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A brilliant seven-year-old Rye Whiskey finished in Ruby Port-Rum casks.

Four Gates Whiskey Company is the brainchild and passion project of Louisville-based "Chief Barrel Officer" Bob D’Antoni and "Chief Blending Officer" Bill Straub — who is also Editor in Chief at ModernThirst.com. In 2018 they started sourcing aged Spirits, carefully combining them, and finishing them in rare casks to make a series of limited edition releases. The results have been impressive to say the least. With less than a dozen releases out so far, they have already had eleven of them score above 90 with Whiskey Advocate’s tasting panel and six being named a Top Ten American Whiskey in 2019 and 2020.

Four Gate Ruby Rye Springs is the eleventh release and it’s a darn great shot of Whiskey. The base is a 95% rye mash bill from Indiana that has aged seven years in new oak. The quality of that Whiskey alone is worth the price of admission, but the magic happens in the finishing. Four Gates partners with the famous Kelvin Cooperage to locate a very special set of finishing casks. These casks were first used to age fine Ruby Port Wine bringing a fruitiness to the wood. Then they were used to finish Rum at Virago Spirits, bringing exotics spices and molasses. In the words of Chief Blending Officer Bill Straub, "They were crying out for Rye Whiskey." Indeed they were. And there are just 1,444 bottles to be had at 56.7% ABV.

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