By Richard Thomas
Rating: B-
A little background about Broken Barrel before we get to their Heresy Rye. This story starts with Seth Benhaim, who started his own liquor company with Infuse Spirits in 2012, at age 29. As the name implies, that company was about a line of infused vodkas. Benhaim built on that company by starting Broken Barrel Whiskey.
Drawing on whiskey sourced from Owensboro, Kentucky, Benhaim also collected an assortment of other barrels and casks for secondary maturation (“finishing”). However, instead of transferring the whiskey to these casks, he instead broke the casks up and inserted their staves into the existing barrels. This is similar to the stave inserts that were the basis of Maker’s 46 and the expanded private barrel program built on that bourbon, although more direct: the story is that Broken Barrel literally takes an axe to their old barrel stock, so their inserts are literally from broken barrels.
Heresy Rye is a 95% rye, 5% malted barley, Owensboro-made straight rye whiskey. The inserts were 40% ex-bourbon barrel bits, 40% new French oak fragments, and 20% Sherry cask splinters. It’s bottled at 105 proof.
The Whiskey
To my nose, the extra wood stock sang on this rye. The scent yielded a solid current of oak, but also cinnamon grahams, green apples and vanilla. Sipping on the whiskey gave a similar flavor, albeit with a trace of astringency tied onto the woody current. The finish ran briefly with apples and wood.
The Price
The price on this youthful rye with the interesting combination of wooden inserts is approximately $35.