We were staying in San Francisco about a month ago and I happened upon this stuff in a liquor store there. It looked interesting - a rye whiskey from Washington state - and it was very reasonably priced so I grabbed a bottle.
Big mistake.
This is one weird bottle of rye. All it took was one whiff from the open bottle and I gave up on putting it in a Manhattan. It has a sweet, off-putting nose that I've never encountered in a whiskey before. I was initially even a little afraid to try it, wondering if they'd botched the distillation in such a way as to get something nasty in it. I corked it up and brought it home. Tonight, I pulled it out for comparison with a couple of other ryes just to make sure I wasn't missing something. I wasn't. The Masterson's 10 year, while lacking in rye character, was smooth and tasty with typical barrel-derived flavors of vanilla, caramel, etc. The James E. Pepper 1776 put the grain character front and center with the spicy rye flavor backed by the barrel notes. The Blue Flame tasted like very young wood, with little rye character and that sweet, somewhat nasty flavor standing out. A check on their website gave a tasting note with adjectives like brown sugar, plums, and chocolate truffle. That sweet flavor was a little plummy, but that's really not what I want in whiskey. I don't have the experience to know for sure but I wonder if this was made in small barrels and left too long in them.
I hate to bash a craft distiller, but this is really not good stuff. I would still be willing to try some of their other products in the hope that they're getting them right but I'm afraid this rye may be going down the drain.