NEW RIFF BALBOA RYE
Bottled in Bond (2023)MASH BILL – 95% Balboa heirloom rye, 5% malted rye
PROOF – 100
AGE – 4 years
DISTILLERY – New Riff Distillery
PRICE – $71 (includes tax and shipping)
WORTH BUYING? – Yes
Uncorked and tasted in The Year of No Buying (The what? 🔗 here.)
New Riff is widely admired among the relatively newer Kentucky distilleries. I’ve not yet had extensive experience with the brand. But what I have tasted has been quite good. A 2019 single barrel of their bourbon struck me as old-fashioned whiskey with a spring in its step—lively, unflashy, both classic and fresh. Then a 2022 release of Silver Springs Sweet Rye from Keeper’s Quest, which had been quietly sourced from New Riff (🤫 don’t tell anyone), was similarly classic and fresh, coming across like a sweet, chewy, homemade cooky or some spicy craft cola drink.
Yet somehow I’ve not been compelled to follow New Riff too closely. I suspect that has less to do with them specifically and more to do with so many whiskeys so little time. What I have tried has been exceptionally solid. The quality is immediately there from sip one. But perhaps because nothing in the New Riff flavor experience has stood out in any particularly unique way, it’s easy for me to forget about them, either when scanning the shelves for something new to try or when hankering for a good ol’ standby.
But their rather limited Balboa Rye release did stand out to me. And I’d heard many good things. A couple times I missed my chance to snag a bottle when it popped up on one online new product feed or another. It’s a popular release. So I was pleased to finally nab this bottle.
I love me an adventure with an heirloom grain. Laws and Leopold Brothers both provide that opportunity with some regularity. These rarer grains tend to be a bit wilder, untamed by engineering.
That’s not a guarantee whiskeys made from heirloom grains will be great, of course. Leopold’s Three Chamber Rye, for example, was for me a very interesting experience, but one that ultimately didn’t please me as a tasting experience nearly enough to justify its mighty price tag. I loved the history behind it, and the uncommon breadth of care and attention that clearly went into making it. But I’m only willing to pay so much for a distiller’s passion for history. In practice, the whiskey itself also needs to taste great.
With this post’s example, the heirloom grain in question is the Balboa rye varietal. Here’s what New Riff says about it:
Our corn farmer Charles Fogg has been growing heirloom rye on his family’s farm for many years. His chosen variety was Balboa rye, an heirloom grain which dates back to the 1940s as a rye variety popular in Indiana. He offered it to us and we distilled it into rye whiskey, probably the first time in decades that Balboa has been made into whiskey and quite surely the only example on the market today… Typical of heirloom rye, the Balboa grain is a little smaller than modern varieties, with a lower output per acre of planting — but it’s no less flavorful for that!
Sounds good. Let’s get into a glass and see what this olde grain has to offer!
Here we are, five weeks after uncorking and three pours into the bottle. These brief notes were taken using both a Canadian and traditional Glencairn.
COLOR – rustic autumn oranges, both soft and vibrant
NOSE – fresh rye and long-stemmed grass spices, caramel fudge, doughy rye bread, something faintly meaty like a nice salty ham
TASTE – very like the nose, with the sweet caramel notes leaning forward in lovely balance with the various herbal spice notes, plus candied ginger and a buttery texture to it
FINISH – gently sparkly, with ginger, rye spice, faint sweet caramel fudge, some chocolate, vanilla and butterscotch
OVERALL – the sweet-cream buttery rye bread of ryes
There is something about this that’s very like a fresh, thick slice of rye bread slathered in real butter. It’s herbal, sweet, savory, comforting, and enlivening.
Drier than the Silver Springs Sweet Rye, sweeter than the Leopold Three Chamber Rye, and brighter than the broody Laws San Luis Valley Rye, New Riff’s Balboa Rye strikes an easy-to-like balance between its various elements. It’s rustic and refined, savory and sweet, interesting and tasty.
And so I think this too will not compel me to pursue New Riff with effort. It’s such an irony! This is very high quality rye whiskey. It’s so perfectly balanced between its various notes, however, that it’s not terribly memorable. I cringe to say it, because philosophically I don’t wish to support the American penchant for showy spectacle. But without any surprises to prick my attention or memory, I suspect this New Riff Balboa Rye will be something I enjoy thoroughly and then move on.
And, really, that’s perfectly fine. It’s a very capitalist notion of “quality” that a product should compel one to buy it again and again and again. That’s one marker of success, sure. But there are also successes that are fleeting. Experiences that are entirely pleasing in the moment, even impressive, and then gone. Must everything last?
Maybe not. I’m sure I’ll return to New Riff again at some point. My experiences with their whiskeys have only been good. I appreciate the rye whiskey in my glass as I write this. And I recognize that a life lived without fixed ideas about what “should,” “shouldn’t,” “is,” and “isn’t,” is more likely to be a lived life in the end, even if every detail isn’t particularly memorable.
That’s a rather philosophical place to find myself in response to a whiskey. I’d call New Riff’s Balboa Rye a success.
Cheers!
The Right Spirit 