Review: Remus Babe Ruth Reserve Bourbon and Repeal Reserve Series VIII Bourbon
Two new Remus whiskeys (all inside jobs produced from MGP’s own distillate and bottled in-house by its Ross & Squib operation) have just arrived for your special occasion sipping, including the most recent drop of the annually released Remus Repeal Reserve. The other one, well, we’ll let you read up on this unique spirit for yourself.
Remus Babe Ruth Reserve Bourbon – The Babe sure likes his whiskey, right? This official partnership with the estate of Babe Ruth has netted a limited edition whiskey blended from three high-rye bourbons aged 6 to 7 years old, produced in 2016 (12%), 2017 (70%), and 2018 (18%). They’re very high-rye bourbons, actually, consisting of 49% rye, 44% rye, and 36% rye in the mash, respectively. For all that rye, this is a surprisingly soft, approachable experience, a showcase of soft, bready cereal on the nose, melded with buttery baked apples, doused in cinnamon and some cocoa powder. Gentle mint notes evoke a julep, or at least the base for a good one. The palate raises the spice ambitions of the whiskey, at least to a degree, and the 55.5% abv punch makes itself fairly well-known. Here the cinnamon finds an ample companion in red pepper notes, bright orange peel, and a spiced pecan note on the palate. Mexican chocolate informs a lengthy, increasingly racy finish, again hinting at notes of mint. It’s fun stuff, but not nearly as fun as the ephemera for the whiskey. 10,624 bottles were produced, one for each of the Babe’s plate appearances. Scan the QR code on the back label and you can find out how Ruth did at your bottle number’s specific plate appearance. Well, almost: For mine, bottle #6,499 was part of a multi-home-run game – though oddly the website doesn’t tell me exactly what happened on that specific at-bat. Probably struck out. Sheesh. 111 proof A- / $150
Remus Repeal Reserve Series VIII Bourbon – It keeps getting bigger and bigger, older and older. This year’s Repeal Reserve is made up of three whiskeys: 9% 17-year-old bourbon (2007 distillate) containing 21% rye; 24% 10-year-old bourbon (2014 distillate) comprising 21% rye; and 67% a second 10-year-old bourbon also from 2014 containing 36% rye. These are the same two recipes Remus has relied on over the years for this series, but with just three whiskeys in the mix, it’s a simpler and slightly older recipe. Remus Repeal Reserve is always a delight, and Series VIII is no exception. It kicks off with a surprisingly racy, almost boozy nose, bursting with aromas of red pepper and baking spice, mint, and almost pruny dried fruits. A whiff of camphor adds a slight medicinal tone to the nose, but it’s mild and, in its own way, engaging in a frontier-evocative way alongside a modest punch of barrel char. A slight shift of gears is on tap for the palate, where chocolate and cola kick things off, followed by a sweet brown sugar note, bordering on molasses for a spell. Ample baking spice here shifts from cinnamon to clove, the mint moving into menthol on the finish. It’s not particularly fruity unlike last year’s quite different Series VII (which I sampled side by side), but that’s no complaint. I actually like Series VIII a bit better. In any case, as always, this whiskey is so exuberant in so many different ways — and deftly balanced — that it evaporates with downright unfortunate speed. 100 proof. A / $100
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