Jaywalk Bonded Rye Whiskey

Newly available in the UK from Allen Katz and Bill and Tom Potter’s Brooklyn-based Jaywalk distillery, Jaywalk Rye is unusual in two respects. Firstly, it uses a balanced mash bill comprising 75% rye, 13% corn and 12% malted barley, where most ryes will either go all in with 95-100% rye or employ the legal minimum of 51%. Secondly, and perhaps critically, it uses both Field Race, a locally grown rye, and Horton, an heirloom variety unused for over a century that gives a smaller but far more flavourful yield. It took the distillery over 13 years of testing and refinements to bring the crop to the point of commercial viability, a labour of love that’s paid off in the exceptional depth, complexity and balance of the whiskey. Equally at home as a sipper or adding a spicy kick to an Old Fashioned. Aged for 7 years in new oak and bottled-in-bond at 50% abv.

Rich vanillas, forest fruits and cracked black pepper on the nose entice into to a palate of complex baking spices and ripe, summer fruit, with butter toffees, cocoa powder and more fruity spice on the finish.