Wednesday, May 12, 2021

Whistle Pig

To the tune of Baby Shark: “Whistle Pig, doo doo doo doo doo doo”!

Whistle Pig (WP) does almost exclusively rye whiskey so it’s going to be rye rye rye this review. Others did better job at summarizing the distillery in plenty of google-able places… like this one for example: https://www.thespruc … hiskey-review-761532. I’m going to skip re-treading their steps and concentrate on what I got. Also, I’ve had written down a WP sample prior, here: https://www.aerin.or … y:entry200810-152436 but there must have been something off with that one. Another note to be had is that WP sources their rye either from Canada or US depending on the bottle. I believe most of mine are sourced from Canada though. Also as most reviews below will be for single cask releases the big bold “Single Cask Disclaimer” applies. As a side note, I’m very picky at my rye whiskey choices so my opinion is as always my own.

Whistle Pig 17.5 SiB, K&L SP. Swine Merchants #20201, 56.3%
Well this is a fun start and it comes with a story:

On rare occasions funny things happen in whiskey warehouses. Barrels are overlooked or just never find the right distillery release to be blended in. Maybe they’re too tucked away and never get sampled? It’s not clear what happened to this lot of 4 barrels, but word from the distillery is that they were tagged for the 10 year single barrel program ages ago. Like at least 7 long years ago. Somehow we managed to get a sample lineup of four barrels numbered 20200, 20201, 20209, 20212. They were all filled on the same day from the same batch of distillate - February 28th, 2003. They were rolled away and there they sat. It wasn’t until October 28th, 2020 that they were pulled out to be bottle exclusively for K&L. Officially labeled as the “10 Year Old Single Barrel” these are distillery confirmed distillation and bottle dates but do not appear on the bottle.

So what do we get? Color is dark but it’s not too viscous in the glass, contrary to the expected age. Nose meanders between subdued and overwhelming with alcohol and sweet rye and is rather menthol and eucalyptus forward. The palate is sweet menthol eucalyptus with healthy dollop of wood mixed in. The aftertaste is woody, spicy and not too sweet (or my palate is totally overwhelmed). A bit of water cuts back the bitterness and brings back woody and decently balanced eucalyptus for some relief. Overall I do quite enjoy it, I feel it may be just on the edge of being over-barreled due to the delicate original spirit flavor and blindly I would never guess it to be anywhere near 17 years of age. Is it worth trying? Resounding yes! Is it worth buying? Also probably a ‘yes’, depending on how much one likes or dislikes rye. Though for me a few drops of water will go a long way with it. It won’t break anyone’s mind (or wallet at $90) but it’s a solid value proposition with a reasonably unique offering.
Score: B

Whistle Pig 17.5 SiB, K&L SP. Swine Merchants #20209, 56%
Sister cask to one above. Read the story there. :) Same deal. Nose is roughly same as 201 above too, alcohol, menthol, eucalyptus, wood. Palate feels little bit better balanced and thus slightly more interesting it still meanders between eucalyptus wood, spices, and sweetness. Aftertaste is tiny bit sweeter and less bitter, but… It could be because it’s a freshly opened bottle, or could be better balance in this cask. Provisionally, I prefer this cask a little bit more vs the other one, though they are fairly close to each other. Very much worth trying out though don’t spend money on secondary for it, plenty of other bottles in the sea.
Score: B+

Whistle Pig 14, Single Cask Nation, Rum & Vermouth Finish, 50%
A Single Cask Nation bottle of Whistle Pig rye, finished in Rum and Vermouth casks. Looks like this is MGP rye. Color me excited. https://www.cellartr … ne.asp?iWine=3748358. Nose is rye spice, eucalyptus, some mint, herbs. I can keep my nose in there for quite a while. Amazing complexity of flavors. Wow! Just wow! Sweet fruit followed by herbal ball of flavor followed up by.. more sweet fruit? Aftertaste herbal, sweet, little bit of mgp spice coming through with slight wood notes following up at the very tail-end. Mellow and amazing, though I wish the aftertaste was a touch longer. My only real complaint here is that it really needs to be a 10-15 proof points higher.
Across the board this is straight up amazing stuff. Dessert-like herbal rye? This is up my wheelhouse, surprisingly. But then again… Old Potrero did a solid on me. This joins the very VERY short list of amazing lower proofed stuff that I’d heavily consider shelling out for. Beam Distiller’s Masterpiece being the other one: https://www.aerin.or … y:entry201212-193013, and perhaps Shenks 2020. Solid score with a very reluctant minus for shorter aftertaste and lower proof; and I guess price/availability this being a single cask bottling that’s unlikely to be repeated.
Score: A-

Whistle Pig 14, Single Cask Nation, Tokaji Finish, 57.7%
The other face of the two Single Cask Nation Whistle Pig bottles. This one finished in Tokaji wine cask. Tokaji wines are from Hungarian Tokaj region, with large number of them being of a sweet variety. Whether or not this particular bottling was in sweet or dry wine casks is unknown to me. Nose is *very* oak and rye forward. Somewhat reminds me of Masterson’s Hungarian Oak finished rye. Some alcohol, really pleasant overall though with oak, rye, and alcohol balancing each other. Palate, oh boy this is rye and red wine. Quite drying on the palate the red berries and european red orchard fruits are quite prominent. Blackberries, currants, cherries, plums, what a mouthful of flavor!!! In the long aftertaste some rye comes forward but the red wine and oak mostly dominates here. Yet again well balanced and really enjoyable making me want more. Now… To grade this is difficult… since one really much like red wine AND rye to truly enjoy it. Overall I do like it but it’s not what I would have expected out of a rye bottling, similarly to the one above. The two bottlings couldn’t be more different in their flavors, yet staying together like different sides of the same coin. Thoroughly enjoyable overall.
Score: A-

Whistle Pig 15, Bitters & Bottles Pick, 114.9 proof
Super quick blurb since I lost my previous ramblings by forgetting to save. Plenty of pine resin and rye notes come forward on the nose and palate. Aftertaste gets more mint, sweetness, rye and yet again pine. Delicious, full of flavor and quite balanced. I like this particular bottle overall. It does go slightly bitter in the glass after sitting open for a while. I wish it didn’t; thus a minus.
Score: B+

Whistle Pig 13, K&L Pick, 59.2%
A 13 year WP single cask… I wonder how it compares to the others… Rye and light dill on the nose that’s a little bit alcohol forward. Personally, the nose isn’t too well balanced so far. That palate is very alcohol forward, though once the alcohol fades the flavors are reasonably tasty and balanced. Creamy mouthfeel with sugar, rye bread and some more dill, but oooh that first sip is rough. Slight lack of secondary flavors on the palate is noticeable, especially once the aftertaste starts coming up in a wave and that middle dip is very obvious. I really like the aftertaste on this one with more warming alcohol, rye, dill and vanilla caramel. Light sweet mint in the back of the throat lasts for a while too. Wood is felt throughout, but doesn’t overwhelm as may be the case with the 17’s above. Overall… for a rye drinker I think this would be quite incredible cask proof. For me… It’s okay drinker, I’m not wow’ed nor am I offended. Water cuts the alcohol somewhat allowing other flavors to shine. Praise where praise is due… It doesn’t evoke the wow factor from me , yet this is one of the better light regular rye whiskeys I’ve had. Considering that I highly prefer malted or finished ryes for my own palate that’s really high praise. Essentially this is great example of what light rye should be. Well worth having for a rye-loving drinker, or trying for a general whiskey drinker, if one can find this… Considering this is long gone… Good luck.
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1405706
Score: B+

Scoring Breakdown: https://www.aerin.or … age=scores_breakdown