Review #290 - New Riff 7 Year Sour Mash Single Malt

Another American single malt debut, this time from New Riff, in Newport, Kentucky. They kept this under wraps while it aged for 7 years, before the first release came in 2023. Here, we have the autumn 2023 vatting, a combination of 6 mashbills and many cask types. New Riff lists the mashbills used on their website:

Maris Otter, a classic British ale malt
Golden Promise, a classic Scotch whisky malt
Barleywine-style, after high gravity, heavy bodied barleywine ales
Belgian quadrupel-style, in the fashion of rich, mellow Trappist ales
Scottish peated barley malt, heavily smoked and pungent
Chevallier Heirloom malted barley, an 1820s-vintage English variety

The cask types aren't listed, but during a recent tour of the distillery, some of the intricacies were described: new American oak, ex-brandy casks, ex-sherry casks, and reused/rejuvenated casks are all used. It's quite a mixture of ingredients - it will be interesting to see how well the flavors mesh together.

Unlike single malts made in other countries and some other parts of the United States, New Riff uses the sour mash process when mashing, adding backset from previous batches to help control the pH balance in the new mash. Once fermentation is complete, the distillery uses the combination of a column still and a doubler to concentrate the alcohols for barreling.

New Riff 7 Year Sour Mash Single Malt

USA - Single Malt

Price Paid: USD 70 (2023)

Current Locally Available Price: USD 70 (2024)

Age Statement: 7 Years

Strength: 56.9% ABV

Details: Not chill filtered; Fall 2023 vatting (code 23.05.11.06)

Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 4 times over 3 months; bottles at 100%, 90%, 80%, and 70% fill levels at times of review. Tasted in a Glencairn glass each time, rested 10-15 minutes

Nose: It starts with caramel and brown sugar, relatively sweet, with a bit of oak and chocolatey malt. Hints of bruleed sugar and butterscotch arrive; the complexion is dark overall. With time, peppery spice and more floral notes develop, along with some licorice; accent flavors of chalk and candied nuts can be found occasionally.

Palate: Interesting and a bit exotic - more spicy than sweet, with a wide range of flavors. Baking notes of cardamom, pepper, chocolate; fruits of orange, prune, and raisin; there's plenty of oak, which is dusty, smoky, and even savory. An interesting malty profile comes, with hints of sour and vanilla, and later on, a strong herbal amaro flavor arrives. It's a medium-thick mouthfeel.

Finish: More wood smoke, char, and spices in the finish - licorice, chai, and cinnamon, along with that herbal flavor. A freeze-dried strawberry note develops, paired with tart orange, and at times, a darker fig fruit. Warming, quite oaky, with lots of oily texture; in the background, subtle hints of cream soda and mascarpone. The finish is medium-long, especially due to the wood smoke.

Final Note: This is a good American single malt, and one of the more unusual that we've tried. The wild mashbill and variety of barrels did indeed contribute to create a very unique flavor profile, one that changed a bit with each tasting. Given another few months to air out, we expect the bottle will continue to change. It may not mesh perfectly with everyone's palate, but it's always interesting.

Value on most New Riff products is good, assuming you get them from the source and aren't paying the secondary prices on some of the more limited releases. That's the theme here - above average value, due to a fairly reasonably price of $70. For a 7 year old American single malt, which isn't a common thing to begin with, that's decent.

Our Average Rating: 6.9 / 10

In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.

Value Rating: 6.67