemian malted wheat and the remainder a mix of two unmalted wheat varietals, with no barley at all. This was aged in standard 53-gallon barrels and bottled in bond.

The Bourbon
This wheated bourbon has a light amber coloring in the glass, and a scent that smacks of a caramel candy seasoned with mint and dill, speared and served on a sliver of cedarwood. A sip takes that caramel candy and wraps it up with buttery cinnamon toast, and the wooden serving item becomes a oaken ladle. The finish is a light one, but leaves long, lingering traces of cinnamon and wood.

The Price
It may be hard to find and officially costs just $50, but–based on what I’m seeing with online retailers–a bottle of Maltster Bourbon should run you $65.