Alberta Dark Batch Review

Alberta Dark Batch is a Canadian blended rye whisky that became available in the states within the last year. Canadians will be much more familiar this product under its original name “Dark Horse” but due to an existing distiller in the United States already using that name Beam Suntory is offering it under a different label here. What is really interesting about Dark Batch to me is how it takes advantage of the more relaxed whisky regulations of our neighbors to the north. Chuck Cowdery has an excellent writeup that delves deeper into that subject but the TLDR; version is that Canadian whisky can contain a small percentage of spirits from other sources and doesn’t have to be aged in fresh charred barrels. Given that flexibility, what we end up with here is a blend of 45.5% Canadian rye whisky aged 6 years in fresh charred oak barrels, 45.5% Canadian rye whiskey aged 12 years in used bourbon barrels, 8% Old Grand-Dad (no age statement) bourbon, and 1% sherry. While all of that sounds exciting on paper, with so much going on there’s also there’s a chance it could be a complete mess.

No Age Statement; 45% ABV; $28

Nose: Menthol, eucalyptus, red wine, brown sugar, pine. It’s spicy, sweet, and fruity as expected.

Taste: Tastes a lot like it smells. Menthol, pine, and anise spice are very noticeable even from the start of the palate. The spicy notes taper off a little in the middle to give way to some softer brown sugar and red wine fruity notes. The spice comes back stronger in the finish but I find things start to fall apart a bit at the end. The spice takes on sharper, more aggressive peppery characteristics which overpower some of the fruit and sweet notes I would expect to linger.

Thoughts: I like it but it’s not for everyone and certainly not something I would want to reach for every day. At a recent blind rye tasting I participated in this took second place only to the very beloved Smooth Ambler Old Scout Rye Cask Strength. That’s not very surprising as there’s a lot to love about this. Judging purely on uniqueness this one ranks well and also scores a lot of points in the value department as sub $30 is a great price considering all of the individual components. I can’t help but to compare this to High West’s Midwinter Nights Dram which blows this out of the water but in the absence of that bottle Dark Batch is a nice affordable and accessible substitute.

Rating: B / B-