New Riff Distilling "Maltster Wheat" Bottle in Bond Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

From the very beginnings of New Riff's distillery design, we incorporated the ability to add any bag of grain into our recipes. It’s called the “auxiliary grain conveyor.” We use this grain handling feature every week when we add 50-lb bags of malted rye into our standard New Riff Rye Whiskey. But we also use it to make a new riff on classic whiskey traditions... Introducing Maltsters, a project that explores different malted grains used in a Bourbon recipe. Our distilling team delved into their background as craft brewers and pulled out of their hat a couple of magical recipes: Malted Rye Bourbon and Malted Wheat Bourbon. These unique mashbills offer bold interpretations of traditional Bourbon styles, from a refined and sophisticated rye experience to a darker and deeper version of wheated Bourbon.

From the opening aroma of our Malted Wheat Bourbon, there is a shade of dark, husky grains to the whole production; yet it also drinks in a classical Bourbon fashion with plenty of oak. A splash of water releases a whiff of dark fruit. In the mouth, it enters large-scaled and full-bodied, tending to dryness. There’s plenty of oak but, behind that, lies that notion of dark (black currant?) fruit. A wood spice element tinges the finish, which grows on the taster precipitously.

• BOTTLED IN BOND
• WITHOUT CHILL FILTRATION
• 65% CORN, 18% BOHEMIAN FLOOR-MALTED WHEAT,
• 10% UNMALTED WHEAT
• 7% DARK WHEAT
• AGED AT LEAST 5 YEARS
• 100 PROOF

Nose: Darker grain-husk and bready notes, oaky, tending dry with a bit of confection; water brings hint of dark fruit
Palate: Large-scaled & full-bodied, dryish and plenty of oak backed by grainy depth; that dark fruit (currant?) appears in the mid-palate, partly hidden by the oak; finishing with hints of wood spice, bread crust, grassy-grainy minerals