Painted Stave Bottled in Bond Rye Whiskey Review

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B

Painted Stave Bottled in Bond Rye
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

A couple of months ago, I was at an event sponsored by a whiskey club and asked to give a few impromptu remarks. I decided to address my notion of Craft Whiskey 2.0, and was later asked about a feature of that concept: the gaining maturity of whiskey made by small distillers, best exemplified by the numerous bonded whiskeys around nowadays. “But those aren’t from little distilleries, are they? More like New Riff. I’ve been there. They aren’t small.”

No, New Riff Distilling in Newport, Kentucky isn’t small; I call them a mid-sized distiller. And they produce a lot of bonded whiskeys. But they also aren’t a craft distiller and don’t claim to be. Delaware’s Painted Stave, on the other hand, is a small distiller, and they have transitioned from their Diamond State Straight Rye completely into the older Painted Stave Bottled in Bond Rye. The precursor, younger version isn’t available for sale anymore.

Painted Stave does its business with a 250-gallon hybrid pot still made by Vendome. The mash bill for this rye is said to be inspired by the Maryland style, and is somewhat different from that of the earlier version Diamond State, being 70% rye, 25% corn and 5% malted barley. It is aged in 30-gallon barrels charred to level 4.

The Whiskey
The color of the Painted Stave Rye is an amber that leans hard into red. The scent shows a foundation of molasses and toffee, accented by a leathery, pumpernickel character. That pumpernickel side lightens up quite a bit on the palate, but the toffee and molasses are there, along with some vanilla. On the back end, some ash is stirred into the flavor. The finish takes that rising, closing note and runs with it, turning to dry and toasted wood.

This Delaware-made rye is an easy drinking whiskey, but one that shows some complexity. Rye fans in particular should enjoy the fact that it is a full step removed from the sweeter Kentucky-style ryes or the overtly dry MGP-derived products. Moreover, the price (see below) is very reasonable.

The Price
A bottle of this whiskey will set you back a $42.