Side by side : Mid ABV Ryes

Over the last few months I've been enjoying more and more Ryes, I've bought a few bottles and swapped a few samples so am looking at three lower, three mid range and three higher ABV Ryes over three blogs.

In this blog I'm trying 3 at the mid level of the ABV range, lower range blog here, but higher ones are to follow!

Rye is normally defined as being very spicy - all three of these are from US distilleries, let's see what they are like!

Dram	Rittenhouse Straight Rye (Bottled in Bond 4yo)	James E. Pepper Batch 2 (3yo) [TBWC]	New Riff Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey
Characteristics	50% ABV 51% Rye, 37% Corn, 11% Malted Barley mash bill	50% ABV Likely 95% Rye, 5% Malted Barley mash bill	50% ABV 95% Rye and 5% Malted Rye (unusual!)
Bottling notes	Aroma: Dried fruits, toffee, and sweet peppers Taste: Clean, rich, cocoa, citrus, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla Finish: Lingering maple-like spiciness	Batch 2 is a PX finished Rye. Nose: From a slight salinity and sea breeze, vanilla, raisin and charred oak emerge Palate: A dry mouthfeel with plenty of sweet notes - candied fruits, walnuts and honey. Finish: A dry finish with peppery hints	Nose: Spicy and detailed, showing mint, black pepper, and vanilla with hints of orange and oak. Taste: Cinnamon spice, vanilla and sweet toffee moving into a bold mouth feel with rich Rye spice, caramel and toasted oak. Complex flavors drink older than four-year-old. Finish: Bold Rye spice with vanilla buttercream and lingering brown sugar, plus a mineral-grassy Rye tone that fades slowly.
My thoughts:
Appearance
	Bronze colour in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line and fall as slow thin legs.	Bronze colour in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line and fall as slow thin legs.	Bronze colour in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line and fall as slow thin legs.
Nose	Huge spice, lots of oak and walnut notes. Peppery spice and stewed pear.	Again huge spice notes but with an unusual maritime salt and almond nut note.	Huge peppery gingery spice notes, some dried fruit and a little strawberry toffo.
Palate	Thick syrupy arrival, sweet orange and ginger spice. Drying on the tongue. Sour grapefruit note as the liquid disappears.	Again thick and syrupy, a little spice and a huge sour citrus note. The citrus then relaxes a little to a sweet orange note. Overall this is a lot sweeter than the Rittenhouse - honey and some orchard fruit notes.	Again thick and syrupy - the 50% ABV really comes through on this one. There's not much in the way of spice - more sweet honey and toffee notes.
Finish	Long lingering spice - a slight smoke note and a sour grapefruit note - nice!	Again long lingering spice - dryer than the Rittenhouse but without the citrus note.	Aniseed notes linger with a sour citrus note
Overall	The nose on the Rittenhouse was very unusual - very nut driven - the palate and finish made up for it! The James E. Pepper with it's ex-PX finish offered a sweeter dryer rye. Finally the New Riff had sweetness but not as much spice - unusual for the high-rye content in the mash bill. Moving up to 50% for these drams from the 40ish% one of the previous blog really increases the mouthfeel - these drams are thicker - almost syrupy - very nice. It's interesting that on the 40%ers I prefered the spiciest, higher Rye content in the mash bill drams, this time I was swayed a bit more by the lower Rye content Rittenhouse but again the other two came in a very close second.

Many thanks to @DrinksByTheDram for the James E. Pepper sample!