Sips & Sites & Bites

Something “old” is new again. In fact, the makers of the iconic whiskey Old Overholt just unveiled Old Overholt Extra Aged Cask Strength Rye, a 10-year-old rye whiskey that will hit shelves nationwide in limited quantities this fall. 

The new expression was aged in an escalator-style warehouse before being bottled at cask strength. This unfiltered release gives whiskey drinkers, and collectors alike, the opportunity to experience Old Overholt’s spice and depth in a more robust, cask strength expression.

Old Overholt Extra Aged Cask Strength Rye may be new, but it comes from the makers of the oldest continually produced and maintained whiskey in America. 

And this release marks the first publicly available, cask strength expression from the brand since the mid-20^th century.

Old Overholt Extra Aged Cask Strength Rye was barreled in the fall and winter of 2012 and laid down in one of the few remaining “Escalator Warehouses” in Clermont, Kentucky — Warehouse V. 

This style of warehousing, the distiller explained, leads to consistency and gentle mellowing over time for the small batch of barrels curated for this special release.

Old Overholt Extra Aged Cask Strength Rye features aromas and tastes of mellowed oak, sweet corn, and vanilla underpinned by warm black pepper and cinnamon-toast spice. It finishes with lingering rye spice and vanilla. It’s balanced yet complex flavors of brown sugar and honey underlie leather and charred oak.

The rye clocks in at a cask strength of 121 proof, and it sells for $99.99 for a 750ml bottle.

Old Overholt Straight Rye Whiskey was originally created in West Overton, Pennsylvania in 1810 by its namesake, Abraham Overholt. Today, the Pennsylvania-born whiskey of the industrial revolution is produced in Clermont, Kentucky at the James B. Beam Distilling Co.