Continuing progress on Jack Daniel’s rye whiskey; this one is 2 years old and labeled “straight.” Pale amber. New make sharpness, sawn oak, hard candy, and a flip of cinnamon bark: driven, simple, insistent nose. Thin on the palate: sweet, with an oily overlay of bitter grass and grainy flatness. A dry, contracting finish. Not flawed, but not particularly pleasant, either. Someone tell Jack; craft distillers get $50 for young rye because they’re small. JD should be half that.

Reviewed by: Lew Bryson (Summer 2014)