Old Overholt Straight Rye 2008 Release
Great Earthy Rye Flavour
0 385
Review by @Victor
- Nose~
- Taste~
- Finish~
- Balance~
- Overall85
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Distribution of ratings for this:
- Brand: Old Overholt
- Type: American
- ABV: 40%
Intro: This review is of a bottle released in 2008. Old Overholt is an old Western Pennsylvania brand of Rye Whiskey which went under during Prohibition, only to be later revived in Kentucky as a Beam brand. This whiskey is 4 years old.
Nose: The usual rye pepper and general spiciness. There is some vanilla and caramel evident as well.
Taste: robust, full flavoured rye twang-- black pepper most prominent among the spices, but also a little nutmeg and clove. This really tastes of wood for being only four years old-with the typical vanilla and caramel from the oak. The flavours here are strong enough to put off an inexperienced drinker at first. There is a sweet and sour alternation from wood sugars and pepper spiciness.
Finish: the sweet caramel and vanilla last medium long, with a gradual tailing off of the spices.
Balance: When I first tried this bottle it was a little more intensely earthy than I was ready for. I grew to love it, and I regularly use it in my tastings for my sample of: "This is what rye grain tastes like". I guess that a really good under $10 whiskey may not last, so I am very sorry to report that I have to agree with Jim Murray that the 2010 release of Old Overholt is nowhere near as good as this one from 2008. The 2010 release is only for me about a 6.0 rating.
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Old Overholt, like other mass-market ryes Jim Beam Yellow Label and Pikesville Supreme, are bottled at 40% ABV. At this strength, it takes a really exceptional batch to give strong and vibrant enough flavours to carry a connoisseur's sipping interest. In a very good year this can occur, but the last two or three years of production haven't pulled this off too effectively. Jim Murray has for the last several years been chronicling how some of these "standard ryes" have not been as interesting or flavourful to drink as they had been just a few years prior. This I have also found to be true. My 2008 Old Overholt Rye and my 2008 Jim Beam Yellow Label Rye were quite robust, but subsequent releases proved less interesting, especially initially. Some would suggest that increased worldwide interest in and demand for rye whiskey may have increased production of the large brands at a greater than optimal pace.
The good news is that, as with most bourbons, oxidation is very kind to these ryes. So, don't be surprised if some standard ryes you found to be a bit ho-hum when you first tried them, gather a lot more flavour if you try them 12-18 months later. That 2010 Old Overholt, that I reported above to rate at 60, I would now, 18 months later, rate at 83.
Of course, no one likes to wait a year or more for a whiskey to blossom.