Hard to believe I’m still catching up on reviewing products I bought close to a year ago (hey, by the time this review gets published, I may have bought it more than a year ago!), but here we are putting down some words about a product I bought on our Thanksgiving weekend 2024 trip to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. Roaming Man Rye is a Tennessee Straight Rye Whiskey made by the Sugarlands Distilling Company, better known for their moonshines in a wide variety of flavors. We did the moonshine tasting and it was great, but ultimately, I decided to buy something in the way of a “regular” whiskey. This rye whiskey is marketed toward the hiking crowd (count me as part of that) with the tagline “Whiskey for the wandering spirit.”
I got a small bottle of Batch XIV, bottle number 5554, with 37 barrels included in the batch, barreled in early to mid 2019, and bottled at cask strength…111.1 proof or 55.5% ABV. The mash bill consists of 51% rye (so it’s barely a legal rye whiskey), 45% corn, and 4% malted barley. The label states that it is “distilled in copper post stills, a labor-intensive process rarely used in America. This hands-on approach results in the retention of more congeners that impart robust and complex flavors.”
In the glass, the Roaming Man Rye was a medium-dark amber…reddish-orange with an emphasis on the reddish. The nose gave up notes of oak and baking spice up front, with a subtle caramel sweetness and vanilla coming through as I took repeated sniffs and sought to dig through the oakiness up front. On the first part of the sip, the sweeter dark fruit notes came to the fore, while spice built up, both from the rye in the blend and the elevated proof point. Mid-palate it was hard to get anything but cinnamon and pepper spice, but as it got to the back of the palate and into the finish, notes of char and oak came through. Having such a high corn amount does mellow the overall rye spice aspect in Roaming Man, probably making it a better “transition” whiskey for those who are bourbon acolytes but curious about rye (count me in there, too). Very good whiskey that is elevated in overall impact by the high viscosity of the non-chill-filtered juice that helps to impart an extra-long finish. This whiskey is available at Sugarlands Distillery and I believe it has a limited distribution outside the distillery, as well…if you can get your hands on it, I’d give it a try.
