Background

Front and center, a disclaimer- this bottle was provided to me by Peerless at no cost, no obligation to review and with no strings attached. I thank them for their generosity in doing so.

Ok, with that out of the way, let’s recap how we got to round four of Peerless reviews!

• Round One: 3 Year Rye Single Barrel (Very Good - 6/10) and Double Oak Rye Master Distiller Pick (Great - 7/10). Full review here for anyone interested.

• Round Two: 5 Year Bourbon Single Barrel (Very Good to Great - 6.5/10) and Double Oak Bourbon Master Distiller Pick (Excellent - 8/10). Full review here, and also RIP to this delicious bottle I’m sad I finished you.

• Round Three: Absinthe Finished Rye (Very Good - 6/10) and 5 Year Rye Single Barrel (Excellent - 8/10). Full review here. 

And that brings us to their upcoming High Rye Bourbon release, which will launch at their distillery this Saturday, 4/15, before being distributed more widely into Kentucky, Florida, Texas, New York, Illinois, and California. A few quick facts on this particular offering, then rolling right into the review:

• As is with all Peerless offerings, they dont disclose their mashbill but note the rye count is over two times their standard bourbon offering.

• Again consistent with their other products, this still utilizes sweet mash and everything from them is offered at barrel proof.

• This will be a regular offering from them moving forward, though I admittedly dont have details on any sort of release cadence. 

Peerless High Rye Bourbon (NAS, 110.5 Proof)

Nose: Plum, cocoa, walnut, leather. All darker notes for sure. Even the color on this is dark.

Palate: Polished wood, black licorice, a little bit of butterscotch, cola, some tobacco… there’s a lot going on here for sure.

Finish: Welcome to the party spices! Toasted oak, dark chocolate, cinnamon, allspice, pepper... Lot of spices!

Great (7/10)

Overall: A tasty and complex dram. I would say this is probably the pour you want as a night cap, or in front of the fire, only because it’s so rich and flavor dense that after about two (ok admittedly a little heavy) pours my palate was kind of exhausted. The end of the palate into the finish is a slow build of spices rather than an abrupt shift- but definitely a back loaded and spicy finish. Not a bad thing at all!