Notes: Another new spirit from Proof and Wood Ventures. These are the people who brought us the Redemption Rye, Redemption Bourbon, and later sold of the brand to the Deutsch Family.

Being gluttons for punishment they got back into this business again with this line, including a sister to this, the Deadwood Rye,  a Deadwood Bourbon Whiskey, and also Ambassador 12 Year Old Bourbon and The Funk Jamaican Pot Still Rum.

The concept behind the Deadwood series is a  frontier type of whiskey that is meant to drunk when it is young and fresh with the minimal type of aging it would have received by being transported to the Western Frontier from the Eastern part of the United States back in the day. The whiskeys, in this case, is a mix of Indiana and Tennesee sourced whiskey aged at least13 months in full sized (53 gallon) wood barrels. It is also a fairly high rye mix with two different whiskeys with two different mashbills – one uses a  is 70 % rye the other is 95 % rye. The legal (and cheaper) minimum is 51% rye and more corn, so it makes this a more flavorful whiskey. This distinction is drawn because there is a lot of young craft whiskeys aged in smaller barrels that are being released in the craft community, and even though they can be roughly the same age as these whiskeys, the smaller barrels make a huge difference ( and not necessarily in a good way. You will also find these whiskeys much cheaper!

Speaking of which, these whiskeys are priced in the $20 rage – making them cheaper than most of the big production value whiskeys and they have a fair amount of young whiskey charm.

Appearance: Clear, yellow gold on the bottle. pale gold in the glass. A thin to medium coat on swirling, with some thin legs forming fairly quickly.

First Impression: Oak, sweet and sour rye notes mellowed by touches of barley and a little whiff of corn alcohol. Smell like a nice slice of rye bread.

Taste: Well… it is rather young. A nicely done spirit from a production standpoint, and light years better than most commercial “Moonshine”  ( as a sidebar personally I hate that term) it does show and taste the 13 months or so aging. More depth and interest than the bourbon

Drinks: Not the most robust of whiskeys, I would recommend it in a punch, especially if you are looking for an early and authentic type of rye for it.

Bottle: Fairly standard utilitarian whiskey or spirits bottle with a relatively bland wraparound paper label ad a screw top closure.

Other: Nice dose of rye in there and a lot better than some of the unaged rye I have tried.

Final Thoughts: Can’t get too enthused about it but it is decent and cheap for what it is…

Website: None we can find