Kentucky Owl
Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey
Aged 11 Years
Finished in Bayou Mardi Gras XO Casks
102.8 Proof
MSRP: $500
Review

Please enjoy our Kentucky Owl Mardi Gras Rye review!

Mardi Gras Rye Begins With An 11 Year Old Rye Whiskey

Kentucky Owl Mardi Gras Rye begins with an 11 year old straight rye whiskey. The rye was then put into barrels that previously held Bayou XO Mardi Gras Rum. The barrels were originally filled in March and then allowed to finish in Louisiana for a little over a year. If you think of Louisiana in the summertime, there’s quite a bit of heat and humidity which should have an interesting effect on the barrels.

What Is Bayou Mardi Gras Rum

So what is Bayou Rum? The Bayou Rum Distillery is located in Lacassine, LA. They distill rum from locally grown sugar cane and molasses produced at the oldest operating sugar mill in the US. Their Bayou XO Mardi Gras rum is matured in bourbon barrels for up to 5 years and then finished for an extra year in Pedro Ximenez sherry barrels.

Tasting Notes – Kentucky Owl Mardi Gras Rye Review

Let’s taste it:

Rested for 15 minutes in a Glencairn

Nose: Rye spices, including allspice; hint of wintergreen; fairly sweet, with ample brown sugar and fruit, as well as citrus like tangerines, sweet mandarins or clementines as well as some tart lime; there’s even some cherry and plum; lightly burnt but yet buttery caramel; pine and oak; some vanilla to top it off.
Taste: Brown sugar, oak and caramel; fairly intense rye spices including nutmeg; butter-rum richness; wintergreen
Finish: Noticeable capsaicin spice with a cooling spearmint that develops later on to soothe the heat, and then lingers. Rich, rum notes are noticeable in the background, blending with the capsaicin spice, lingering rye spices and mint. Some barrel char develops towards the end. Long finish. Relatively mild burn

The nose is rich and full, presumably due to the age of the rye and long finishing times. The rum is noticeable in the nose and brings a deep, rich, sweetness. That continues on into the taste and even lingers on in the finish. Overall, the flavors are very complex and the more I sip, the more that I notice.

Kentucky Owl’s Own Tasting Notes

The tasting notes offered by Kentucky Owl speak of lots of sweet butter, allspice and nutmeg as well as cinnamon. I often don’t get the flavors mentioned in the official notes, but I have to say that this time I do notice them, minus the cinnamon, and plus a whole bunch of other flavors which add to the complexity. The age of the rye brings along some barrel flavors, such as vanilla and oak which are somewhat atypical for a rye, since the majority on the market are much younger.

Conclusion

All in all, this is a delicious rye. However, it is difficult not to comment on the fairly hefty price tag of around $500. Nonetheless, for that price you do get a very tasty well aged rye finished in some top notch barrels. If you do have the opportunity to try this rye, I think you will enjoy it. Cheers!

We hope you have enjoyed our Kentucky Owl Mardi Gras Rye review!

Thank you to Kentucky Owl for graciously providing the sample for this review! Kentucky Owl also has whiskeys priced around $50. Read about them in our Kentucky Owl The Wiseman Rye Review and our Kentucky Owl The Wiseman Bourbon Review (2022)!

Would you like to learn more about distilleries and bourbon? Are you planning a trip to Kentucky Distilleries? Maybe you would like to live the bourbon life vicariously through us? If any of these are true, then check out BourbonObsessed.com today!

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