Item: Straight Rye
Rating: 3.1
Author: Josh Peters

The Gospel Straight Rye Review

The Gospel Straight Rye has to be one of the best-looking rye whiskeys on the market. The bottle, the box, everything about their design is absolutely killer. It has an effortlessly neuvo-vintage aesthetic that fits right at home in modern designs, yet looks like it’s been with us for decades. Made from un-malted 100% Australian […]

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The Gospel Rye Review

Made from un-malted 100% Australian rye grain, this whiskey follows every requirement to be labeled and sold as straight rye here in the USA. Yes, even the label is done right with the correct info plainly typed on its surface. Amazing how a brand from Australia can get the USA labeling laws right on the first shot, but so many craft/NDPs here get it wrong so often. It’s like they read the rules or something.

The Gospel is a great example of how to do craft right from the legal, aesthetic and marketing sides, but we need to talk about the most important thing: how it tastes.

Let’s get to drinkin’!

The Gospel Straight Rye – Details and Tasting Notes

Whiskey Details

Style: Rye (Straight)
Region: Australia
Distiller: The Gospel Whiskey

Mash Bill: 100% Rye
Cask: New Charred Oak
Age: 2 Years
ABV: 45%

The Gospel Straight Ryes Price: $50*

White background tasting shot with The Gospel Straight Rye bottle and a glass of whiskey next to it. — “The Gospel Straight Rye Whiskey is our answer to a bold and rich American style whiskey, made in Australia using single-sourced grain and Melbourne’s dynamic climate to produce a unique rye whiskey unlike any other.” – The Gospel

The Gospel Straight Rye Tasting Notes

EYE
Medium caramel

NOSE
Dry-woody, citrus, baking spice, touches of vanilla, cereal grain sweetness and toffee with a light biscuity note.

There is some of that “crafty-woodiness” to the aroma, but it’s far from being the dominating characteristic.

PALATE
Baking spice, vanilla, bergamot, cereal grain sweetness, honey, woody oak and some toffee and herbal notes.

Not bad, in fact, it’s rather nice. The “crafty-woodiness” does rear its head, but it’s not strong or overbearing.

FINISH
Medium -> Baking spice, citrus peel and woody oak fade to more spice.

BALANCE, BODY and FEEL
Decent balance, medium body and a warm easy feel.

The Gospel Straight Rye – Overall Thoughts and Score

Y’all know I absolutely despise that crafty/woody/sawdusty/cardboardy/tannic note that’s so damn prevalent in American craft whiskey. This does have a bit of that, but that’s the key, it’s a bit. We know this has a lot to do with humidity, that’s why Frey Ranch employs humidifiers, but even so, they kept it from being a total tannic mess and instead delivered a nice sweet spice bomb.

Seriously, the spice just keeps coming on this one, especially on the finish. The Gospel Straight Rye is fun and quirky to drink on its own, I’ve enjoyed several glasses of it neat, but it also works very well in an Old Fashioned. In fact, when making one you can go light on the bitters because this brings almost all the spice you’ll need.

SCORE: 3/5 (above average, worth checking out ~ B- | 80-82)

*Disclosure: The bottle for this rye whiskey review was graciously sent to me by the company without obligation. The views, opinions, and tasting notes are 100% my own.

The Gospel Rye Label

The Gospel Rye Review $50

Overall

3.1

Nose

(3.5)
Palate

(3)
Finish

(3)
BBF

(3)

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Virtual Tastings – August 2021

We’ve had a bit of time off our virtual tastings recently – with bars reopening we want to encourage folks to (safely) get back out there. However, in August we’ve got a tasting that we…

Originally published on The Whisky Exchange Blog – Virtual Tastings – August 2021

We’ve had a bit of time off our virtual tastings recently – with bars reopening we want to encourage folks to (safely) get back out there. However, in August we’ve got a tasting that we could only ever do virtually – a gathering of rye whisk(e)y people from Kentucky to Melbourne.

August’s Line-up

Rye So Serious?

25 August 2021, 7-8.30pm – Rye so Serious? with Billy Abbott (me, UK), Troels Knudsen (Stauning, Denmark), John Schutt (Michter’s, USA), Dave Mitton (Lot 40, Canada), Andrew Fitzgerald (The Gospel, Australia), Paul Hletko (FEW, USA) and Christian Perez (Arbikie, Scotland): When I was asked to come up with a rye line-up for a tasting, I submitted my dream list to the events team, not expecting everyone to come back and say yes. Rye whisk(e)y has become huge over the past decade, spreading from the USA (where it has a longer history than bourbon) to the rest of the world. Despite being a relatively young spirit outside of the USA, there’s already a huge amount of variation in styles and flavour, and in this session we’ll taste our way around the world with people from the distilleries on hand to answer our questions. A tasting that I’m really looking forward to, both as host and as someone tasting along with everyone else.

The tasting will be up on Facebook live for anyone to watch, but if you want to taste along, make sure you grab a tasting pack:

Buy the tasting pack >

Coming up soon

We’ve not got any more virtual tastings in the diary at the moment, but that’s because we’ve got shows galore over the coming months.

Happening as I type, we have our inaugural Rum Show – virtual for this first year. It’s too late grab tasting packs to taste along live, but you can still pick up a ticket to watch along with the tasting sessions and catch up with any tastings you miss…or tasting packs that you pick up for later.

Next we have Whisky Show. Last year’s virtual show was so good, that we’ve decided to run both a physical and online show in parallel. The in-person show is from 1-3 October 2021, with the virtual side running through those three days and on until Friday 9 October. We’ve recently released a few more in-person tickets (we’re following government guidance on numbers of people, and we’re releasing tickets as that changes), so if you’d missed out before, you’ve got a second change to grab a ticket.

And finally for this year: Champagne Show. This year not only sees us move back to having an in person show, but also to a new venue: One Great George Street, where Whisky Show: Old & Rare 2020 took place. We liked the place so much, we’re now dragging Champagne makers there for an evening of great fizz on 29 October 2021. Tickets and full details are available from the show website.

We’ve got plans for next year, so keep an eye on the site – there’s much more to come…