Made with green malt: not kilned, taken just as it’s ready from malting to be fermented and distilled, timing that accounts for some of the price and limited availability of this unique spirit. Smells like a shed full of drying herbs and flowers; vegetal souls transmigrated to the bottle. Herbal, European, restrained barrel character, headily vaporous in the mouth. An invigorating elixir I’d like to keep handy in a small flask; a little goes a long way. Fascinatingly different. Price is per 375 ml.

Reviewed by: Lew Bryson (Summer 2014)

Coppersea uses New York grain (75% rye, 25% malt), mashed in wooden tanks and distilled in direct-fire copper pot stills. This unaged spirit is highly aromatic: hay, sunny meadow, hints of lavender and tansy, honeydew melon. Brilliantly herbal flavors, sweet grass, gobs of white pepper, lemon balm, and a long-lingering sweet heat. Almost more like an eau de vie than a whiskey, with layer upon layer to discover. Heretical thought: this might be wasted on a barrel.

Reviewed by: Lew Bryson (Summer 2014)

A bottled in bond sequel to the 48% ABV Bonticou Crag Straight Malt Rye whiskey, this second Empire rye from Coppersea Distilling is made from 100% Hudson Valley rye. A whiff of new wood yields to complex notes of blood orange, iced tea, cinnamon, cloves, and red candy. A palate of allspice, mint, white pepper, and orange peel is followed by a spicy, herbaceous finish that also offers citrus, chocolate, and a hint of tobacco.

Reviewed by: David Fleming (Spring 2019)

A very grain-forward nose, reminiscent of caraway or a fresh pumpernickel loaf. A soft, dusty rye, with hints of peppermint, spearmint, and cinnamon candy and bitter brown sugar. Quite dry, with some bitter oak, dry hay, and fresh-sawn lumber. Dried herbs, grilled pineapple, and lingering pepper on the finish. Made from rye malted by hand and distilled in direct-fired stills, this whiskey is more focused on grain than oak. Empire rye

Reviewed by: Adam Polonski (Spring 2018)

Overripe fruit, orange Creamsicle (and its stick), cedar oil, and wood spice on the nose. The palate is tannic with robust orange, oak, cinnamon, cherry Luden’s cough drops, and herbal cough syrup. It finishes on oak, chocolate, nuts, and cinnamon—a bit hot, but softened with generous water.

Reviewed by: Susannah Skiver Barton (Fall 2019)

Fresh grains and sawn oak on the nose, with some green grass and stalks. Spicy, fresh flavors of corn and oak, along with a doughy softness that contrasts with the 48% ABV heat. There’s a somewhat bosky note of leaves and duff, a salty cracker component, and a medicinal hint; the almost herbal complexity I’ve come to expect from Coppersea. Interesting, tasty, well off the beaten bourbon path.

Reviewed by: Lew Bryson (Summer 2016)

Another “green malt” whiskey from Coppersea, a method they found in an old Scottish text for making whiskey from unkilned malt. This is much more vegetal than the rye (reviewed in Summer 2014); rank grass aroma, with a sweetness behind it, without the lovely complexity of the rye. Bitter and stemmy; hot and sweet as it closes. I much prefer the rye.

Reviewed by: Lew Bryson (Spring 2016)