New Mad River Distillers Rye Whiskey Finished in Silver Oak Red Wine Barrels

Vermont’s Mad River Distillers recently announced a collaboration with CaskForce, a Boston-based retailer that curates cask- finished whiskey, to create a new limited release rye whiskey that has been finished in red wine barrels.

The team up began two years ago when Caskforce founder Nick O’Connell hit upon the idea of filling toasted American oak barrels that once housed cabernet sauvignon from Napa Valley winery Silver Oak Cellars with Mad River’s signature Revolution Rye, a whiskey said to be “distilled with roasted ‘chocolate’ rye from the Northeast, which adds a complex and aromatic cocoa/mocha note to the spicy nature of the organic rye grains.”

O’Connell sourced five of these barrels and shipped them to the other side of the country, where they were filled with the Revolution Rye and then left to age in Mad River’s rickhouse in Warren, Vermont.

The whiskey in question was already one of Mad River’s best, thanks to its unusual 100 percent rye mashbill, but aging it in the Silver Oak barrels has, according to a prepared statement from Mad River’s head distiller Alex Hilton, “heightened the roasted notes of the chocolate rye in our mashbill, while adding a lush velvet smoothness to the mouthfeel of the whiskey.”

Caskforce’s O’Connell was equally impressed.

“I thought the dark berry and white pepper notes of the Silver Oak cabernet casks were the perfect complement to the rich cocoa notes of Mad River’s rye whiskey,” he said as well.

The new 48% ABV Mad River Rye Whiskey release is currently only available through select retailers in Vermont and Massachusetts, as well as directly from Mad River, and are priced at around $55 per bottle.