Review: Jack Daniel’s Distillery Series High Toast Maple Barrel Tennessee Rye (2025)
Review: Jack Daniel’s Distillery Series High Toast Maple Barrel Tennessee Rye (2025)
Leave it to Jack Daniel’s to come up with oddball experiments that are so crazy they just might work: Jack Daniel’s Distillery Series Selection #14 is Tennessee Straight Rye Whiskey, finished in High Toast Maple Barrels. What’s a high toast maple barrel? It’s a barrel made from maple wood (not a syrup-containing vessel) that has been highly toasted but not charred.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because this is the second release of this Distillery Series edition, following a version that dropped in 2022. They are however quite a bit different: The 2025 version is bottled at a higher proof and spends a full three years in the finishing barrel instead of just 20 months for the 2022 version. Both whiskeys start with JD’s traditional Tennessee Rye mashbill of 70% rye, 12% malted barley, and 18% corn — and they are both charcoal mellowed before initial aging (about 4 1/2 years) in a new, charred American white oak barrel.
Let’s give it a whirl.
There’s a clear maple element here on the nose — but it’s not sweet — offering a fragrant wood note that is also earthy, with a charcoal quality. Gently beefy and smoky as it develops in the glass, the nose eventually creates a rather savory, mushroomy character, a big departure from what you might expect out of anything aged in maple wood of any sort.
The palate is sweeter but less clearly maple-driven than the nose, winding its way eventually into some of JD’s flavor profile greatest hits, though it doesn’t totally pop as a rye right out of the gate. Corn and peanut butter progress to peppery, rumbling oak notes — and eventually to a measure of orange peel. As the finish emerges, more punchy rye elements start to emerge, giving the whiskey a satisfying sweet-and-spicy quality that evokes thoughts of hot honey. Walnut oil, raspberry preserves, and a big of heat make for quite a ride — and what would be a very unique experience if JD hadn’t already done it 3 years ago.
107 proof.
B+ / $44 (375ml) / jackdaniels.com
Jack Daniel's Distillery Series High Toast Maple Barrel Tennessee Rye (2025)
$44
