Whiskey Advent Calendar Tasting: Blinking Owl California Straight Rye Whiskey

This is part of my series on tasting notes from the 2021 Drinks By The Dram Bourbon Advent Calendar.

Whiskey for December REPLACE, 2021: Blinking Owl California Straight Rye Whiskey

The distillery

We've already talked about Blinking Owl on the first day of tasting.

The whiskey

Tonight's whiskey is a rye from Blinking Owl Distillery. Like all of their spirits this is made from 100% California sourced grains. Like their 4 grain bourbon we've already tasted we get a mash bill of "Rye, Wheat, Malted Barley" but no percentages. Not very helpful, other than to signal they're organic grains from California. Thanks, guys. We do know it's at least 51% rye, since it's labelled as a rye whiskey and not, say, an American whiskey.

Blinking Owl offers these tasting notes:

This rye drinks much more mature than its age showcasing notes of spicy grain, caramel, baking spices and is complex and bold on the pallette (sic).

Blinking owl also lets us know this is aged for at least 2 years in new charred white oak barrels. Of course their labelling of "straight rye" also tells us it's been aged for two years. The barrel selection is very reminiscent of a bourbon and not a strict requirement for rye whiskey.

Look

Lovely golden and coppery colors that swirls well into a long wobble. The glycerine is sticky and resists making legs.

Nose

Sweet and floral. I actually get roses on the nose along with fruit, rye and oak. It's quite the unique smell. There's a modest amount of alcohol in the smell too and maybe some cinnamon hiding in the background.

Taste

The taste starts sweet and brown sugary, and rye spice blooms with the alcohol opening up some grassy notes, cinnamon, and finishes with a little pepper and lasting rye funk. A good, if simple, rye. It feels a bit hot with the alcohol leaving me a bit tingly in the lips and tongue.

After water

After a little water the nose is consistent, but the floral elements more muted. It has less rose and more fruit, but the amount of alcohol in the nose remains fairly strong. I start to be able to pick out specific fruits like raspberries among the overall nose.

Adding water flattens out the flavor a lot. It remains somewhat sweet with notes of caramel and oak. The rye is lessened, and we lose the grassy notes and are left with a little rye spice/black pepper. The finish clings a little to our rye funk, but the length of the finish drops off now. It also tastes less hot, so the alcohol burn is much more manageable now. The cost it pays here might be too high though.

Summary

I like this more than Blinking Owls Four Grain Bourbon, that I already tasted, but I'm not going to go so far as to recommend it. It's simple and decent, but I could probably rattle off half a dozen budget rye options that I think are better, especially given the price tag, which seems to run around 60 bucks.