For the last few years, Arbikie have been breaking the scotch whisky mould by making rye whisky – the first to be officially produced in Scotland in over 100 years!
Nestled in Inverkeilor near Arbroath, Arbikie is an independently-owned family-run distillery whose farm dates back some 400 years. In addition to growing their own crops and using their own water source, Arbikie is aiming to be one of the world’s most sustainable distilleries, and manages to create its whisky from start to finish (or “field to bottle”) all within their farmland.
The 1794 Highland Rye represents their core, flagship expression of their rye whisky – using the “single grain scotch whisky” moniker. The name 1794 in fact refers to the year that Arbikie was first known to be a whisky distillery, albeit the distillery as we now know it was founded in 2013.
For this release, the base spirit has been created from a mash bill consisting of 60% winter-harvested rye, 25% spring-harvest malted barley, and 15% of winter-harvested wheat. The spirit has then been aged in new charred American oak casks. The final spirit is bottled at a hearty 48% ABV at its natural colour and without chill-filtration. The full-sized 70cl bottles are currently available at RRP of £95 GBP.
Nose
Rye bread is the immediate and obvious note, after it is delivered by quite the perfumed punch. The 48% ABV, the youth, and the rye base of this thing makes sure that it gets right up the nostrils! Beneath the immediate rye notes are the smells of vanilla custard, apple turnovers, Danish pastries, and an earthy conference pear note. Speaking of earthy, for all the spice and orchard fruits, it remains quite grassy and funky.
Taste
Honey on toast is the first sensation that springs to mind. On second visit there’s quite the cereal note to it – maybe a combo of honey nut cornflakes, porridge oats, and muesli? There’s a nice brown sugar flavour to it too, along with some almondy/nutty notes plus some stewed apple that bring a strong Mr Kipling’s Bramley Apple Pie set of favours to the palate. Aaaaand then whoosh… in come the spices: mace, nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, clove, allspice, anise, cardamom, black pepper, black pepper, and then… some more black pepper. Rye spice aplenty.
Finish
The rye spices don’t actually linger for too long as they fizzle away and there’s a cleansing menthol-like sensation, which keeps thins short and snappy. The menthol note seems to leave behind a final, slightly bitter finish, like that left after tasting some rich dark chocolate / cocoa.
Verdict
Well… a lot of flavours and strong influences on display here. This is quite the eye-opener in terms of what Scottish rye whisky tastes like and where it could go. It is certainly a lot lighter and less cloying than American Rye whiskies. There are a lot of flavours vying for attention and they pack a punch whilst doing so.
With regard to the branding and package being offered by Arbikie, the bold flavours are certainly mirrored by the bold fonts and design in the whisky’s packaging. Arbikie are not messing around here and are delivering something different.
This was tasted as part of a Tweet Tasting event, organised by the tireless Steve Rush @TheWhiskyWire, and on the night, this was an interesting deviation from my normal tipple. As a whisky nerd, I was keen to try this one out. We were also able to try their limited “Artists Edition” single grain, which is available at (a staggering) £250 per bottle. The experience was lighter and silky but still laden with rye spices and additional sweet and herbed notes.
In my ongoing hunt for my new favourite whisky and regular tipple, the 1794 Highland Rye was not exactly my cup of tea and is certainly not really accessible at that price point to make it appear on my shelf as an occasional sipper or unusual addition to the home roster.
If you don’t like your dram to be that spicy, then you would do well to shy away from this one. By extension however, if you are partial to spicy whiskies – by which I mean the oak spices in your traditional Scotch malt whiskies, rather than any gimmicky cinnamon or chilli-infused whiskies – then this might be something that you want to seek out. The rye spices add an additional dimension to the charred oak barrel’s spice.
Overall, I’m glad to have tried their core release and this will be a distillery that I’ll keep a keen eye on as time goes by to see how that spice level develops with age. For now though: big rye spice and depth, whilst remaining light and clean on the palate is the name of the game here.
M
Sample disclosure: This sample was received as part of an Arbikie Tweet Tasting event run by The Whisky Wire using #ArbikieDistillery. All notes are intended as an honest, fair, and independent review of the whisky, and not as a promotion. Please drink responsibly. Please drink wisely.
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