Molasses | Vinegar pie | Aged oak | Brown sugar | Tropical fruits | Light green melon

Brown sugar | Dark molasses | Faint raisins | Rye spice | Charred dry oak | Baking spices | Rum cake

White peppercorn spice | Rye spice | Black peppercorn | Toasted brown sugar | Faint rum-soaked raisins | Star anise | Rye bread | Dry oak

Angel’s Envy whiskey made its first appearance in 2011 with Bourbon Finished in Port Barrels, followed by Rye Finished in Rum Casks in 2013, both of which remain mainstay staples in the brand’s portfolio. Now on its 15th edition, Cask Strength Bourbon Finished in Port Barrels was first released in 2012, while the company didn’t release a Cask Strength Rye until 2023. This year’s release marks the first time that the Cask Strength Rye carries an age statement.

The standard Angel’s Envy Rye is a high rye whiskey aged for up to 18 months in Caribbean XO rum casks before being blended in small batches. To produce the 10 Year Cask Strength Rye, the company used straight rye that was distilled in 2013 and 2015 and aged in new charred American oak barrels. The company states that the rye was “double matured in Caribbean rum casks for up to four years.”

While the company states that the rye is aged for a combined total of at least 10 years, digging deeper you’ll begin to see what that actually means. Almost 70% of the blend is 10 year old rye that was aged in new oak barrels before being finished in Caribbean rum barrels for 4 years. The remaining percent was 12 year old rye that was finished in Caribbean rum barrels for 4 months.

The cumulative time spent aging in oak is evident as the rye reminds you of this fact every step of the sip. Opening with a large amount of molasses and a unique vinegar pie scent, the aroma pulls in additional scents of brown sugar and tropical fruits, along with light green melon. The palate lives up to what many may be expecting, thanks to brown sugar, dark molasses, raisin, and rum cake. Charred dry oak reminds you of the age while rye spice and baking spices temper down the sweetness. The finish starts off with spicier notes, before brown sugar and faint rum-soaked raisins push back against star anise and rye bread. A dry oak note rounds things out.

The standard Angel’s Envy Rye is a love-it-or-hate-it whiskey, thanks to its overwhelming sweetness derived from its rum barrel influence. If you were expecting an older, potentially even sweeter whiskey, you’ll walk away disappointed. Tasting these whiskeys side by side quickly reveals that you can’t treat them as a younger and older version of themselves. More so, Angel's Envy 10-Year Cask Strength Rye needs to be treated like the second cousin removed from the standard Angel’s Envy Rye.

While the standard Angel’s Envy Rye is overly molasses-forward, and for some, too influenced by the rum barrels, Angel's Envy 10-Year Cask Strength Rye balances its time in rum barrels with its overall age. Sweet notes are present, in the form of tropical fruits and dark molasses, but not to an overpowering effect. Instead, it’s bold aged oak notes and spices which often push hard to steal attention.

When you ignore the standard Angel’s Envy Rye altogether and focus on this as an expression that has no relation to the other one, the whiskey itself becomes much more interesting. The result is whiskey that will most likely appeal to a crowd that may not like the standard Angel’s Envy Rye given the contrasting sweetness and lower proof against the higher proof, less sweet cask strength version. Whether or not it can pull in new fans is a different question, as even coming in an ornate box, it’s hard to ignore its price tag of $270. It’s an interesting chapter for the company’s rye line, and it will be interesting to see what future iterations bring.

The rye in review is from batch number RC2 and is bottle number 5,002 of 10,800.