New Riff Sour Mash Single Malt Whiskey

New Riff Sour Mash Single Malt Whiskey is a bottle of whiskey.

New Riff’s 2025 Single Malt release highlights the creativity and technical expertise of New Riff’s distilling team, exploring new dimensions of malt whiskey. This year’s blend features a combination of three mashbills finished in six different casks, creating a layered and complex exploration of flavors with depth and nuance. The final blend was re-barreled into used oak for an extended maturation period, something we tried for the first time in this release, with exciting results. Showcasing some of our oldest malt whiskeys up to 10 years of age, New Riff Single Malt marries the time-honored heritage of malted barley with Kentucky’s sour mash traditions, perfectly defining a New Riff on an Old Tradition.

113.8 Proof/ 56.9% ABV

TASTING NOTES

NOSE

Broad, deep and heady, with many barrel notes (oaky, sherried oak, toasty); with time, it develops rich malty fruity grains; a splash of water advances complicated grainy detail, showing grassy-mineral malt, dark fruit cacao nibs, orange-lemon citrus, all balanced with a generous layer of smoke.

PALATE

Straight-up, the oak is forward and layered (oloroso sherry, red wine, Madeira, new oak), chewy texture, and drying but not tannic; with water, a strikingly juicy entry, bright fruit and citrus peel; it is dryish and tinged with sweetening fruits; a BIG Kentucky-style body, savory-soft thick-cut texture with red and dark fruit, cocoa powder, grassy-nutty malt, a shading of sherry oak and an introduction of warm smoke.

FINISH

Exceptionally zesty, delightfully rich, the fruited (raspberry, tangerine rind, bergamot-orange) components lift up in a smokey and leathery cloud, framed with the sherry-branded oak, late orange marmalade and a lingering peat smoke.

113.8 Proof/ 56.9% ABV