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Pinhook 2026 Vertical Series Straight Rye Whiskey Aged 10 Years spirit image
91Excellent

Pinhook 2026 Vertical Series Straight Rye Whiskey Aged 10 Years

Rye Pinhook
  • Distiller

    MGP

  • Bottler

    Castle & Key

  • ABV

    53%

  • Age

    10 Years

  • Price $60 to $99.99

Released in February 2026, this 10-year-old rye whiskey is the latest release in Pinhook's Vertical Series. The Vertical Series is a series of releases of bourbon and rye whiskeys, each releasing once per year. Pinhook acquired a large lot of barrels from MGP in Indiana, sent them to age at Castle & Key in Frankfort, Kentucky, and has been releasing a portion of the barrels each year. Every release is one year older, allowing enthusiasts to compare whiskey each year with all variables except for age removed. The rye is distilled from 95% rye and 5% malted barley.

Blended from 25 barrels, the 2026 release is bottled unfiltered at a cask-strength 106 proof. The series, originally planned to be a 12-year project, is now planned to extend to 16 years.

Pinhook 2026 Vertical Series Rye 10 Year has suggested retail price of $99.99.

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Aggregated Reviews
  • Raided Score: 91
  • The Daily Pour
  • By David Morrow
  • This is a killer rye. It's great neat and would be an absolute superstar cocktail whiskey — although with a $99.99 MSRP, I'll understand if you'd rather enjoy it neat.
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Raided Score is a conversion from an external site's score, to our in house uniform scoring system. Please see the FAQ for more.

House Review
  • Nose:

    Uber-spicy on the nose. Huge notes of ginger, pine, dill and clove are accentuated by light sweet notes: caramel, cookie butter. Interestingly, there's also a bit of a citrus peel note here that I don't recall from previous editions.

  • Taste:

    Great viscosity here. Those herbaceous dill and pine notes from the nose are here on the palate, but they're surrounded by pleasing dry oak, a big ginger note and cinnamon, as well as milk chocolate-sea salt caramels, saltwater taffy, candied lemon peel and a wisp of smoke.

  • Finish:

    The finish is long and goes in a very different direction from the palate. The herbaceous profile subsides in favor of more lemon peel, caramel, toasted oak, drying tannin and — you know that Thanksgiving baked sweet potato dish that's topped with mini marshmallows? Yeah, that, weirdly, but it works.

  • Overall:

    The herbaceous MGP rye profile is dialed up to 11 here, and it pairs wonderfully with 10 years of aging in oak. On my initial tasting, I felt this was lacking cohesion, but with some air it really came around, adding a bright lemon note that really ties the profile together. This is a killer rye. It's great neat and would be an absolute superstar cocktail whiskey — although with a $99.99 MSRP, I'll understand if you'd rather enjoy it neat.

  • Score:

    91

  • Disclosure: The producer provided this sample to review free of charge, and without expectation of review or rating.

  • By David Morrow
  • Our in house critic rates spirits on a scale of 0-10 (10 best) and is aggregated the same as external sources