Black Button Distilling Empire Straight Rye Whiskey
Black Button Distilling, out of Rochester, NY, is putting out some damn fine whiskey at a relatively young age. The foremost among them - of the ones I’ve tried, that is - is without a doubt the Empire Straight Rye.
I’ve gone on before about how rye just has this intangible ability to mature faster than bourbon or any other whiskey you can think of. A good-to-great two year old bourbon is rare. A great two year old rye is more common, and particularly with craft distilling (we’ll get to that definition later) rye can prove a distillery’s worth and skill before their bourbon is ready.
For Black Button, that’s not exactly an issue - their four-grain bourbon, both the “blue label” 84-proof and the 110-proof cask strength - are quite good where they’re at, and with the shifts they’re making I expect it to get even better. I’ll leave that info for those reviews, though.
With all due respect to their bourbons, the rye is on a different level. Using the rarely-found Danko rye varietal (also used by Dancing Goat Distillery in Wisconsin) brings a clearly different flavor to the rye, and now that I’ve had that varietal from multiple distilleries I am confident in saying it has a unique profile. A mashbill that varies between 94-95% rye, the rest being New York-sourced malted barley, has echoes of that famous 95/5 recipe without being at all simply a younger version.
Herb-forward, slightly sweet, with a nice peppery guaiacol undertone, the Empire Rye presents its own “New York Rye” profile, and I’m here for it.
About Empire Rye - the “Empire Rye” designation came about in 2014 with six New York-based distilleries: Coppersea Distilling, Black Button Distilling, Tuthilltown (formerly Hudson), New York Distilling, Kings County Distillery, and Finger Lakes Distilling. Since then, nearly 20 distilleries across the state have signed on. The designation has four requirements:
75% or more of its grain has to be New York-grown rye
It must be distilled to no more than 160 proof;
It must be put into a barrel at no more than 115 proof (the legal limit of barreling for whiskey in the U.S. is 125 proof)
The bottled spirit must be at least two years old
Two of these requirements are pretty easy: the limit of 160 proof distillation is the U.S. legal limit for whiskey, and most distilleries will want at least a two-year-old product to be able to put “straight” on the label for their whiskies. There are exceptions, of course, but that’s a clear dividing point.
The other two are more complicated but allow for more variation. The minimum 75% rye grown in New York is, for now, doable with the vast farmlands in “upstate” New York (yes, for us New York City-ites, everything above Rockland County is upstate). People sometimes forget 1) how large New York is and 2) the huge agricultural output available. In Black Button’s case, I’m honestly more surprised they’re able to source New York-grown malted barley. Black Button uses a 94-95% rye recipe; Coppersea uses a 100% rye mash bill, and the range is as large as is allowable among the 20-or-so distilleries, and each mash bill represents the Empire Rye designation in its own way.
The final item - the 115-proof maximum - is less…important isn’t the right word, because it is important…less limiting, perhaps? 125 proof is the legal limit for barrel entry by U.S. law. While some of the biggest distilleries enter at 125 proof (Heaven Hill, Jim Beam, for example), plenty of distillers big and small enter at lower proofs, including Maker’s Mark, whose recent DNA Series experiment was a brilliant showing of why a 110 proof barrel entry works for them. Some enter at as low as 103 proof (Michter’s, Peerless), and there are probably distillers entering at lower proofs than that. The biggest impediment to the lower entry proof is cost - lower proof means more barrels are needed for less whiskey - and with a supposed looming barrel shortage and competition at cooperages large and small, that’s a significant decision to make, one that not every distillery in New York can handle.
To sum it up, Empire Rye isn’t an order for what your recipe should be - rather, it is designed to be a mark of quality and of place-of-origin, like Tennessee Whiskey is for Jack Daniel’s and Cascade Hollow or any number of similar appellations. New York has a long, great legacy of rye and rye distillation (paused as it was everywhere else by Prohibition), and seeing it revived is truly a joy for a born-and-bred like I am. I don’t like every Empire Rye out there, and wouldn’t expect myself to. Black Button’s Empire Rye is 100% in my “like” column, and it’s a product I’m proud to share as a New Yorker to show what our rye can do.
Thank you to Black Button Distilling for providing this bottle for the review with no strings attached.
Black Button Distilling Empire Straight Rye Whiskey: Specs
Classification: New York Straight Rye Whiskey
Origin: Black Button Distilling
Mashbill: 94% Danko Rye, 6% New York-Sourced Malted Barley
Proof: 84 (42% ABV)
Age: 2+ Years Old
Barrel Size: 15- and 30-Gallon (Transitioning to 53-Gallon as of Writing)
Location: New York
Black Button Distilling Empire Straight Rye Whiskey Price: $75
Black Button Distilling Empire Straight Rye Whiskey Review: Tasting Notes
Eye: Golden apple juice. No rims, large, splotchy drips and blobs.
Nose: Maybe because of the mashbill and smaller barrel (these are aged in 15- and 30-gallon barrels for now), it’s reminiscent of an MGP 95/5 at around four years old. Dilly, herbal, slightly minty. Peach nectar, stone fruits for sure. No proof or oak - gains sweetness with air.
Palate: Lots of peach nectar waiting for its champagne partner. Like a non-bubbly Bellini, slightly dry, stone fruits galore. Some cinnamon and sweet clove hit the back palate and throat with a warming sensation. Mouthfeel is silky, quite oily, veering towards sweet with a little raw rye opening on the chew. Cooling in front, warming in back.
Finish: Flavor is medium-length, feeling is long - dilly, sweet, and peachy all the way.
Overall: Not every Empire Rye is ready when it’s bottled, despite the designation being meant as a sign of quality. This one, however, is both ready as is and has promise to go further with more age. It’s all peaches and sweet herbs, delicious as a sipper and would make a solid, though sweet, cocktail. Drinks above its proof without being hot.
Final Rating: 6.7
10 | Insurpassable | Nothing Else Comes Close (Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Old Label Batch 4 or 2, Blanton’s Straight from the Barrel)
9 | Incredible | Extraordinary (GTS, Elijah Craig Barrel Proof B518 and B520)
8 | Excellent | Exceptional (Stagg Jr. Batch 10, Highland Park Single Barrels)
7 | Great | Well above average (Blanton’s Original, Old Weller Antique, Booker’s)
6 | Very Good | Better than average (Four Roses Small Batch Select, Knob Creek 14+ YO Picks)
5 | Good | Good, solid, ordinary (Elijah Craig Small Batch, Buffalo Trace, Old Grand-Dad Bottled-in-Bond)
4 | Has promise but needs work
1-3 | Let’s have a conversation
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