Elijah Craig is giving its straight rye whiskey the toasted treatment.
On Wednesday, the Heaven Hill brand announced the latest addition to its family of whiskies: Elijah Craig Toasted Rye. This expression arrives four years after the release of the Kentucky brand’s Toasted Barrel Bourbon, which quickly became a crowd-favorite among VinePair staff and ranked among the top 10 bottles on our list of the Best Spirits of 2022.
The brand’s namesake was the first distiller to use charred oak barrels in bourbon production — a practice that’s now mandatory in the spirits category. To make this new expression, Elijah Craig’s distillers pour the brand’s fully matured, barrel-proof straight rye whiskey into toasted, new-oak barrels. The producers then place a cap on the freshly toasted barrels to heat up the liquid and maximize the barrel’s influence, adding a slight touch of smoke to the finished product. Given that the second barrel in the process is both new and charred, the spirit retains its status as Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey.
“The custom toasted barrel from our partners at Independent Stave Company takes an already world-class whiskey and adds in a dessert-like bouquet of flavors,” Elijah Craig group product director Max Stefka said in a press release. “From the moment our tasting panel tried Elijah Craig Toasted Rye through our ongoing innovation process, we knew this expression was going to be special.”
The expression is crafted with a mashbill of 51 percent rye, 35 percent corn, and 14 percent malted barley — the primary Kentucky rye grain blend since the end of Prohibition. According to the press release, the new Toasted Rye is a marriage of rye spice and charred barrel sweetness carrying rich aromas of almonds, hazelnuts, and crème brûlée leading into notes of baking spices and milk chocolate on the palate.
Elijah Craig Toasted Rye will be a highly allocated release, and is slated to be nationally available by late July at an SRP of $54.99.