These are both somewhat unique takes on rye with very different price points… Let’s see which one is worth your money today!

🥃Blackened) $150. 109.6 proof. Distilled by Willett, blended and finished in Madeira barrels and conditioned by pummeling with low-hertz frequencies of Metallica's music for 14 months.
-The Nose instantly tells you this is a Willett Rye! Familiar notes of baking spices, cardamom, and mint are joined by orange dreamsicle, cinnamon, and pepper. Beautiful!
-The Palate is rich and flavorful. There is orange peel, vanilla, honey, cinnamon, toffee, hints of mint, oak, and mild white pepper.
-The Finish is long, and the Madiera makes itself felt a little more here with some candied fruits. But that moves into black pepper, oak, tobacco, maple, and vanilla.
⭐️Overall this is an amazingly complex, amazingly good pour that has complexity from the wine finish but none of the overpowering oxidized red wine that I hate from most red-wine finished whiskey. I was very skeptical of this with the celebrity tie-in, but WOW this is good!

🥃New Riff) $70. 100 proof. Aged 6-years. 100% malted-rye mashbill (typically malting is used for barley, and makes up 5-10% of the mash).
-The Nose is invitingly fruity and floral. There is floral pear, plum, vanilla, oak, and a hint of eucalyptus.
-The Palate is a bit of a letdown after the nose. All those beautiful floral fruits don’t really show up on the palate at all. There is mostly toasted oak, vanilla, cocoa, and some baking spices.
-The Finish is medium, and somewhat tannic. There is white pepper, chalky cocoa, caramel, slight menthol, and lingering oak tannins.
⭐️Overall this is not at all a bad rye… the nose is great, but the palate and finish aren’t very memorable.

🏆VERDICT) Obviously the BxW is the runaway winner today!
BUT, you may ask, if I take cost into account, would I recommend spending double the cost of the New Riff on the Blackened? Well, yes, *It’s fantastic!!

*(Disclaimer: I’m a huge fan of Willett Rye, if you’re not then your results may vary)

Have you guys had either of these?