Millstone 100 Rye Review

Here's a sample I acquired from the nice folks over at Fine Drams some years back. I've been saving it for a while in hopes that one day /r/worldwhisky would finally choose Millstone for a community review. After years of waiting, that day has finally come. I don't know a lot about this whiskey other than it's Dutch and it's 100% rye which sounds interesting to me on paper.

50% ABV; 51% unmalted rye and 49% malted rye; Aged for at least 100 months in new charred American oak

Nose: Cereal grains, cocoa powder, slight rye spice. There is a decent amount of oak notes here. The cereal grain note is rather heavy, reminiscent of a Japanese or Irish malt whiskey. It smells like a barely legal American rye only with 49% malted barley instead of 49% corn. 

Taste: Lots more of those malty cereal notes as well as traditional wood sweet notes such as vanilla and honey. I'm getting a little bit of spice, mostly in the finish but again struggling to feel like this is a rye whiskey. It tastes like honey coated cereal with a dash of cinnamon pepper spice.

Thoughts: This is an odd one for me. For being a rye whiskey I don't get a lot of rye spice bite. I don't know if it's that European rye grains having a different character than North American rye grains but the malt barley notes here are very present. Maybe it's the fact that the rye is malted which is triggering Japanese/Irish/Scotch palate memory for me but I dunno. When it comes to rye whiskeys I think I will stick to my American standbys like Rendezvous or Pikesville. 

Rating: C+ / C or 78/100

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.