Whiskey Review: Hudson Maple Cask Rye

In the beginning, quite nice. The whiskey opens with sweet, dessert-like notes at first, with a strong cinnamon candy character followed by a lovely combination of rye and the smoky caramel of maple syrup. That pleasant entry is derailed, sadly, by an intense blast of charred, tannic oak culminating in a heavy, carbonic finish reminiscent of a charred barbecue rib. The effect is a leaden one, stripping away the pleasure of the midpalate and leaving a punishing dose of oak in its place. The finish is laden with oak and quite fiery, with the hot bite of very young rye. Maple and whiskey is a natural pairing (try replacing the sugar cube in an old fashioned with a little glug of syrup – the real stuff – and see what I mean). My hopes for this bottle were high, but unfortunately it just failed to deliver. The oak character is incredibly intense; from the midpalate on this whiskey is dominated by young, raw oak, making it hard to pick up anything but the faintest notes of maple. The packaging is beautiful and I like the distinctive stubby shape, but it’s hard to recommend this one to anybody interested in what’s inside the bottle. I give the Hudson Maple Cask Rye Whiskey a score of 65 points. Should you want to hunt down a bottle, even though it may be a bit overpriced for what it is, there are a range of online retailers with it for sale. [graphiq id=”l6P51OhGv9X” title=”Hudson Maple Rye Whiskey Overview ” width=”700″ height=”500″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/l6P51OhGv9X” link=”https://whiskey.underthelabel.com/l/1830/Hudson-Maple-Rye-Whiskey” link_text=”Hudson Maple Rye Whiskey Overview | UnderTheLabel”]