2019 Pinhook "Whiskey Neat" Rye Review
This is the first barrel pick I ever had the luxury of being a part of and it happened to be on Kristopher Hart's radio show / podcast on Whiskey Neat which can be found on ESPN 97.5 in Houston, youtube and facebook or wherever podcasts go to die. The label is all jacked up by those Pinhookers up in Kentucky and should state "Selected by Whiskey Neat" but that's ok. Mistakes happen.
So I actually filmed an episode of Bad Wine Reviews to review this along with Doug Carroll, Jordan Hill, Nicholas Talamantes, Alex Pritchett and Natalie Freshout but, y'all...it was bad. We were all fucked up on White Claws and Knob Creek 2002 and it just derailed into burps, fart jokes and trash talking the peasantry. I'll share the funniest part - Jordan dropped a joke and said "I actually ordered a bottle called the Barbaro but it arrived shattered..." Goddammit, Jordan.
So from watching the video I took some notes down from everyone's perspective and in da nose people got marshmallow and candied fruit primarily. In da mouf there were mentionings of dill, spice and pear. The positives were that it had way more flavor than previous Pinhooks the panel had experienced and the spice was complimentary rather than distracting from the overall balance. It did drink a bit thin for 115 proof which seemed to be the biggest complaint.
Overall people were very happy with it. It was definitely better than when we tasted it on the show and I'm very happy this is the first product I can put my name to. The rankings people gave it were: Natalie - 4.0; Nicholas - 3.5; Jordan - 3.6; Doug - 3.5; Alex - 3.7; Darryl - 3.4. I will give it a 3.4 since that is the lowest to keep what little integrity I have left.