Two Souls Spirits Wisconsin Rye Whiskey Finished in a Rum Cask
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146.96 proof | initially aged 8 years in #3 char virgin oak | straight rye which was finished in a rum barrel: 95% rye; 5% barley, distilled by Yahara Bay Distillers, Madison, WI | barrel #YB2: 158 bottle yield | $140 - I paid $115 after discount
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Nose: boozy orange peel, apricot, & papaya | bubblegum | honey & chamomile | toffee | ginger snaps | butterscotch | coconut | hints of anise. Shockingly easy to whiff considering the proof, but complex, dynamic, enigmatic.
Palate: orange peel | dried mango | candied ginger | maple | tobacco | toffee
Finish: chocolate frosted gingerbread | dried mango | | chocolate & mint | numbing peppermint spice | bubblegum | fennel | fat barrel char | gingerbread spices | dark chocolate & cigar wrapper | naughty old leather encyclopedia | hints of coconut at times. This is an incredibly long & wild ride.
Body: Haven't experienced one like this before - it's rich & syrupy while also being juicy & almost effervescent. This stuff is really balling out on my tongue. There's a massive numbing tingle on the early-mid finish that gradually subsides as the more oaky notes roll in. It's crazy like you'd expect a hazmat to be, without being overly hot. Not dry at all, especially for an 8-year rye. Wild stuff.
Score: 9 | Incredible | An all time favorite
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Thoughts on Quality: This stuff is remarkably complex & dynamic. My tasting notes may look over the top, but I swear I left things out, and more stuff will pop up as I work my way through this bottle. It's important to mention that thes notes are based on a 20-minute rest, and a bottle that's been open a couple weeks. When I first opened it, there was much more rum influence. At first pour, there's still a ton of rummy coconut-y floral ethanol - which is not my thing. But after some of that hazmat rum ethanol burns off , this rye is a joy to drink. This is the kind of whiskey you can sit and just drink by yourself in a dark room - it will make you completely forget about the highschool bullies you were plotting to murder. I absolutely love this stuff, but it's worth noting that it's 73.5% alcohol - it's not a toy, and it's probably not for the faint of heart. If you want a wild bucking rye though, this is the shit right here. I should probably stop screaming about how good this stuff is so that we can talk about that big-ass price tag.
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Thoughts on Value: As intrigued as I was, I don't think I would have taken the plunge for this bottle's $139.99 MSRP. I bundled this with a $99 6-year Finger Lakes Rye single barrel that I was also interested in, for a deal that came with a $50 discount on the order. So the way I saw it, I was paying $115 for this bottle, and $74 for the Two Souls Finger Lakes Rye (the offer was through the Two Souls Spirits website - not sure whether they're still doing it). $140 is pretty fucking steep for a bottle of whiskey, but it shies in comparison to a company like Nashville Barrel Company which sells 9-year MGP for $169. This is a year younger, but it's craft & its finished - both of which usually incur a premium. At the same time, NBC's pricing is a bit extreme. So maybe that's all a wash. But then we introduce the fact that this is a hazmat American rye whiskey. Not the light whiskey or Canadian whiskey that make up most hazmats on the market these days - those whiskey styles can be distilled to much higher proofs than American rye, and are usually aged in used barrels. So it's not surprising that a hazmat American rye whiskey comes with pricing that makes your eyes bulge a bit.
To help justify that pricing, Two Souls Spirits seem to have made a lot of effort with the packaging (in addition to sourcing & finishing this wild beast). The bottle shape & feel is real silky - I dig it. The labeling is pretty good (too much type crammed together though I think). The cork is something I haven't personally seen before - a glass stopper with some kind of rubber gasket on it. It definitely has a luxury-type feel to it, but my sister said it reminded her too much of a perfume bottle - and my wife said it looks like a rich person's butt plug. Check out the second photo and make your own assertions. So I guess we could go either way on that one. Either way, for $115, I'm glad as hell I took the risk on this bottle - and I think it's worth the full $140 - I'm gonna cherish this wild bastard until it's gone. And I think that, if you're willing to splurge on some American craft whiskey, Two Souls Spirits will be worth keeping an eye on.
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Background on Two Souls Spirits
Two Souls Spirits was founded in 2021 by a whiskey podcaster (James Estrada of the Whiskey Uncut podcast) and another guy (Chad Civetti). They're using an independent bottler model, which has been well established in the Scotch industry. Independent bottlers of Scotch find & bottle great single malts from various distillers in Scotland. Two Souls Spirits is aiming to do the analogue in the United States, specifically with craft distilleries. Two Souls is not the first producer to pursue this model in the U.S. (e.g., Lost Lantern has a similar strategy), but it's a relatively new idea here.
My understanding is that these guys go to craft distillers and offer to bottle some of their best single barrels. Apparently, it can be advantageous for craft distillers to supply the good stuff because a) they've got an online retail platform, b) they'll put the stuff in a fancy bottle and c) they're extremely transparent about where the whiskey came from. The craft distiller's name (in this case, Yahara Bay in Wisconsin) is displayed on the front label (not the back), and their website is extremely transparent, with information on exact aging, mashbill, barrel type, etc. So the craft distiller gets paid for the whiskey they sell to Two Souls Spirits, and they get some marketing/exposure on top of that.