We have never wanted to like a whiskey more than Castle & Key’s Restoration Rye.
Located in Frankfort, KY, Castle & Key is a fairly new distillery with a pretty old history. The land that holds Castle & Key today actually began as the Taylor Distilling Company back in 1887 by Colonel Edmund Haynes Taylor Jr. And yes, before you ask, that is in fact the same E.H. Taylor, who Buffalo Trace named the Colonel E.H. Taylor collection after. Not awkward at all. Anyways, back then Taylor created the property to be a destination, complete with his own castle and private train. Sadly for the Colonel, his distillery destination was forced into closing just 33 years later due to Prohibition. The property fell into disrepair over the years until the current owners brought it back to life and founded Castle & Key.
As a way to help pay the bills while the bourbon aged, the company has released several iterations of both vodka and gin. But now finally the time has come for the brown liquor – starting with Restoration Rye.
There are five total batches of Restoration Rye currently released: 2 from 2020 and 3 so far from 2021. We tasted the 2021 Batch 3, which was sadly a bit disappointing. The rye opens up with a decent amount of heat that’s quickly taken over by a thick, syrupy, cherry flavor. If it wasn’t for the pepper notes at the finish, you might start to be reminded of cough syrup. For a mash bill of 63% rye and 20% malted barley, we were hoping for a stronger punch of those spicy, rye flavors, but the pepper was the only spice present. Overall you can certainly tell that this rye is young. A few more years in the barrel and Castle & Key might just have a pretty cool whiskey on their hands.
With such an incredible history, beautiful campus, and bright future, we can’t quite give up on Castle & Key just yet. While we won’t be buying this rye again today, we’d love to try it again in a few years. In the meantime, we will be patiently and eagerly awaiting the release of their first bourbon
STATS: Restoration Rye Whiskey
- Price for us: $38 for 750 mL
- Proof: 104
- Aged: 3.5
- Distillery: Castle & Key
- Recommendation: Mixer, possibly in a cider or a Manhattan
