About Sazerac 18 Year Old Straight Rye Whiskey (Summer 2020)
Established in 1775 and situated in Frankfort, Kentucky,
Buffalo Trace is one of the few American distilleries that continued its operations through Prohibition, after receiving a permit to bottle medicinal whiskey when the 18th Amendment came into effect in 1920. They were permitted to produce new whiskey from 1930 to 1933. As a result, George T. Stagg Distillery, as the company was named at the time, was one of only four Kentucky distilleries that were capable of producing whiskey after Prohibition ended. The distillery changed several hands through more than two centuries, and the owners included Colonel Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr., who earned himself the title of the father of the modern bourbon industry.
The oldest continually operating distillery in the United States includes the rich legacies of master distillers such as E.H. Taylor, Jr, Albert B. Blanton, Orville Schupp, and Elmer T. Lee as well. To this day it remains family-owned, operating on the same 130 acres of land adjacent to the Kentucky River as it has for over 200 years. Similarly, the distillery’s flagship bourbon has been made using the same process for over 2 centuries. Now part of the Sazerac family, the distillery has remained dedicated to a single craft: the making of fine bourbon whiskey, bringing together tradition and innovation in the process.
In 1838, a Creole immigrant named Antoine Peychaud opened the doors to a pharmacy on Royal Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans. While Peychaud was an apothecary by trade, he was also a natural mixologist. He would often invite friends over to his pharmacy after it had closed and mix drinks for them, including a drink he crafted from brandy, absinthe, and a proprietary blend of bitters. Peychaud's cocktail became wildly popular throughout New Orleans. In 1850, Sewell Taylor — owner of the Sazerac Coffee House located on Exchange Alley — institutionalized the cocktail by using only Sazerac de Forge et Fils Brandy, a brandy which Taylor imported and sold exclusively. By 1869, Thomas H. Handy had purchased the Sazerac Coffee House from Taylor and by the turn of the century, a phylloxera epidemic forced coffee houses (at the time, the term "coffee house" was used to refer to a cocktail bar) to use rye whiskey rather than brandy in the making of the Sazerac.
The Sazerac 18-year-old is a straight rye whiskey that pays tribute to the Sazerac name. It's a very mature whiskey with deep oak, leather, and spice notes. The 2019 release saw the expression earn "Best Rye Whiskey Aged 11 Years and Over" by Jim Murray's Whisky Bible. The 2020 continues in the same fashion. The barrels were filled in 2002 and the whiskey was bottled at 90 proof in 2020.
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About Rye
As American as the bald eagle, rye whiskey was first brewed in the American Northeast in the 1600s. Even George Washington distilled it after leaving the Oval Office, so there’s no way of denying its origin.
It’s distinguished from bourbon for its original and unique spicy notes.
By law, rye whiskey must be made from at least 51% rye grain, aged in new and charred oak barrels for at least two years, and bottled at no more than 62,5% ABV.
Check out our impressive selection of rye whiskeys, find your new favorites in The best-reviewed rye whiskeys, and explore our treasury of Best rye bottles under $100.
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