Bulleit 20 Year Old Rye Whiskey Review

By Richard Thomas

Rating: A

Bulleit Rye was one of the most serendipitous, if not to say luckiest, brand extensions of its time. Introduced in 2011, the 95 proof rye came out only a little ahead of the Rye Craze and Crunch of 2011-12. Although I’m sure a brand like Bulleit, owned by the British drinks goliath Diageo, was guided first in foremost by market research, no one I expected the magnitude of what was coming. I know, because I was writing at the time. Driven in large part by the trend for pre-Prohibition cocktails, even staples like Wild Turkey 101 Rye were swept off store shelves. When Knob Creek introduced a rye, it commanded double the price of Knob Creek Small Batch for its first few years. Whatever the industry was expecting, what it got came as a shock.

The year of Bulleit Rye’s introduction was long before the brand had even its brand base at the defunct Stitzel-Weller Distillery, nevermind its modern distillery in Shelbyville, Kentucky. In those days, both the bourbon and the rye were sourced. The former was based on the high-rye bourbon stocks of Four Roses, while the later came from the widely used resource of MGP’s (then known as LDI) 95% rye mash whiskey. At the time, the only spicier rye whiskey source came from Canada. The combination of the spicy 95% rye mash flavor, relatively low price, availability and the distribution that came from Bulleit/Diageo made Bulleit Rye a winner.

To mark the recently passed 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Bulleit released a 20 year old version of the whiskey (or more accurately, 1,776 bottles of it). Not only is it ultra-aged, but bottled at a cask strength of 137 proof. This is markedly older than any bottle of rye released by Bulleit before, with the previous top rung occupied by a 12 year old.

The Whiskey
This stuff is a hair’s breadth removed from Hazmat status, and an ultra-aged example of a whiskey already known for a dry, spicy character. One whiff was enough to tell me to put some water in, but even with that the coloring held at medium amber.

The nose carries something like gingerbread smeared with fig filling (as in Fig Newtons), seasoned heavily with cloves and nutmeg. The palate adds shavings of dried apricot into the fig filling and a drizzle of vanilla, as well as a back end that smacks of the aftertaste that follows when someone has burned too much smudge stick in a room. To top it all off, it’s quite dry, and if you let it linger on your tongue a peppery note develops. That dryness and pepper is what comes with the finish, before turning into the kind of deeply tannic tea sans astringency I wish I could find with consistency.

In summary, take the best aspects of Bulleit Rye, build them up to the Nth degree, and add some complexity for good measure. At the asking price, you would be a fool not to buy a bottle (or two). The problem, however, is…

The Price
The MSRP for this bottle is $290, but I doubt anyone will actually pay that amount. Even with the Bourbon Boom over, prices for 20 year old bottles and limited production runs remain high.