Taste Test: The New Cask-Strength Old Overholt Gave This Humble Rye a Serious Upgrade

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.

There is a lot of rye whiskey out there in the world to choose from, but sometimes the best is the most humble, the least flashiest, and (dare I say it) the bottom-shelf option. Old Overholt easily meets these criteria—an inexpensive but dependable rye whiskey made in the “just legal” Kentucky style from a mashbill that includes the minimum required 51 percent rye grain, or thereabouts. Over the past few years, however, the brand has gotten some well-deserved upgrades, and the latest example is this excellent new 12-year-old cask-strength version.

Old Overholt is a brand with a long history dating back to the 19th century when German immigrant Abe Overholt, whose glowering visage you see on the bottle, started making whiskey in Pennsylvania. He was making rye, but not what you’ll find in the bottle today—instead he made Monongahela-style rye from a mashbill of 80 percent rye and 20 percent malted barley, with nary a grain of corn to be found (the brand actually released a throwback bottle called A. Overholt that meets these specifications a few years ago). Old Overholt survived Prohibition by being granted a medicinal license to produce whiskey, but it didn’t make it far past Repeal Day.

Fast-forward to 1987 when Beam acquired the brand from National Distillers and started to make the whiskey in Kentucky using this new low-rye mashbill. Old Overholt was a bottom-shelf bottle for decades, although bartenders and enthusiasts appreciated just how good this young and low-proof whiskey was, especially to use in cocktails. A few years ago, things started to change for the brand—the core expression had its proof raised to 86 and it got a four-year age statement, a bottled-in-bond version was added, and limited-edition age statements started to make an appearance. Then the cask-strength versions showed up—the first aged for 10 years, the second for 11, and now this 12-year-old whiskey.

This is actually my second favorite of the trio, purely based on proof—the first release was the strongest at 121, while the second was an easygoing 107.4 proof. The new 12-year-old splits the difference at 117 proof, so it’s a little hot but not overbearing. The whiskey was distilled and barreled in the spring of 2013 and aged in four different warehouses on Beam’s Clermont, KY campus—not that it matters, but technically this could have been a bottled-in-bond release if it were bottled at 100 proof (which probably would have been pretty good).

Overall, this is just a tasty, well-aged, higher-proof, Kentucky-style rye whiskey. There’s enough spice and heat to satisfy those cravings, but of course there’s a bit of sweetness from the high amount of corn in the mashbill as well. I picked up notes of maple, brown sugar, white pepper, cinnamon toast, wintergreen, licorice, and prunes as I sipped. And if you like a Manhattan with a bit of a punch, this would be a great whiskey which which to try making a cocktail.

Given the attention Old Overholt has been getting, the question always gets asked—will the other Olds get similar treatment? Old Grand-Dad has started to, with the release of a fantastic 16-year-old and the more recent 7-year-old bonded expression. And who knows, Old Crow could be next (that whiskey would require quite an upgrade). In the meantime, I’m happy to keep trying these new versions of Old Overholt rye—they keep getting older, and hopefully they will also continue to get better.

Score: 92