Gingerbread | Cinnamon | Nutmeg | Light oak | Faint maple syrup | Heavy amburana influence

Thick syrup | Spiced honey | Gingerbread cookie | Maple candy | Rye spice

Syrup | Rye spice | Nutmeg | Gingerbread crumble | Dash of cinnamon stick | Oak | Light lingering rye spice

Dark Arts Whiskey House is a niche whiskey blending, rebarreling, and finishing house located in Lexington, Kentucky, and is headed by Macaulay Minton and David Peet. Ripple Rye II takes the company’s standard Small Batch Rye and goes an extra step further by adding maple syrup finishing barrels. Both of these finishing types can easily overwhelm the base whiskey, and using them in combination is a tricky endeavor.

Dark Arts Whiskey House is able to navigate the fine line between two dominant finishing types, without either  being too overpowering, resulting in a sip that’s sweet yet enjoyable. The sip starts with a heavy Amburana influence leading the way and being front and center. Gingerbread, cinnamon, and nutmeg rest against light oak and a faint maple syrup. Trading off lead roles, the maple syrup finishing barrel influence is the star of the show in the palate as thick syrup forms a base for the rest of the flavors to rest on. Spiced honey, gingerbread cookie, and maple candy push against a pleasing rye spice. The finish allows both leading roles to share the spotlight as syrup and Amburana influence bring about enjoyable flavors that trail off into a light, lingering spice.

The combination of both the maple syrup finishing barrel and Amburana oak staves does a great job of playing off one another. Where the Amburana influence can come off either too strong or not strong enough in parts of the company’s standard Small Batch Rye, the maple syrup barrel tends to fill in the gaps this time around. This allows for a clear rye spice influence, while also allowing for enough Amburana and maple syrup notes to be enjoyable but never too much. This is a really great spiced and syrup-influenced rye that fans of either finishing style will readily enjoy.

The rye in review is bottle number 1308 from batch volume 2.