Now we know two things in regards to Winchester. The first being they made the Winchester rifle, the gun of the American West. We also know of the Winchester House, home of Sarah Winchester which is very haunted and weird. (What we like ghost stories even if they aren’t real). Now something we don’t know of is the ‘Winchester Cowboy’ or “Winchester Whiskey’ and yet here we have the name of the famous brand on this Rye – but why?
There’s no mention of the rifle or company itself. The looks is similar but not enough to be conflicting – if fact it might be fair to say it was deliberately made to avoid any legal confrontation because while this may call itself Winchester it has fuck all to do with them. It’s just another mass-made whiskey meant to capitalize on a name and look, and for them at least – be cheap compared to small-batches in order to sell well.
What they Say: “Rye whiskey traces its American roots as far back as the 18th century. Winchester Kentucky Rye Whiskey is part of this American tradition. Premium Kentucky Rye Whiskey, traditionally distilled, barrel aged for a minimum of 1 year in new white oak.
The Winchester Cowboy. An American icon associated with winning the west and such famous Americans as Buffalo Bill and Theodore Roosevelt. Tradition is a key attribute of the Pioneering American Spirit and our distillery continues this tradition with an exceptionally well balanced Kentucky Rye Whiskey.
”Rye whiskey traces its American roots as far back as the 18th century. Winchester Kentucky Rye Whiskey is part of this American tradition. It is premium, traditionally distilled and barrel aged to deliver an exceptionally smooth finished and truly great taste. Aged for a minimum of 1 year in new white oak
Taste: 7.5 – The rye here starts of mellow as it slowly build and builds. The effect is nice, and the flavor works well.
Aftertaste: 6.5 – Here you get some lingering smoke and wood with the rye. A bit caramel like as well. Overall it’s good, and thankfully lingers for a bit.
Burn/Smooth: 6.0 – Weirdly there’s like a burn that hits after a long time, like longer than it should. Going down it’s fairly smooth with a bit of burn, but it’s like it hits you with a real late punch after some lingering aftertaste.
Aroma: 7.5 – That is just a very nice Rye whiskey, it’s a bit light so you have to get into it a bit. Overall nothing mind blowing, but nice.
Honesty: 1.0 – They say tradition 6 times. They also just straight repeated some lines from one of the sides on the back – which c’mon just say less. As mentioned there’s also the elephant in the room which feels quite a bit disingenuous. Sure the bottle looks nice trying to even mimic the style of engraving that would go on a rifle, but if anything that makes this worse. It might feel unfair to give this such a low score, but it just feels so hookey.
Mixability: 5.0
W/ Rocks: 4.0 – That brings out the heat. You get way more smoke and rye sort of right into your face directly. The effect is to be honest – not great. Sure you lose some of the burn, but it’s truly not worth it.
Whiskey and Coke: 7.0 – That’s better, you still get some of the nice rye, but it’s not kicking your teeth in with smoke (this analogy has escaped). It makes a good whiskey and coke, and that alone might save it.
Old Fashioned: 4.0 – Or so one would think. Now this is not an actively bad Old Fashioned, but fuck is it subpar. It just lacks any sort of flavor, the rye is there but unlike neat/rocks it’s doing it’s own weird thing in congress with the other flavors and whatever that is – is a fucken mess.
Value: 6.0 – This is the toughest score to sort through. If thought about from an objective point this is pretty good neat, it works with cola, and isn’t actually too pricey. However the question comes up of should you buy this. However given the other scores and price we’ll be exact here.
Google Shop Average: $20
Website: https://www.greenriverdistilling.com/
Reviewer Scores:
BuffaloJern: 4.0
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Metric Score: 39.5/70 |+| Metric Average: 5.64 |+| Reviewer Average: 4.0
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Final Thoughts: The tail of the tape here is this. This tastes sort of good, it mixes well with cola, and it’s not too expensive – and yet we would never recommend it. Maybe if on the rocks or an Old Fashioned would have changed that opinion, but this is just another made up piece of shit from some other company. We are Honest Booze Reviews so we have to be honest on how old-western wooden 2D storefront this feels compared to what it says.
