Age: 7-years & 6-months

Mash bill: 95/5 Rye/Malted Barley

Bottle Count: 156 bottles

Source: MGPi

Proof: 125.4 proof

Tasting Notes: Golden raisin, brown sugar and a little oak. The palate is syrupy with notes of star anise and cloves. There is a subtle herbal note but not minty. It's has a smoked meatiness too it that I haven't found in many rye whiskies. It drinks way under it's 125 proof. The finish is nice but the palate is the star of the show.

Story: In January, the Bourbon Community Roundtable (Breaking Bourbon, Bourbon Pursuit and myself) "BCR" made out way out to Colorado to visit Old Elk. This was only the third time we selected barrels as a group. What we found didn't disappoint! The heart of the Old Elk story starts with Master Distiller Greg Metze. Greg is the former Master Distiller of Midwest Grain Products Ingredients (MGPi). Calling him a "master" of the craft is an understatement. After spending a couple of days tasting and chatting with Greg you quickly realize that he's probably forgotten more about whiskey making then I will ever know or understand. All praise aside, Old Elk started at MGPi. They started by recruiting Metze to create a custom mash bill for their bourbon. With instructions to create a flavorful, smooth bourbon without sparing any expense Metze got creative.

Rye Whiskey. It’s a benchmark for others, but for us it’s an exceptional standard that we’ve achieved. Taste this knock-out rye, made up of 95 percent rye and 5 percent malted barley, and you’ll understand. After distilling and creating over 280 million bottles of world class rye whiskey, Greg Metze decided to put his decades of experience and passion into Old Elk’s Straight Rye Whiskey. The International Whisky Competition named it the Best American Rye Whiskey, but don’t just take their word for it, taste it for yourself

After creating the first Old Elk mash bill, the OE team worked on the bigger task. That was to pull Metze away from the company and distillery he'd been at for 38-years! Thankfully he saw the vision of the Old Elk team and joined them full time in 2017.

About: Old Elk is a new wave of distillers. They started by sourcing from MGP. They brought on Master Distiller, Greg Metze, as a consultant. Then, Greg moved on from MGP and joined Old Elk full-time as their Master Distiller. They now have a mix of sourced and distilled products. Old Elk produces around 150 barrels a year at their Fort Collins, CO location.