Templeton Rye: What It Tastes Like and What It Costs

Templeton Rye is $34.99, comes out of a town of about 350 people in western Iowa, and is one of the few American whiskeys where the label story is a real story - farmers in Templeton, Iowa ran whiskey through Prohibition, and the town has been living off that fact ever since.

What is actually in the bottle

Templeton Rye Aged 4 Years is a straight rye whiskey, aged four years in charred new American oak and bottled at 40%. Four years is the number that matters. A lot of rye on the shelf is aged two, and the difference between two and four is the difference between a whiskey that tastes like the grain and one that tastes like the barrel has had a say.

Bottled at 40% rather than the 45% or 50% a lot of rye reaches for, which is a deliberate choice - it lands softer than the proof-chasing bottles and does not need water.

How it tastes

Caramel and vanilla on the nose first, with rye spice sitting behind it and a hint of green apple at the edge. The palate is the balance the four years bought: rye pepper coming through the middle, sweet vanilla and toasted oak underneath holding it down. The finish is medium, warming and gently dry rather than sharp.

If you have had rye that bit you, it was probably younger or hotter than this. Templeton is the approachable end of the category on purpose.

What to do with it

A Manhattan is the drink. Two parts Templeton, one part sweet vermouth, two dashes of bitters, stirred and served up with a cherry - the vanilla in the whiskey gives the vermouth something to hold onto, and the rye spice keeps the whole thing from going syrupy.

An Old Fashioned works for the same reason, and it is the better test of the bottle because there is nowhere to hide.

Neat on a single rock is fine here, which is not true of every rye at this price. And with food it goes where you would expect - smoked brisket, pastrami, rye bread, anything with char on it.

Where it sits on the rye shelf

The rye shelf is small and the prices cluster tightly, which makes this an easy comparison to actually make.

James E. Pepper 1776 at $31.99 is three dollars cheaper and goes the other direction entirely - high rye content, bottled hot, spice first and no apology. If Templeton is too polite for you, that is the bottle.

High West Double Rye at $32.99 is a blend of a young spicy rye and an older mellow one, which gets you a similar balancing act by different means. Redemption Straight Rye at $35.99 is a dollar over Templeton and is the cleanest, most textbook version of what rye is supposed to taste like.

Dad's Hat Pennsylvania Straight Rye at $39.99 is five dollars up and worth knowing about because Pennsylvania rye is the older American tradition - softer, rounder, more floral than the Kentucky style.

At the top, Angel's Envy Rye finished in Caribbean rum casks at $89.99 is a different animal and not really a Templeton alternative - it is a dessert whiskey that happens to be made of rye.

Rye or bourbon

If you are choosing between this and a bourbon at the same money - Bulleit is also $34.99 - the short answer is that rye is drier and peppery where bourbon is sweeter and rounder, because rye grain leads the mash instead of corn. The long answer is in rye vs bourbon, and if you are still working out where whiskey, bourbon and rye all sit relative to each other, bourbon vs whiskey starts one step further back.

Templeton is a good first rye precisely because it does not force the choice. It is spicy enough to show you what rye is and sweet enough that a bourbon drinker will not put the glass down.

Who should buy it

Buy it if you drink bourbon and have been meaning to find out what rye is about. Buy it if you make Manhattans and have been using bourbon in them. Buy it if you want a $35 whiskey that looks and reads like a $50 one on the table.

Buy something else if you want rye at full volume - the four years and the 40% are both softening decisions, and there are hotter bottles above for a few dollars more.

On kashrus, straight whiskey with no finishing casks and no additives is generally treated as acceptable, which is the reasoning we walk through in is your whiskey kosher. Ask your rav if you want to be sure. It is not kosher for Passover - it is a grain spirit. If you are trying to work out what any of this should cost, how much a bottle of whiskey costs lays out the whole shelf.

Questions, call the store at (347) 533-8586. We ship anywhere in the country.