Review #253: Sagamore Reserve Series, 10 yr Rye Whiskey Batch 5A

MASH BILL: Blend of two MGP rye mash bills in an undisclosed ratio:

• 95% rye, 5% malted barley
• 52% rye, 43% corn, 5% malted barley

AGE: 10 yr

PROOF: 110.8

COST: $80 for 750mL bottle (South Carolina)

This is the oldest release by Sagamore Spirits to date. Even though it is sourced from MGP, one of the components is contracted distilled for Sagamore to their specs, so this does truly reflect the age of the distillery and is a notable milestone. I’ve also heard nothing but great things about this release! I don’t have an official count, but I bet it’s been mentioned to me as something I should try at least half a dozen times since it’s been released. It’s been on my list to try since it was released, but South Carolina is about as slow as molasses when it comes to new releases hitting our local shelves. Finally, in March I spotted a bottle locally, picked it up, and I’ve been enjoying the hell out of this bottle since! Time to review it.

Reviewed neat in a Glencairn.

APPEARANCE: Rich mahogany in color (1.6) with fat, oily legs.

NOSE: Quite a complex nose. I pick up a familiar cinnamon and rye spice with a hint of dill, but it’s completely absorbed in a confectionary sweetness with notes of powdered sugar, ripe cherries, brown sugar glazed peaches, and Crème Brulé. Going in for another whiff I get a little more earthiness with candied pecans, white pepper, and vanillin rich oak, but again more sweetness too with a deep, rich candied apricot. This needs to be made into a candle!

PALATE: The mouthfeel is wonderfully thick and syrupy on the palate. Dark, rich Luxardo cherry syrup, numbing black pepper and cinnamon powder, and dried rye berries arrive first. Varnished oak builds in. The sweetness turns even darker with heavily caramelized brown sugar, toasted vanilla beans, and grilled peaches with nice, charred bits. The black pepper spice holds consistently throughout the sip and into the finish. There is a slightly bitter, tannic note that makes me think Sagamore got all they could out of these barrels before the whiskey started to get too bitter.

FINISH: A medium length finish that leans more into the earth and spice profile. Charred oak, toasted cacao nibs, and black peppercorns. A little longer into the finish and a hint of sweetness comes in the form of a Luxardo cherry syrup and brown sugar reduction on the verge of burning.

RATING: 8.9/10

OVERALL: When I first sniffed this dram I immediately realized why people who read my reviews were suggesting I should try this bottle. My palate yearns for whiskey of this profile. It’s well known that MGP makes some really damn good rye whiskey, but Sagamore knocked it out of the park with this blend of two different mash bills to make a complex and balanced profile. The interplay between the two mash bills is executed very well. It has defined spice and punch from the 95/5 rye while showcasing wonderful fruity esters along with that creamy mouthfeel provided by the high corn Sagamore spec mash bill. I’ve enjoyed all double-digit age stated MGP rye whiskey I’ve had before. The extra years really help with the esterification process of MGP rye whiskey, which is a nod to the great yeast strain they use to help set up the distillate with some lovely congeners that bloom in the maturation process. Afterall, MGP’s yeast does stem from the shoulders of giants (Seagram’s). But this blend is something extra. I highly recommend picking up a bottle of this while it’s still around! While I look forward to trying Sagamore’s own distillate with a 10 year age statement at some point, this has set the bar high.

Behind the Bottle

What is Maryland Rye Whiskey? In the early years of the USA, rye whiskey was far more popular than bourbon. The volume of rye whiskey being produced was about 3x more than bourbon through most of the 1800s. While a majority was produced in Pennsylvania (Monongahela rye), Maryland became a very close second. Both regions offered two very different rye whiskey experiences. The Monongahela rye had mash bills with high rye components that packed a spicy punch. Meanwhile, Marylanders produced a rye whiskey with a smaller rye component and a substantial amount of corn for rye whiskey. Additionally, it wasn’t uncommon for Marylanders to inlcude other excess grains they had on hand in their mash bills for their rye whiskies such as wheat, oats, barley, etc. But the big corn component (generally about 1/3 of the mash bill) particularly helped create a softer, sweeter profile.

While Pennsylvania rye remained king, Maryland rye whiskey grew in popularity at a rapid rate in the late 1800s and into the early 1900s. Eric Zandona provides a great write up on the potential “why” behind this in his book The Atlas of Bourbon & American Whiskey.

The American Civil War had a lot of Union and Confederate soldiers traveling through Maryland, likely acquiring an affection for the sweeter Maryland style rye whiskey which stayed with them when they returned home.

A Baltimore based distillery operated a small distillery at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in celebration of the 100^th year of American independence. While this may not seem like a big deal, the exposition lasted for 6 months and roughly 10 million visitors attended the exposition. That’s a lot of people to introduce to Maryland style rye whiskey at the time considering the population of the USA was only about 40-50 million around then.

Whatever the cause, Maryland rye whiskey production went from 2.4M gallons a year in 1881 to about 5.6M gallons in 1912. Then it all came to a screeching halt for Prohibition, and it wasn’t really until the 2000s that Maryland style rye whiskey started being revived by distillers such as Sagamore Spirits.

Today, Maryland style rye whiskey is the same as it traditionally was: a legal rye whiskey with a big corn component to soften and balance the spice of the rye. However, there are two approaches to the process. One is using a single rye whiskey mash bill with a large corn component such as Heaven Hill’s Pikesville Rye, Leopold Bros. Maryland Style Rye, or the absolute genesis of the style in George Washington’s Rye Whiskey from the Mount Vernon Distillery. But the approach Sagamore Spirits is taking uses a blend of rye whiskey mash bills, one high rye, and one low rye.

This blending process was popularized for rye whiskey long ago and was considered to create a better product by having more flexibility to create balance in the final product. This process allows the focus in the fermentation and distillation of the high rye component to be different than the low rye component. In one, you are trying to achieve a spicy, sharp rye whiskey. In the other, you’re trying to obtain a smooth, sweet profile. Then by blending them, it gives the blender the control to balance them rather than trying to shoot for that balance throughout the production process of a single mash bill.

Rye whiskey is going through a bit of a renaissance today, and as they say, a rising tide lifts all ships. Since the category is on an upward trajectory, so are the different styles within the category: Monongahela rye, Empire rye, Maryland rye, and others – I feel like I’ve seen more of these styles advertised on bottles in the last year or two than I did previously. I’ve personally been bit by the rye whiskey bug lately and have been loving different rye whiskies I’ve picked up recently, but Maryland style rye just might be my favorite. If you want to get more into the details about Maryland style rye whiskey, check out this article by the Maryland Distillers Guild.

1 | Disgusting | see my 1/10 ratings

2 | Poor | see my 2/10 ratings

3 | Bad | see my 3/10 ratings

4 | Sub-par | see my 4/10 ratings

5 | Good | see my 5/10 ratings

6 | Very Good | see my 6/10 ratings

7 | Great | see my 7/10 ratings

8 | Excellent | see my 8/10 ratings

9 | Incredible | see my 9/10 ratings

10 | Perfect | see my 10/10 ratings