| Rating | 94 |
| Style |
Rye American Whiskey Whiskey |
| Produced In | United States |
| ABV | 55.5% |
| Availability | Year Round |
| Price | $499.00 |
| Reviewed By | |
| Reviewed | 2025-09-16 |
Lock Stock & Barrel 21-Year Straight Rye Whiskey Review
If we tell you that a nearly $500, 21-year-old whiskey is great, your immediate response would probably be: “Well it better be!”
Alas, in a whiskey world where so many allocated, high-priced bottles seem to be more bark (hype) than bite (quality), this rye from a California-based NDP (non-distiller producer) delivers on every level. One hundred percent Canadian rye, distilled in copper pots and barreled before Y2K (May 1999), sourced from the famed Alberta Distillers, and packaged in an elegant, understated bottle of dark, black glass.
Despite being aged in new charred American oak, this lacks the tannic, chewing-on-wood-chips profile one might expect at two decades old. Instead, it is quite elegant and dessert-like: an aroma of toffee and leather moving toward caramel, chocolate, and baking spices on the palate, with a viscous, chewy finish, and little burn despite the barrel-strength proof (55.5 percent ABV).
In today’s day and age, where other highly mature, allocated ryes soar over a grand, is it possible that $500 is actually a steal here?!
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