Smooth Ambler Old Scout Limited Release Rye Reviews

The whiskey scene was a lot different just a few years ago. Great bargains like Smooth Ambler Old Scout single barrels sat on the shelves all day long for $40-$45. I wasn't oblivious to how good we had it and I went through more than my fair share of them, particularly the cask strength ryes. It seems like everyone was in on it too though because by early 2015 Smooth Ambler had run out of almost all their MGP rye stock and pulled back to gift shop only releases for the few barrels they had remaining. With the help of a really nice internet friend I was lucky enough to get a bottle of the first limited release rye before it sold out in about an hour. I've been nursing it for almost 2 years now and after acquiring a sample of another limited release rye, I decided it was finally time to put it to rest.

Smooth Ambler Old Scout Limited Release Rye #214

Aged 10 years; 62.2% ABV; Barrel #214; Summer 2015 Gift Shop Release; Thanks to /u/Looney_Bin for the hookup

Nose: Sweet and spicy. Anise, menthol, lots of mint, woody caramel. Smells kind of like a barrel aged cask strength mint julep.

Taste: Dill, spearmint, anise, and more mint - a metric fuckton of spicy rye (and specifically MGP rye) flavors. On top of that the wood influence is so explosive - it's lush with wood caramels like sugar daddy candies but at the same time lots of older wood notes too. The dark cocoa sweet notes and prickly spice tingle ride the finish forever. It's nothing short of a sweet spicy wood bomb.

Thoughts: Easily the best MGP whiskey I've ever tasted, including bourbons and ryes. I was skeptical this could be much better than most of the cask strength 8 year single barrels I've had but boy was a wrong. I'd put this up there with Rathskeller Rye as the one of the best ryes of all time, namely because both of them are such a powerhouse of not only spice notes but also wood notes as well.

Rating: A / A+

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Smooth Ambler Old Scout Limited Release Rye #2534

Aged 9 years; 57.5% ABV; Barrel #2534; Spring of 2016? Gift Shop Release; Thanks to /u/anagama for the sample

Nose: Sweet and spicy but a little more ethanol forward with less wood influence than the 10 year. Anise, menthol, mint, and sweet caramel.

Taste: Same backbone of notes as the 10 year but less spice, less wood influence, and more sweet forward. Sugary spicy wintergreen spearmint like mint gum and that sugar daddy candy caramel note is there again. The wood influence is toned down compared to the 10 year but definitely tastes its age. The finish is a heavier sweet lighter spice combo but doesn't last as long as the 10 year. Everything about it is spot on, it's just not as explosive as the 10 year. 

Thoughts: This is much more in line with what I originally expected from the first release. It's about the same or marginally better than my memory of the 8 year single barrels I used to buy off the shelf. Having said that, MGP rye is fantastic stuff, especially at cask strength and this bottle is no exception. On the plus side it does have a little less dill than the 10 year which is a turnoff for some folks in regards to MGP rye whiskeys.

Rating: A-

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating. 

Smooth Ambler Old Scout American Whiskey Review

I've covered Smooth Ambler quite a few times so I won't go into it again but my overall feeling about them is that they sourced some great whiskey and sold it at really good prices. The well on those great stocks seems to be running dry though as we've seen the discontinuation of nearly every MGP sourced product they've ever offered other than the occasional gift shop only release. Other than the pure MGP bourbons and ryes, there have been a couple of blended experiments, the latest of which we have here today. According to the label, this is a blend of whiskeys distilled in Indiana and Tennessee, one aged in fresh oak casks and the other in used, re-charred bourbon barrels. I'm assuming the Indiana component is a straight bourbon and Tennessee portion was the second use aging, particularly because a couple of years ago George Dickel's parent company Diageo was trying to change the TN laws around what could be considered Tennessee whiskey to include aging in used barrels. 

