New Riff Balboa Rye Bourbon
New Riff · New Riff Distilling
A bourbon that earns its complexity through friction rather than finesse — the rare high-rye bourbon that tastes engineered for tension, then rewards patience with genuine grace.
Nose
A bright, insistent nose of orange peel and green herbs opens into baking spice — clove, allspice, cinnamon stick — with an undercurrent of pastry crust and toasted grain. Aeration reveals honeyed vanilla and a faint dusting of cocoa.
Palate
Immediately taut and spice-forward, with peppery Balboa rye pressing against a foundation of caramelized corn and buttered biscuit. Midpalate softens into vanilla cream, dried cherry, and orange marmalade, while a sinewy oak grip keeps everything in tension.
Finish
Long and warming, with lingering baking spice, mint leaf, leather, and a faint char-smoke echo. Dry, structured, and unmistakably rye-driven despite the corn majority.
- Mash Bill
- 65% corn, 30% Balboa rye, 5% malted barley
- Barrel Type
- New charred American oak, level 4 char
- Bottled in Bond
- Yes
- Single Barrel
- No
- Wheated
- No
Cocktail Suggestion
The Taut Line — 2 oz New Riff Balboa Rye Bourbon, 0.75 oz Amaro Nonino, 0.25 oz Demerara syrup, 2 dashes orange bitters, 1 dash Angostura. Stir with ice for 30 seconds, strain into a chilled coupe, express an orange peel over the surface and drop in.
Food Pairing
Duck breast with a cherry-black pepper reduction, or a wedge of aged Manchego drizzled with orange-blossom honey.
Built inside a former bottled-water plant on the Ohio River, New Riff was founded by liquor retailer Ken Lewis in 2014 with a purist's mandate — sour mash, non-chill-filtered, bottled in bond — and its Balboa Rye Bourbon uses the rare Balboa varietal in place of standard rye to sharpen the spine of a classic Kentucky recipe.
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