I Like My Whisky The Way I Like My Men TASTE

Whisky Review: Resurrection Pale Rye

Tell me about yourself. “Well I’m young + pale but have a LOT of personality…” ✨

The third ‘date’ that I’m on this month is with Resurrection Pale Rye. Full disclosure, this spirit is actually not technically a whisky based on Canadian standards (but could be a “Rye Whisky” according to American standards depending on the barrels used).

You see, in Canada, in order to call something a ‘whisky’ it must be aged for a minimum of 3 years, whereas there is no minimum aging requirement in the USA — the distillate just needs to touch new oak.

While this (almost) whisky is very spirit forward (lots of ethanol and hotness on the nose and palate which often can indicate that a whisky is young so it makes sense), it also presents a plethora of flavours.

TL;DR — Resurrection Pale Rye reminds me of: 𝐀 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧 𝐦𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐧

While Resurrection Spirits Pale Rye would lend itself to a Manhattan, I would recommend making it into a highball with tonic + an orange slice.
🥤🍊

It really allows the spirit to shine through.

Some quick notes about barrel sizes:

1️⃣ Whiskies are typically aged in either New White Oak or used-bourbon barrels (which are also made from White Oak). These barrels, called American Standard Barrels or ASBs for short, tend to be about 200L in size.

2️⃣ In the case of Resurrection Pale Rye, it’s aged in 20L barrels. Heard of “Quarter Casks” before? This is even smaller! Think of it like a Dime Cask.

3️⃣ So here’s the thing with smaller casks, is that the volume of liquid to wood ratio is a lot more concentrated which means the contents of the barrel age more rapidly (i.e. those vanilla, caramel, and spiced notes from the cask integrate into the spirit quickly).

4️⃣ FUN FACT: So the owner of Resurrection Spirits, Brian Grant, is also an incredible boxing coach and was one of my coaches for Aprons for Gloves in 2015! That’s right, I did a boxing fight back in the day. Swipe right for a vintage photo from it.