(rī)¹ Rye Whiskey – Review

(rī)¹ Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey

92 Proof

Price Point: $45 – $55 for 750 ML

Distiller: Jim Beam

Background

I’ll tell you what – few whiskey brands are as elusive as (rī)¹.  Yep, you read that name right, I didn’t just lean on the keyboard.  That is a parenthesis, a lower-case “r”, an “i” with a line above it, another parenthesis, and a superscript “1”.  They’ve got some “creative” marketing guys, huh?  Needless to say, (rī)¹ considers itself an ultra-premium rye whiskey.  It even says it on the bottle!  Oh brother…

All kidding aside, the ridiculous name and the unique bottle shape is what originally drew my wife and I to this whiskey.  The price repelled me a bit, but I ended up receiving my bottle as a gift from her.  So in all fairness, the marketing worked and got us to take the first step and make the purchase.  But will we buy again?

Review

Rye is clearly the focus of this whiskey on the nose, as it should be.  I’ll admit it right here – I’m not a big fan of rye whiskey.  I struggle to find all of the intricacies of a Scotch or bourbon in a whiskey made predominantly with rye.  Likewise, I struggle to pick up much more than rye on the nose of this particular whiskey.

The taste of (rī)¹ is actually really good.  Lots of spice and a good amount of oak involved.  Much more pleasant to me than other rye whiskeys.

There’s a good length on the finish, carrying over a lot of the spice from the initial taste.

Rating & Recommendations

(rī)¹ is a decent rye whiskey, one that I would suggest trying at least once.  I give this brand a rating of 80 out of 100.

The bottle suggests enjoying on the rocks or with a cocktail, but I’d rather have something like this neat.

(rī)¹ is an interesting whiskey; one that I wasn’t sure about until I tried it.  I’m not sure it’s worth the price, but at the very least, it ‘s a conversation piece for your whiskey collection.

-Ryan