Rieger Straight Bourbon Whiskey 750ml

J. Rieger & Co. began in 1887, when Jacob Rieger opened his distillery in Kansas City's West Bottoms Livestock Exchange district and grew it into one of the country's largest mail-order whiskey operations before Prohibition shut the doors in 1919. The brand sat dormant for nearly a century until 2014, when Kansas City bartender Ryan Maybee teamed up with Andy Rieger, Jacob's great-great-great-grandson, to bring the name back, working early on with the late master distiller Dave Pickerell. Rieger Straight Bourbon marked a new chapter for the distillery, launched as a dedicated bourbon meant to compete directly with the established names of Kentucky from its home base in Kansas City's Electric Park district.

This bourbon uses a high-rye mash bill of 56 percent corn, 30 percent rye, and 14 percent malted barley, a heavier rye and barley presence than most bourbons carry. Production relies on sweet mash fermentation, in which each batch starts fresh rather than reusing spent mash, followed by a two-step distillation through both column and pot stills, a method passed down through Pickerell's influence on the distillery. The spirit ages at least four years in the distillery's own rickhouse before being bottled at 90 proof, fully distilled, aged, and bottled on-site in Kansas City.

The mash bill and distillation approach come through as orange marmalade and cracked black pepper up front, with a note of lightly toasted coconut adding an unexpected richness. The higher malted barley content gives the whiskey a bready, slightly nutty backbone beneath the citrus and spice, making it a more layered pour than its approachable price point suggests.