No Age Statement; 49.5% ABV; Batch No. 4; $35

Nose: Corn and rye spice. Typically on the nose rye spice comes through as menthol for me and that's the case here. There are hints of that familiar Dickel multivitamin mineral note. Smells like a blend of high rye bourbon, Dickel bourbon, and Mellow Corn. 

Taste: The initial palate entry is very sweet forward, like corn butterscotch pudding. The spice notes are toned back but come through with a little tingle in the finish along with some subtle Dickel vitamin notes. That's about all there is in the finish though as it's amazingly short - it fades so quickly I would have suspected this more for 80 proof than nearly 100 proof. There is a little smokey barrel char kind of like burnt marshmallows that lingers but that's all I am really getting. Overall the best way to describe it is mellow.

Thoughts: I haven't liked this since the day I opened it and that's the case again today. It's not really that it's horrible but it's more that it's light and odd. I'm not sure of the proportions on the blend here but it tasted heavily towards a whiskey that was aged in reused barrels - the oak flavors are rather muted and dull and the sweet notes are more mash forward than oak forward. I appreciate the experiment and luckily it didn't cost a lot but this is a swing and a miss for me.

Rating: D

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Smooth Ambler Old Scout and Old Scout Ten Reviews

Up today is a pair of whiskeys from Smooth Ambler out of West Virginia. Like a lot of other startup distilleries, Smooth Ambler is on the “sell sourced whiskey until our own stuff comes of age” plan. While a lot startup distilleries and NDPs who sell sourced products make up ludicrous backstories or mask the fact that they source their whiskey, Smooth Ambler scores points with the community for being open and honest about where their products come from. What we have here is their younger batched bourbon from MGP’s higher rye (36%) mashbill and their older batched bourbon from MGP’s lower rye (21%) mashbill.

Smooth Ambler Old Scout

Aged 7 years; Batch No. 166 (2/3/2016); 49.5% ABV; $40

Nose: Vanilla and caramel along with a hefty cinnamon and mint spice component. It’s got the woodiness you’d expect for a bourbon its age and some remnants of ethanol though the heat is reasonable for the proof.

Taste: Really spicy right out of the gate with the spice riding out all the way to the finish. The mint and cinnamon of the nose are again the predominant notes. The standard vanilla and caramel bourbon notes are there as well but mostly take a backseat to the spice. In the finish some deeper sweet notes come like cacao and dark fudge come into play.

Thoughts: MGP makes great bourbon and Smooth Ambler has done a great job batching it here. This is about the closest thing to Four Roses Single Barrel you’ll find and that makes sense as they are both very high rye spicy bourbons and both share a family history in a shared yeast strain. I would give Four Roses Single Barrel the upper hand though as their standard OBSV line has everything this has along with some added complexity in terms of rich red fruit notes. Still though, it’s a nice spicy bourbon that’s readily available and there’s not really anything negative I can say about it.

Rating: B

Value: I don’t factor price into my ratings. At the $40 price I paid, I think I think this is a pretty decent value and I would buy it again.

Smooth Ambler Old Scout Ten

Aged 10 years; Batch No. 30 (3/9/2015); 50% ABV; $40

Nose: A lot less spicy and more sweet than the 7 year version. It breathes a lot softer with noticeably less ethanol which lets more caramel and other sweets like cake batter come through. I also get light fruit notes though the woodiness is a bit less than I expected.

Taste: Very much like the nose. Starts off soft with lots of sweet forward flavors - vanilla, cake batter, and honey. The sweetness rides pretty much to the end of the finish. At the mid-palate, some light spice starts to develop and comes through in the finish with some cinnamon tingle. A dry woodiness starts to come through towards the end of the palate and brings a nice depth of flavor to balance things out.

Thoughts: Another really nice bourbon produced by MGP and batched by Smooth Ambler. If the 7 year is a lot like Four Roses OBSV, this one is more like a Four Roses OESV Single Barrel. Again that makes a lot of sense since this about the same rye percentage as Four Roses lower rye recipes and they share a family yeast. While this is significantly different than 7 year, it’s pretty good in its own right as it’s softer sweetness, extra wood depth, and toned down spice make for an overall nice package.

