This in no way, per our editorial policies, influenced the final outcome of this review. Regardless of the unknowns, Crown Royal Rye Aged 16 Years is a fine release and for anyone that is interested in rye, especially high aged ones, it has a lot to offer.Editor’s Note: This whisky was provided to us as a review sample by Crown Royal/Diageo.

There are also unconfirmed accounts that this was aged in both new and once-used barrels, which of course is acceptable, but it could change how you ultimately view it.

That amount is strangely close to the 10% that is undisclosed in 16 Year’s mashbill. We don’t know what was blended in this, as under Canadian law, distillers can blend in up to a maximum of 9.09% of other liquids containing alcohol into their whiskeys (even bourbon or scotch in some cases). There are still a lot of unanswered questions about this release, as Canadian whiskey laws are much more lax than American ones. While Crown Royal Rye Aged 16 Years doesn’t reach the flawless heights of those two releases, it’s still impressive in its own right. With Sazerac 18 Year and Van Winkle Family Rye being two of my favorite whiskeys, I’m always in the hunt for high-aged ryes. This, along with its age makes it stand out among the majority of ryes on the American market.Īny time a high aged rye product hits the market, I take notice. As you’d expect, it has more in common with Sazerac 18 Year than Wild Turkey 101 Rye. It's a much more familiar tasting American style rye except its age brings with it a more developed palate with more oak and overall gentleness that younger American ryes don’t generally exhibit. The strong uniqueness often found in other 100% rye (or close) Canadian whiskeys isn’t present in Crown Royal Rye Aged 16 Years on a noticeable scale. When you add in the lack of Canadian regulations regarding just what defines a rye whiskey, there can be many unknown variables that contribute to their unique taste outside of distilling techniques and grain source. Anyone who’s tasted the Canadian sourced very high rye WhistlePig or Lock Stock & Barrel products usually notices their unique taste, first and foremost. Many Canadian whiskeys that are labeled rye are often 100% rye, although there are no Candanian laws that state rye whiskey even has to have rye in its mashbill. It does make you wonder: Where did this 16 year old rye actually come from? Anyone who's dabbled with Canadian rye whiskey usually notices it can taste a bit different than American-made rye whiskey. Yet it was late to releasing a whiskey labeled as a “rye” until 2015. Crown Royal, known for their extremely popular Blended Canadian Whisky and the more recent Crown Royal Peach, already features rye as its predominant grain. To make matters more complex, many American distilleries actually source rye from Canadian distilleries, with WhistlePig being one of the most well known. That’s not to say no high-aged rye whiskey is released in a given year, but there are far fewer compared to their Candanian counterparts.

While rye is growing in popularity in the U.S., most of it is released in the 2-6 year old range. To drive home that point further, as the legend goes, when Canadian whiskey makers started adding rye to their mashbills it became so popular that even a whiskey with a low percentage of rye (or even none) in its mashbill was often still referred to as a “rye,” which has stuck to this day. Rye has remained popular and brands like Alberta Distillers Limited and Canadian Club (both owned by Beam) have held the torch and kept it burning far longer than anyone else. In the Canadian market, that isn’t necessarily the case. In the American market, rye whiskey has only recently become popular again after a long drought, and of the few distilleries that even make rye whiskey, they rarely age it for a considerable amount of time. High aged ryes are a bit of a unicorn in the whiskey world.

Crown royal noble collection