Inside Angel’s Envy’s 2026 Cask Strength Bourbon and Rye, With Master Distiller Owen Martin

(Photos: Angel’s Envy)

Owen Martin’s first release as Angel’s Envy’s Master Distiller, in 2023, was a double: the annual Cask Strength Bourbon paired with the brand’s first Cask Strength Rye. He conceived it as a coming-out party, a signal that he had arrived and was making his mark. Any fans who loved the debut Angel’s Envy Cask Strength Rye and hoped it would join the bourbon as an annual release were disappointed for the next two years, but in 2026, it makes its triumphant return.

The 2026 release marks the 15th edition of Angel’s Envy Cask Strength Bourbon, which is joined by the return of the Cask Strength Rye, which Martin had shelved after that first release in 2023 while he waited for liquid he felt was truly worthy of the format. He was willing to wait. “When we bring out the cask strength rye,” he tells us, “it will be when we have something truly special to say around it.”

The 2026 rye, a 10-year age-stated expression — the first age-state rye in Angel’s Envy history – finished in Caribbean rum casks, makes a credible case that the wait was justified. And the bourbon, despite missing the 10-year age statement it had in 2025, is special in a new way, as well.

We tasted both expressions and sat down with Martin to discuss.

Angel’s Envy Cask Strength Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

117.8 proof | Finished in Ruby Port barrels | Distilled 2014-2019

Martin has been building what he calls a “Solera-inspired” program across the last several editions, a method in which each annual blend incorporates a portion of the previous release. He blends around 110 or 120 barrels, bottles only 100 barrels worth, and retains the rest as the foundation of the following year’s batch. By this year’s release, that accumulated thread runs deep, with nearly 40% of the barrels in the blend coming from the previous year.

The Solera process creates continuity year to year — a throughline of flavor that no single-vintage release can replicate. This edition spent up to three years in Ruby Port barrels, which may seem like a long time if you aren’t familiar Martin and his way of doing things. He believes spirits and finishing casks need extended time to stop trading flavors and become something unified, and three years in a Port barrel gives that process room to happen.

On the nose, it’s clear that it has. The Ruby Port influence arrives warmly and early, jammy and ripe, but it doesn’t overwhelm the distillate underneath. White chocolate, cornbread, cinnamon and cream cheese frosting fill the space around it, and the overall impression is of a sweet-leaning bourbon that has found its equilibrium. Nothing is fighting for attention.

The palate is about as hot as you’d expect. At 117.8 proof, this is a big whiskey, and the viscosity benefits — thick and oily, with a slightly fatty quality that coats the mouth and stretches out the experience. Caramel and peanut brittle arrive first, giving way to strawberry cheesecake and black cherry. Behind those, tart orange candies, cinnamon, cracked pepper and nutmeg cycle through in waves, and underneath all of it runs a subtle bitter oak note.

The finish is long and warm, opening on leather before turning toward slightly over-baked banana walnut muffins, dense and slightly over-caramelized. Tannin, vanilla and candied ginger follow, and then the Ruby Port makes its closing argument: dark chocolate-covered cherries, red grape and strawberry jam fade slowly.

The port finish works spectacularly in concert with the distillate here. It’s powerful but never at the expense of what’s underneath. The 15th edition is a delightful batch of Angel’s Envy Cask Strength, and the Solera thread is starting to show itself.

Click here for our full review and scoring of the Cask Strength Bourbon.

Angel’s Envy Cask Strength Rye 10 Years Old

111.6 proof | Finished in Caribbean rum casks | $269.99

The age statement on this bottle works differently than most American whiskey drinkers will expect, and it’s worth a moment to understand why before getting into what’s in the glass.

Angel’s Envy counts total time in wood toward its age claims — both the primary maturation in new charred oak and the time spent in the finishing cask. That’s the Scottish model, and it’s a deliberate choice on Martin’s part. A whiskey that spends six years in new oak and four years in a rum cask is not, technically speaking, a 10-year-old rye whiskey.

“Technically, it’s a 10-year-old whiskey, not a 10-year-old rye,” he says. “I’m not trying to hoodwink anyone. I’m just trying to lay out the facts and let people make their own decisions.”

The practical result is that the finishing time is far from decorative decorative. Four years in Caribbean rum casks, on the dominant component of this blend, is a secondary maturation in the truest sense (Martin doesn’t use the word “finish”).

The blend breaks down as follows: 69% is 10 years old, distilled in 2013 and 2015, that spent six years in new charred oak before four years in Caribbean rum casks. The remaining 31% is 12-year-old rye that finished in Caribbean rum casks for four months.

Rum is a more forgiving finishing vessel than wine; as a distilled spirit it lacks the sugar and tannin load that makes extended wine finishes so risky. But four years is still a remarkable commitment, and the rye had to be built to handle it.

It was. The rye’s essential spice character is well intact, and the final whiskey is a truly spectacular release.

The nose is spice-forward and assertive, with enough heat to suggest you give it a moment before diving in. Nutmeg, chili powder and clove lead, with fresh banana and caramel underneath. The rum influence is audible here but not dominant.

The palate is a different proposition entirely — a well-structured flavor bomb. The viscosity is pleasingly mouth-coating. There’s a good bit of drying tannin and plenty of clove and nutmeg. Cinnamon, pine, butterscotch, coconut, cocoa powder and candied orange fill in. Throughout all of it the rum casks are doing their work quietly, adding tropical sweetness that tempers the spice without ever softening the rye into something it isn’t.

The finish is where this whiskey lodges itself in your memory. Intensely spicy coming out of the gate — ginger, nutmeg and cracked pepper give way to cinnamon, clove and anise — and then it transitions into something drier and more oak-forward, tannin-driven and slightly parching, with a lovely combination of toasted (or perhaps burnt) marshmallow, singed orange peel and tropical rum funk. It leaves you with a dry throat, more than ready for the next sip.

Click here for our full review and scoring of the Cask Strength Rye.

Martin says his vision for the Cask Strength program is for each expression to represent the most elevated version of its corresponding everyday release. The standard Angel’s Envy rye is rum-finished; this takes that same framework and extends it across a decade of maturation and four years in the cask. More age, more finishing time, more integration, more proof. The result is a rye whiskey with the weight and authority the format demands.

Both expressions were released in limited quantities in mid-April. The bourbon will see roughly 20,640 bottles distributed domestically with an additional 1,446 allocated internationally. The rye is the scarcer of the two at approximately 10,800 bottles, available in the U.S. only.

This is certainly a year of Angel’s Envy Cask Strength to remember. Both expressions are excellent, and in such entirely different ways that choosing a favorite is damn near impossible, at least for this writer. It will be a mood-dependent preference, but you can’t go wrong with either.