- 90
- Reduced
Templeton 6 Year Old Straight Rye Whiskey (700ml)
Re-launched in 2006 making it the first new Templeton product in over a decade, this middle-aged bottling has a soft rye nose-feel and aromas of shellac, light spice, dark rye bread and sweet oak. Genteel, well-rounded and slightly oily in the mouth, flavours of apple pie, cinnamon, muddled mint and low-key rye spices complete this soft and very accessible expression. 45.75% Alc./Vol.
Other reviews... A burst of orange on the nose: orange blossom, orange peel, orange pekoe tea, candied orange slices. It also has sweet licorice, sage, honey, and blueberry. Light-bodied in the mouth with a bit of astringency; the flavors run to berry, orange, spearmint, and cinnamon, with gentle spice. On the finish, more fruit and cinnamon prevail, along with nuttiness and an undercurrent of herbal pine. 87 points - whiskyadvocate.com, reviewed by: Susannah Skiver Barton (Spring 2020)
Gold Medal Winner at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2019.
MGP Indiana utilize an original Kerkhoff family recipe – distinguished by the remarkably high rye content of its mash. For a rye to be classified as such, only 51 percent of the mash bill must be rye grain. Templeton uses more than 90 percent rye (and malted barley for the remainder). The company are particularly staunch in grain selection and typically reject around 50% of samples. A proprietary yeast strain is employed to kick start the ferment. They forego the copper wash pot stills used by the original distillers. Instead double distillation takes place in a short column still after which it's then put through a doubler kettle/pot still. Because of the column distillation, there are no heads or tails cuts needed. They simply allow the stills to take the flavour profile from the fermenter. All distillate lots are given a quality rating of 1 to 4. Lots deemed of poor quality are redistilled into grain neutral spirits (vodka). Finally, maturation takes place in new American white oak barrels sourced from Missouri. These are charred for 55-60 seconds for a #3 level char. Iowa lies in the humid continental zone and generally has hot summers, cold winters and wet springs – with an average relative humidity of 72 percent - ideal conditions for whisky maturation. 15-20 barrels are bottled at a time, taken from various heights in the rick house, to ensure a consistency from bottle to bottle.