Rieger Kansas City Whiskey 750ml

J. Rieger & Co. traces back to 1887, when Jacob Rieger founded the company in Kansas City's West Bottoms Livestock Exchange district and built it into one of the largest mail-order whiskey businesses in the country, serving a customer base of roughly a quarter million before Prohibition forced its closure in 1919. In 2014, Kansas City bartender Ryan Maybee partnered with Andy Rieger, Jacob's great-great-great-grandson, to revive the family name, with guidance early on from the late master distiller Dave Pickerell. The distillery now operates out of the historic Electric Park district in Kansas City, the same neighborhood where the original company once stood.

Kansas City Whiskey is Rieger's tribute to the eclectic pre-Prohibition blending style the brand was once known for. Rather than a single distillate, it combines four-year-old bourbon, five-year-old rye sourced from Alberta, and nine-year-old light corn whiskey, finished with a small addition of fifteen-year-old Oloroso sherry from Spain's Williams & Humbert bodega. The components are blended together and bottled at 46 percent ABV, a formula designed to echo the varied, sherry-touched whiskies the original Rieger company sold around the turn of the twentieth century.

The whiskey opens with Red Delicious apple and maple syrup on the nose, joined by pecan pie and orange blossom. On the palate, black tea, caramel, and nutmeg come through, with the sherry addition lending a rounded, slightly nutty sweetness that ties the blended components together. It's a profile that reads more layered and dessert-like than a typical straight bourbon or rye.