Orange rind | Light oak | Faint caramel | Rye bread | Citrus forward | Gentle

Off-putting oak | Watered down vanilla syrup | Leather | Muted rye spice | Earthy

Rye spice | White peppercorn spice | Chewy tannic oak | Leather | Building dryness

Redemption Sur Lee Straight Rye was originally released in 2022 as a limited-release product. The rye is produced by adapting the French winemaking “sur lie” aging technique, which we discuss in depth in our review of the 2022 version. Since its release, Redemption Whiskey has added Sur Lee as an ongoing product to its Specialty Series, joining its other Specialty Series products, including Wheated Bourbon, Rum Cask Finish, Cognac Cask Finish, and High Rye Bourbon Single Barrel Select. With its inclusion in the Specialty Series, Sur Lee has also been provided with a slight packaging redesign since its initial release.

Redemption Sur Lee opens with an inviting promising aroma that is citrus-forward thanks to an up front orange rind note along with rye bread and faint caramel. It’s the best part of the sip before it takes a hard 90 degree turn when you sip it, which has you scratching your head at what just happened. None of the brightness in the nose is present, instead, more muted and watered-down flavors emerge in the palate. The finish isn’t much better, highlighting spice along with oak and leather, which adds to an increasing dryness that builds in the tail end of the finish. I was hoping that Redemption would have taken the 2 years since the initial release to help refine Sur Lee, but not much has changed, and the end result is still a lackluster sip that doesn’t leave you inspired to go back for a second pour. The Sur Lee concept is intriguing, and with additional age it may produce a different result. But in the meantime, the only thing different about this latest release is its updated bottle design.