K&L's "Faultline" 8 Year Old Small Batch Straight Rye Whiskey

There's no question in my mind that the most rewarding aspect of my job is the ability to create products for my customers that I truly love. When I first took over buying spirits at K&L, we already had a few store labels on the wine side, but at that time spirits was just a tiny blip on the radar, and considering purchasing enough product to merit a store brand was nearly unthinkable. But in a true “if you build it, they will come” spirit, we began traveling to Scotland and finding parcels of Scotch and rum that we simply couldn't leave behind. My colleague at the time, David Driscoll, and I spent hours driving around Scotland, ideating on what to call the new brand. We wanted something that connected our stores and also exemplified our commitment to doing things differently from our competitors. We wanted to show that we were not simply merchants, but curators and creators of the world's best products. The name Faultline fit that ethos perfectly. It has since become a somewhat legendary label, producing everything from inexpensive blended Scotch to absinthe, gin, old rum, and everything in between. The brand became more and more difficult to curate as the demand for great spirits exploded, stocks dwindled, and prices soared, but the tides do shift quickly in the world of wine and spirits. We're now entering a new era for spirits and K&L. We've opened a store in New York, what I consider an earth-shattering achievement, and we've begun to locate stocks of incredible value once again. We've also entered a new era for our department, with a new generation of exciting visionaries taking the reins to produce exceptional products like this. Candidly, it wasn't entirely easy for me to relinquish control of this special label. I've been intimately involved in nearly every expression we've ever put into bottle, but we couldn't have found a more capable and deserving steward of this great brand than the wonderful Stephanie Manning. I also cannot completely express in words just how much energy it takes to create a product like this from the ground up, and creating one with such incredible style and quality is next to impossible. This ridiculously wonderful rye whiskey is truly the single-handed work of one person. I'm certain that Stephanie would insist that I played some role in the creation of this product, but she'd be doing so out of politeness more than anything else. So now the most rewarding moment in my career is seeing this beautiful brand given a new chapter by the wonderful people I work with. I can sit back and simply enjoy it! A true gift from a great friend. So let's go! The color is a simply stunning mahogany (1.6). The nose starts tight but opens quickly into territories previously uncharted. There's something about experiencing a new flavor profile like this that is at once exhilarating and off-putting. Sometimes I forget I haven't tried EVERYTHING out there. The deep, dried plummy fruit couples perfectly with the dark rye spice and tense, almost wild earthiness. This is the “Sir Davis” recipe from MGP, but we're in a world apart from that whiskey. Expect a full-throttled cascade of aromatics: toasted pecans, stone fruit compote, cola nut, balsa wood, allspice, wildflower honey, birch, and coconut husk. On the palate, it's perfectly vibrant and balanced, with dense, jammy sweetness cut through the center by dark herbal rye, woodsy exotic spice, and a lifted early hint of new leather. It's simply delicious and unique without being weird or overtly odd in any way. The only problem with this one is we'll likely never be able to recreate it precisely, nor would we ever want to. The fleeting nature of any special product adds so much to its allure. All I can say is bravo, Stephanie, and thank you!