Rye Explorations Cask Strength No.03 | 53.5% ABV

The Essence of Cool?

Call cool what you want - the “it factor”, the “essence of cool”, or simply that certain “je ne sais quoi” - it’s something I think about a lot. Writing for Dramface is, in fact, cool - as I stated on that somewhat self-indulgent Dramface podcast.

More specifically, why do some products, places, organisations, designs, styles, and people seem to have it, while others… just don’t?

My wife and I were married on the 16th of the month and so every 16th I buy her flowers and we leave our phones at home and go for a date night to Dotty’s.

Our regular neighbourhood restaurant Dotty’s is a prime example of the “it factor” phenomenon. On a cold and dark autumn Wednesday night the surrounding residential streets are sleepy. All establishments within a few blocks radius are subdued as well. Staff are turning chairs upside down and sweeping the floors, likely thinking about how soon they can go home. But at Dotty’s, the dining room is loud and bustling, with every table filled.

Entering off the quiet street you feel transported. Place and time don’t seem to line up. The interior of Dotty’s is excessively sparse. Sound reflects off bare white walls and hard surfaces of the light stained wooden tables and the metal and tough plastic school classroom-style chairs. It takes a few minutes to recalibrate.

Some of the dining surfaces are bare plywood. Small green shaded lights overhang the bar and seem to be there for no other reason than someone at some time may have liked them. The bar has only six different bottles of spirits: one vodka, one gin, one rum, one mezcal, one bourbon, one scotch. The servers are friendly and casual, but professional. They never frazzle when things get hairy as they tend to do in a small and busy dining room. All situations are accommodated with a perceived ease and grace.

The scant interior design is reflected by a ruthlessly simple menu. A drinks sheet printed on a piece of paper smaller than A4 still manages to be twice the size of the food sheet. Less is more here, trimmed down to the bare skeleton of what someone wants your dining experience to be. You can get a shrimp cocktail, oeufs mayonnaise, a steak, a burger, a chicken sandwich, seasonal vegetable plate, and any dessert you want as long as it’s soft serve ice cream. That’s pretty much it.

We usually share a steak, salad, and an order of fries. Thick cut and crispy fries that I have proclaimed to be the best in the city. All accompanied by a glass of wine, or an effortlessly perfect cocktail. A night I always look forward to.

You’re thinking, so what? It’s steak frites and a glass of wine. What’s the big deal? To that I say, exactly. I don’t know what the big deal is and that is the reason for my fascination. My current working theory is that it boils down to vision and confidence. 

Whether it relates to whisky, food, fashion, music, or even something as innocuous as the design of a glass coffee carafe, there is something intangible about things that are created by someone who is where they are supposed to be, doing what they are supposed to be doing.

If you’re cool you can have missteps and be nonplussed. You’ve got the confidence of knowing what’s important. There’s no desperation in the air. We all have stumbles, but it’s forward progress that matters. Personally, I don’t think features such as ubiquity and a lack of nitpick-able qualities align with a seven out of ten. But that’s what’s cool about Dramface: each writer gets their own say. A five from me might be the same as a seven from another reviewer. With ownership and conviction we can accept our differences and move on.

There was a certain desperation that I perceived with the first Lot 40 Rye Explorations release, which inspired the subject of that review. The peated whisky cask finish seemed to me like a reactionary take from someone lacking the vision to really know what the next steps should be following the success of the age stated Lot 40 cask strength releases.

Second was the Port Cask release. I didn’t know it at the time but looking back, the port finished rye had that je ne sais quoi. Even with a potentially sketchy blending provenance there was a casually confident attitude to the whisky. As if Daddy Don was speaking softly in my ear, “it is what it is, so drink up and like it you filthy animal.”

Review

Lot 40 Cask Strength, Rye Explorations Cask Strength Series No.03, Cherry Wood Finished Canadian Rye, 53.5% ABV
CA$100 (£55) Limited release, expected to be on Canadian shelves for a few months.

I guess, like our date nights, me reviewing the latest Lot 40 special release has become a bit of a tradition. This third and latest tampered-with rye expression from the Hiram Walker distilling factory is a finishing exploration using casks made from cherry wood. Ah yes, those pesky Canadian whisky makers are at it again with the rules that nobody understands. Behold, Canadian whisky can be aged in woods other than oak!

Nose

Musty/dusty. Liquorice allsorts, wood chips (cedar?), red/green. Green wood. Laundry? Some sort of household cleaner. Candied orange, milk chocolate, marzipan.

Palate

A screaming missile of orange bitters and cherry stem rye-somness. Total Exocet (pardon the Crystalism). Upon first taste of the freshly opened bottle my ryethusiasm is activated. Cherry juice, liquorice, cherry and agave syrups, orange and almond oils mingle together with a perfect sweetness and herbal bitterness (wormwood?). Triple sec vibes. If you’re into bitter aperitivos, this one is for you.

The Dregs

I’m struggling a bit scoring this one because for my first few days with it I was obsessed and poised to dole out an impressive score. Nosing and tasting in multiple sessions, those bitter orange and almond oil notes were captivating and immensely satisfying.

Now that I’ve lived with the bottle for a few weeks, subsequent tastings don’t quite have that same zing and the woodiness is coming through a little stronger. Still, I’ll be buying a second bottle for the stash - it’s good stuff and I’d like to see how it holds up five or ten years on. One final taste on a Sunday afternoon alongside a Turkish coffee. The rye absolutely nukes my funky natural Ethiopian, cementing its score.

Back to the topic at hand - is it cool?

My assessment is that it is not uncool. It would have fared better if it was released a few years ago, as cask tricks seem to be less in favour these days with the herd moving towards more interesting distillates. Though the funny thing about cool is that if they stay the course with this NAS cask finish series it may end up being a winner.

Final note: Apologies for beating the scoring horse to death but I have been thinking of ways to help avoid confusion for readers in that regard. It may be beneficial to include an unambiguous note to signify that the scoring of a whisky is based on the liquid alone and not confounded with other factors such as price, ubiquity, or cool factor. Going forward I’ll add this indication to my dregs and I encourage other authors who try to score based solely on the liquid to do the same. Similar to how some brands indicate on the label that their whiskies are not chill filtered with no added colour:

Score is unmodified.

Score: 6/10

Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. AMc

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