Background

I want to take you back to 2020. Covid is raging, stimmy checks and pent up spending are burning giant holes in the collective pockets of any hobby with a secondary market, and all people keep telling me is that I have to try Smoke Wagon bourbon. So I worked my way through the Straight Bourbon, Small Batch, Uncut Unfiltered, enjoyed them all, and then honestly stopped thinking about Smoke Wagon for a while. The hype seemed to slightly outpace the whiskey, with Halloween or Fourth of July edition bottles having a really frothy market I didn’t totally understand.

What better time, then, to check back in on Smoke Wagon than with two single barrel rye picks! The first is an r/bourbon pick, a 6 year MGP barrel with a 51% rye/45% corn/4% malted barley mashbill. In comparison is a 5 year single barrel direct from Smoke Wagon that utilizes a 51% rye/49% malted barley mashbill. As is standard with Smoke Wagon, these barrels are then transported to Nevada for extra aging in the Nevada desert heat. Time to pour these up and see how they compare!

Smoke Wagon Single Barrel Rye r/Bourbon Selection (6 Years, 113 Proof)

Nose: Those hard strawberry candies with jelly... they are a bit medicinal and artificial, which makes for a fun nose. Dashes of baking spice round out the nose.

Palate: Licorice and cloves, corn bread, that cinnamon butter from Texas Roadhouse. It's reasonably sweet for a rye. A nice amount of oak here too provides a nice balance to the spicy and sweet notes.

Finish: Fairly oak forward, cloves and spice. The rye comes through most here. The occasional hint of that berry fruit from the nose.

Very Good (6/10)

Overall: A rock solid pick and a tasty sipper. It’s got a lovely balance, pairing spice and sweetness. I’m guessing the latter is coming from the high corn in the mash, and I particularly love the nose which is fun and inviting. I popped the top off this bottle a few times while writing this just to take in the nose again.

Smoke Wagon Single Barrel Rye Barrel M17 (5 Years, 118.04 Proof)

Nose: Bit of a wild ride here. Crème de menthe and also lemon tea? Sometimes I’m picking up these funky mint notes, another time it’s more lemony herbaceousness. Weird, good weird, but weird.

Palate: Lemon zest and butterscotch, that herbal tea note is also carrying through and providing a bit of a drier base note. Not overly dry, but that sensation you get from unsweetened ice tea.

Finish: A nice medium to long finish of Lemonhead candies, a hint of creaminess and hints of star anise.

Very Good to Great (6.5/10)

Overall: This is a pretty wild and unique ride. It’s tough to convey in just notes the sensation of a rye that provides herbal citrus notes and this underlying butterscotch creaminess. It’s a bit challenging, in a good way, and you keep coming back to it because of that uniqueness.