I love New Riff bourbon. It isn’t often you see a new distillery start-up that really produces a top drawer bourbon that is aged well. New Riff Single Barrels tend to be four and a half years old, as is that latest Hokus Pokus barrel pick, Barrel 23104, being barrelled in November of 2019 and bottled in April of 2024. I had my first sip of New Riff just before this barrel was distilled. The mashbill on New Riff bourbon is 65% corn, 30% rye, and 5% malted barley. This barrel pick is a nice 112.3 proof. Hokus also did a New Riff Rye Whiskey pick and I sampled it in store. Really minty and tastes like springtime; the grassy notes are minimal. I much prefer bourbon to rye, so after I sampled the bourbon and decided I liked it I bought two bottles at $60 each.

The color on this bourbon is a nice deep amber with hints of mahogany with a thin film on the swirl; there are thick legs but mostly the whiskey leaves a sheen from the film on the glass to where the whiskey is. Super oily, which is really nice. On the nose, I get the smell of caramel apples in the fall, as well as traditional bourbon notes and oak. On the palate, the caramel apples are there, along with raisins and cherries, and baking spices. On the finish, the fruits fade and the baking spices turn into clove, and there is some drying oak on the lingering finish.

I have tried quite a few New Riff bourbon barrel picks. What is great is that the flavor profiles are varied but they are always good. I particularly like this Hokus Pokus pick because it is not very rye forward on the palate and instead is just fully of caramel and dark fruity goodness with some nice baking spice and clove notes and oak. This bourbon screams fall – plaid shirts, sweaters, fire in the fireplace or outdoors, and sipping bourbon after a great meal with decorative gourds on the table. Yeah, I will probably buy a couple of more of these bottles between now and Thanksgiving.