Taste Test: This Whiskey’s Novel Barrel Aging Sets It Apart From Other American Single Malts

Welcome to Taste Test, where every week our critic Jonah Flicker explores the most buzzworthy and interesting whiskeys in the world. Check back each Sunday for his latest whiskey review.

If you follow American whiskey, you know that American single malt is now an officially recognized category after receiving its long-awaited TTB designation last December. That was great news for the many craft distilleries that have been making this style of whiskey for decades, and the legacy distilleries that recently got onboard. It was also good news for New Riff, a relatively young Kentucky distillery that is known for its excellent bottled-in-bond bourbon and rye and also happens to be making some of the most interesting and tasty single malt in the country.

A few weeks ago, New Riff released the third version of its American single malt, and there are some subtle but important differences between this new whiskey and past iterations. The 2025 release is a blend of three different mashbills, all 100 percent malted barley as is now required by law, with the final makeup as follows: 41 percent Maris Otter (a 1960s English ale malt), 18 percent Scottish peated barley, and 41 percent barleywine-style malt. The whiskey was put into six different types of barrels at 110 proof and aged for seven to 10 years: new charred oak, de-charred and toasted bourbon barrels, de-charred and re-charred bourbon barrels, Madeira casks, Oloroso sherry casks, and red wine French oak barrels. The final blend was put back into used barrels for three months to marry together, and the whiskey was bottled without chill filtration at cask strength of 115.2 proof.

There are some similarities between New Riff’s single malt and whiskeys from well-regarded distilleries like Westland, Stranahan’s, and Virginia Distilling Co., but this new expression stands out from the pack. Like these other operations, New Riff doesn’t just rely on new charred oak, the backbone of bourbon, to mature its single malt. Instead, it turns to an array of different types of wood, and the effects of this intricate barrel makeup, along with the different types of malted barley in the mashbill, are key to the whiskey’s success. The first sip leads with notes of rich chocolate and espresso on the palate and nose, but those quickly evolve and expand into flavors like candied orange, Cherry Coke, black pepper, caramel, oak, cocoa powder, hints of leather, and just a bit of smoke from the small amount of peated malt in the mix. This is a big, bold whiskey that starts and finishes a bit hot due to the proof, and it’s one that demands repeat visits to fully enjoy and understand its complexity.

Do I prefer this single malt over New Riff’s bourbon and rye whiskey? No, but I don’t really prefer any American single malt to any bourbon or rye, full stop. Still, New Riff’s third release is really excellent for a few reasons—It doesn’t taste like hoppy beer (as some American single malts tend to do), it is not cask finished to the point of being unrecognizable, and it doesn’t follow the bourbon maturation model that sometimes makes American single malt taste, well, kind of like bourbon. This is a truly interesting and noteworthy example of this newly recognized category of whiskey from one of the leaders of the new school of Kentucky distilleries, and I look forward to seeing how it continues to evolve over the coming years.

Score: 91