Rating: B

Value: I don’t factor price into my ratings. At the $55 price I paid, I’m neutral on the value. In this price range I would go for a private selection Four Roses, cask strength single barrel of Smooth Ambler Old Scout, or Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel over this.

Smooth Ambler Contradiction Review

As Fall “Bourbon Christmas” soon approaches I am taking this time to clear out some bottles that have been hanging for too long. Today on the chopping block is a 2014 release from Smooth Ambler. Like most other startup distilleries, Smooth Ambler is following the popular strategy of selling sourced whiskey until their own product comes of age. Smooth Ambler is a bit ahead of the rest of the pack and hopefully will soon have some of their own Bourbon to release this year that is around the 6 year old mark. I’m looking forward to that but in the meantime we get fun things like this product.

Contradiction is a blend of 27% two year old wheated straight Bourbon and 73% nine year old high rye straight Bourbon. The two year wheater component is Smooth Ambler’s own product while the older Bourbon comes from MGP in Indiana. The net result is a product that is a blend of four different grains: corn, rye, wheat, and barley.

Batch 2; 50% ABV; $50

Nose: The nose is fruity sweet with a little bit of spice. You can smell that it has some youthful elements to it but it’s well masked by the older whiskey. The proof is inoffensive as it doesn’t smell very hot at all. I’m getting some of the classic sweet wheated flavors like cinnamon cake batter.

Taste: Medium amount of woodiness. A lot more spice than was present in the nose and a lot less of the sweet elements. I can taste the dill and mint rye spice notes that are common in MGP’s distilled rye. It finishes more on the spicy side but there is some young fruity sweetness and some older dark chocolate sweetness at the end as well.

Thoughts: Interesting stuff. You can really taste elements of an older and younger whiskey all at the same time which I think gives it some complexity. Things can be a bit jumbled at times though so this one loses points for balance as the two blends put it all over the place. All in all, I liked it and feel it was worth buying once.

Rating: B- / C+

Smooth Ambler Old Scout Single Barrel Cask Strength 8 Year Rye Review

Smooth Ambler rye is a whiskey sourced from LDI’s 95% rye mashbill. I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about them and I personally have nothing against LDI whiskeys. I’m also a huge fan of cask strength offerings and the price was right so I jumped on this bottle.

63.4% ABV; Aged 8 years; $45 (Red Dog Wine & Spirits)

Nose: Lots of heat up front. That should be expecting given the whopping ~64% ABV. Plenty of traditional LDI rye spice notes come after the hot ether blast. Lots and lots of mint then all the very sweet wood sugars come through. Caramel and toffee predominate. The nose is very pleasant.
Taste: Taste is the reverse of the nose. A repeat of the same sweet caramel wood sugars come immediately up front on the palette. The sweetness then gives way to the tingly minty fresh rye spice. The tingle starts to intensify as the rye spice takes hold. The high proof makes this one an intense assault of sweet flavors but not as much so on the mint. It packs a lot of heat but is incredibly drinkable even at proof. I did not want to add any water. The age has done a lot to balance out the spice punch compared to the younger high proof ryes I am used to like Willett and Handy.
Finish: Short to medium finish. Deep sweet notes of fudgy dark cocoa. Pretty standard flavors in a finish for me but certainly very enjoyable. The crisp mint is there but light. Very little burn which is remarkable given the proof. It doesn’t linger as long as I expected given the proof.
Notes: There is a lot of murmuring lately about how Smooth Ambler is the new Willett Family Estate. If they keep these prices and this quality up I would be inclined to agree with that prediction. It may not be the most layered or complex whiskey that I’ve had but it’s pretty damn tasty. Unlike other hard to find/higher priced barrel proof whiskeys out right now Smooth Ambler is very accessible and very affordable. Like those whiskeys though it is also high proof, tasty, and extremely drinkable at proof. I don’t know what else you could ask for.
Rating: A-