Putnam Rye & Putnam Rye Red Wine Barrel Finish

Putnam Straight Rye & Putnam Straight Rye Red Wine Barrel Finish

In honor of Father’s Day, the next review is for Putnam Rye made by Boston Harbor Distillery.  I first had this bottle when my wife took me to the distillery for a tasting on my first Father’s Day after my oldest was born.  The distillery makes an array of ryes, rums, gins and liqueurs. More recently, I was back at the distillery for a work (read: the day job) event and I picked up another bottle of the rye along with a red wine cask finished version. On the 6 year(ish) Father's Day anniversary of my first visit, I thought it appropriate to do a double tasting of the two ryes. 

Mash bill of 95% Rye with 5% Two Row Malted Barley

ABV: 50% (both)

How it smells….(Rye) some of that rye haystacks, orange rinds, cinnamon….(Red Wine Finished) flatter on the nose, some oak, a bit musty

How it tastes…(Rye) lightly cinnamon on the start followed by citrus, ending sweeter, and finishing with some big cinnamon notes just sitting on your tongue….(Red Wine Finished) the sip starts off mild and really doesn’t kick off until the end, strange as that sounds, but then you get a bit of that drying red wine taste, finishing with cinnamon and some raisins.

Price….$50 (Rye), $70 (Finished Rye)

Rating...🥃🥃🥃 (Rye), 🥃🥃 (Finished Rye)....combined: 🥃🥃🥃🥃

Final thoughts…Overall, the Straight Rye was an easy sipper.  Not too complex, but it had some nice flavors.  Interestingly enough, it tastes how it smells, which isn’t always the case.  There was much more cinnamon spice than traditional rye spiciness, which is surprising for a 95% rye grain in the mash bill.  The Red Wine Finished Rye was also a very easy sipper, more mellow up front with a delay before the flavor begins to kick in.  Once it gets going, there’s a lot of red wine flavors and mouthfeel and the finish is similarly strong in cinnamon but with some raisin flavor as well.

I don’t do this much, but I mixed the two together and it actually created a really nice blend.  The Straight Rye’s up front flavors matched well with the Finished Rye’s back end flavor, creating a well rounded sip.  Separately, I think 3x 🥃 is appropriate for the Rye and a 2x 🥃 for the Red Wine Finished.  The latter’s lower rating is based on the price point, the whiskey was fine.  But when mixed together, I found the two complemented each other quite well and the flavor deserves 4x 🥃.