Review #126: Savage & Cooke 'Lip Service'

Review #126: Savage & Cooke Lip Service (Rye Whiskey finished in Grenache barrels)

COST: $55 for 750mL bottle (I’m reviewing a sample)

AGE: 3 yrs

MASH BILL: 51% rye, 45% corn, 4% malted barley

PROOF: 90

Dave Phinney and his team at Savage & Cooke created ‘Lip Service’ to be a barely legal straight rye whiskey, each barrel being aged for a minimum of 3 years. They are then finished for an undisclosed amount of time in Grenache barrels from Dave’s Department 66 in Maury, France – a 300 acre vineyard where old vine Grenache thrives. Let’s see how it is!

Reviewed neat in a Glencairn.

APPEARANCE: A burnished copper color (1.1), with legs and beads like a diluted simple syrup would make on the side of the glass.

NOSE: A nice nose of orange peel, clove, some light brown sugar and lemon peel. On the backend of the nose I pick up a little rye spice and mint.

PALATE: This has a fairly creamy mouthfeel for 90 proof. The notes on the palate are a little hard to hone in on, but over the course of the full pour I got notes of brown butter, clove, and caramel that stand out the most. There’s also a light mix of vanilla, cinnamon, and blackberry that swirl around the palate too.

FINISH: A very short and sweet finish. The Grenache finish really subdues the rye spice and harsher notes that come with a young whiskey (the lower proof doesn’t hurt either). Bright red fruit, white pepper, and what seems to be a passing glance of an oak note.

RATING: 5.1/10

VALUE: 8.1/10 (this value is based on a ratio of the $/mL to the rating above compared to this same ratio for all other r/Bourbon reviews I’ve made and normalized to 10)

OVERALL: I’m a little mixed on this one. It’s actually quite a nice sip even though the rating may not show it. It’s just the 90 proof really makes it a struggle to pick up on some of the notes. To top it off, being a barely legal rye whiskey with 45% corn, and then a Grenache finish, it really takes on a lot sweeter profile than the spice traditionally found in a rye whiskey. But the nose, mouthfeel, and overall unoffensive nature of this whiskey make it a decent sipper. After having two Savage & Cooke expressions now, what I really like is that they do not allow the cask finish to overpower the whiskey. They do a good job of just letting the whiskey “finish” long enough to enhance notes, but not overtake the whiskey itself. I very much appreciate this in an time where there’s so many finished whiskeys and it’s becoming hard to know which ones are just doing it to hide off-notes versus actually enhancing the whiskey. Savage & Cooke know how to do it right.

1 | Disgusting | ...I've not subjected myself to this level

2 | Poor | Balcones Lineage

3 | Bad | High West Double Rye, Jefferson's Ocean 28

4 | Sub-par | Weller's SR, Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select

5 | Good | Buffalo Trace, Sazerac Rye, Green River Wheated

6 | Very Good | Blanton's, Holladay Bourbons, Eagle Rare

7 | Great | Baker's 7yr SiB, WhistlePig PiggyBack SiB, 1792 BiB

8 | Excellent | Most ECBP batches, JD SiB BiB, High West MWND Act 11

9 | Incredible | Barrel Bourbon Batch T8ke, BBC DS #7, Four Roses OESQ

10 | Perfect | Found North Batch 08