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RyeLaw is a single distillery Fife Rye Scotch Whisky made from malted rye and barley. It is hammer-milled, mashed, outdoor-fermented, precision distilled and matured at InchDairnie Distillery in Fife.
Those names
The names? RyeLaw, means ‘Hill of Rye’ and is named after the nearby Ryelaw farm. The distillery name InchDairnie comes from Inchdairnie Estate and means “Hidden land close to water”.
Unique
RyeLaw is the only whisky in the world made using rye and distilled in a Lomond Hill still, a copper pot still with six copper bubble plates inside its neck. In this unique type of still it is possible to find the exact optimum flavour level and strength without fluctuations – for RyeLaw this is exactly at 72% abv. This is called ‘precision distilling’, where the peak of the flavour is pinpointed and collected for maturation.
Rye in Scotland
While Scotch whisky is normally matured in casks that have previously held whisky, bourbon, other spirits, wines or fortified wines this RyeLaw is only matured in new charred American oak barrels. These barrels, using a ‘char no. 3’ comes from Speyside Bourbon Cooperage Inc in Ohio while the oak for our 2017 vintage is sourced from the Ozarks. The origin of the wood will change in the coming years making each vintage unique. Supporting the differences between each RyeLaw vintage released is also the grain.
Who says rye whisky can not be Scottish?
The mash bill consists of 53% malted rye and 47% malted barley. With the rye content being greater than 51% and maturation in new charred oak RyeLaw qualifies as a single distillery rye whisky… if it had been made in the USA where it would adhere to the rules for American Rye Whiskey. RyeLaw is Scottish and currently there is no legal definition for rye whisky despite InchDairnie proving to the Scotch Whisky Association that rye was used at some distilleries when Alfred Barnard visited distilleries in 1886/87 and the proof was also present in The Royal Commissions findings and definition of whisky in 1909. As such, despite RyeLaw being a rye whisky, we cannot legally use that term on the bottle.
The rye for our 2017 vintage was grown on two different farms, Nonikiln Farm and Rosskeen farm – both on fields overlooking the Cromarty Firth. The rye variety was ‘magnifico’ while the barley variety was ‘Concerto’, a spring barley. Both were malted at Munton’s.
What does rye give to a whisky? The rye gives this RyeLaw whisky a tantalising peppery spiciness with a beautiful aromatic scent, while the years of maturation in new charred oak adds further layers of vanilla sweetness and mature oakiness.
A new release every year
Every year there will be a new Vintage release of RyeLaw. It will always remain true to the flavour and DNA of RyeLaw, but there will be subtle differences from Vintage to Vintage.
