One of the big things going these days is finishing bourbons in casks that held other products. Purists have issues with this, but in my opinion, anything that enhances or adds flavors is not necessarily a bad thing. Angel’s Envy is the most well known of these “finished” bourbons and ryes. Basil Hayden’s has taken this finishing craze a step ahead by taking a rye and actually adding rum, in this case black strap rum, to the rye blend as opposed to finishing the rye in a rum cask. It will be interesting to see what this does to the product.
Not surprisingly, the nose explodes with molasses. If you were to hand me this blind, I might have a hard time to tell you that it was actually a rye. Being only 80 proof, there is very little, if any, astringency to the nose. The molasses is so overwhelming, it there is very little else to the nose.
First sip gives a fairly thin mouthfeel. Given the sweetness that dominated the nose, I guess I expected much more. The blended are 8 and 4 years, but it feels much younger. This is probably due to the rum that has been added. The molasses, as you can imagine, is the winner here, when it comes to flavors. This sweetness dominates. There is some slight pepper that you would expect from a rye towards the back, but it struggles to overcome the sweetness and simply can’t.
Finally, the finish. This is the first time that I think there may a whiskey product in this blend as there are some slight oak and grassy notes that hang for a little while but, disappointingly doesn’t last very long as the molasses continues it’s dominance.
I am all about some sweetness, but to call this a “Rum Finished” rye is a bit of a misnomer. It comes across as a rye finished black strap rum. However, after I did this taste, the first thing I thought was that with this sweetness, it would make a nice cocktail. I first thought an Old Fashioned, but there is already a sweetness with that. A Manhattan came to mind, but with dry vermouth as opposed to sweet since there is so much sweetness in the Basil Hayden’s Caribbean Reserve Rye,
I was right. It makes an excellent Manhattan. I will try it next in an Old Fashioned. The bottom line here is this is not a sipping rye. It may be a very nice gateway product for rum drinkers wanting to start in the whiskey world, but this will be a cocktail base for me going forward.
Basil Hayden's Caribbean Reserve Rye
2.9
Pros
- Very good cocktail liquor
- Gateway whiskey for rum drinkers
Cons
- Molasses bomb
- Singular flavor
- Very sweet