Review: Fortune’s Fool Rye – The Overture

Fortune’s Fool was founded by former anesthesiologist Juliet Schmalz, a doctor who turned her attention to a different and much more enjoyable form of numbing the body and mind, in 2019. She sources whiskey from Kentucky and ages it in in barrels sourced from Napa Valley’s Seguin Moreau Cooperage, which is certainly a unique choice for wood. Seguin Moreau ages its staves for at least 24 months, and her whiskeys — two ryes, so far, both with a mash of 62% rye, 30% corn, and 8% barley — are bottled well overproof.

We didn’t see the first act of Fortune’s Fool — dubbed the Prelude, which was aged for 32 months — but we did get the sequel, The Overture, which spends 39 months in barrel before bottling. Two more releases are on the way in 2024.

Let’s give The Overture a spin.

It’s immediately evident on the nose that this is a balanced rye with an enticing mix of punchy spice and soothing nut aromas, making for something of a best of both worlds in American whiskeydom. The spice elements meld both black pepper and cinnamon notes, mingling with notes of licorice, toasted oak, and a sweet layer of vanilla frosting. That lattermost element is a hint of what’s to come on the palate, where the spice takes more of a back seat amidst a sweet core of vanilla cake, milk chocolate, and doughy cinnamon rolls. The spice doesn’t hang out in the background for long, as buttery cinnamon toast, though again it comes across as dotted with sweet raisins and dusted in brown sugar.

The finish is long and soothing and never overly hot nor tannic, thanks to that sustained sweetness — at the end meandering toward butterscotch and mint syrup. While so much modern rye can be bruising with throat-scratching herbaceousness, Fortune’s Fool flips the script, offering a pleasant, easygoing character that would feel right at home in an Old Fashioned or even a mint julep. The longer it sits in the glass, or on the tongue, the more you coax out of it. A reprise of milk chocolate sits with the drinker the longest.

109.4 proof.

A- / $65

The post Review: Fortune’s Fool Rye – The Overture appeared first on Drinkhacker: The Insider’s Guide to Good Drinking.