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Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye 13 Year Old spirit image
94Excellent

Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye 13 Year Old

Rye Buffalo Trace Van Winkle
  • Distiller

    Buffalo Trace

  • Bottler

    Buffalo Trace

  • ABV

    47.8%

  • Age

    13 Years

  • Price $200+

This is an older release from Buffalo Trace and the Van Winkles. Age stated to be 13 years, though unofficially a bit older if I'm not mistaken, this is potentially a great sweet spot for rye, especially a rye that is so well regarded as the BT/BH blend of tanked ryes at Buffalo Trace. A year or two after this release, the distillate that was tanked ran out and BT went back to being the sole supplier of rye for this line. I've been looking forward to this one for some time, especially as I've had a bit of rye lately. Let's get to it.

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Aggregated Reviews
  • Raided Score: 100
  • Breaking Bourbon
  • By Nick Beiter
  • Delicious and memorable. A perfect balance of spicy and sweet, youth and age.
  • Read Full Review
  • Raided Score: 92
  • The Bourbon Culture
  • By Mike & Mike
  • It’s a fantastic sipping rye that should please every kind of rye whiskey lover out there. But it’s not a standout and definitely gets outclassed by rye whiskies that are more affordable and obtainable.
  • Read Full Review
  • Raided Score: 85
  • Amongst The Whiskey
  • By Nick Anderson
  • A gossamer, barely-legal rye that sips like a light cup of black tea on a Summer's eve.
  • Read Full Review
  • Raided Score: 100
  • Drinkhacker
  • By Drew Beard
  • I haven’t tasted the more recent, all-Trace version of this rye, but given the age and actual rarity of the whiskey in this blend, I can say with near certainty that they just don’t make them like this anymore. And probably never will again.
  • Read Full Review
  • Raided Score: 92
  • Distiller
  • By Rob Morton
  • Finish is long and complex with cherries and pepper notes continuing through.
  • Read Full Review
  • Raided Score: 95
  • The Daily Pour
  • By t8ke
  • This is incredible. Falling just a touch shy of the epic Bernheims I've been lucky enough to try, but this is one of the best ryes I've ever had, full stop.
  • Read Full Review

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:

    Leather, old tobacco, dusty book, rye spice and toffee. Intensely sweet, pungent and rich. It smells like an excellent pipe tobacco. There's a little herbal quality, but it's pretty tame.

  • Taste:

    Thick and rich on the palate. For the proof it coats the palate excellently. Rich and syrupy, with really powerful notes like oak, toffee, pipe tobacco, stewed fruits and almost a cocoa note. Decadent, wonderful, complex.

  • Finish:

    Long, more tobacco here, lots of cream and sweetness, pungent rye spice and pepper, faintly herbal.

  • Overall:

    This is incredible. Falling just a touch shy of the epic Bernheims I've been lucky enough to try, but this is one of the best ryes I've ever had, full stop. If there is a single Van Winkle that lives up to any sort of the pedestal they are put on, I think it's this one. I don't have any newer VWFRR to review, but I've heard tale they aren't as close to as good as this is, which is a bummer, so I'll let this be my mental image of Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye. It's a good one.

  • Score:

    95

  • By t8ke
  • Our in house critic rates spirits on a scale of 0-10 (10 best) and is aggregated the same as external sources