Full Proof Rye Whiskey

Full Proof Rye Whiskey from Stork Club at cask strength

Full Proof Rye Whiskey from Stork Club is the robust bottling of the Spreewald rye whiskey, filled at near cask strength and finished in sherry and wine casks. Dark fruit, nut, caramel. Not a watered-down whiskey, but one with broad shoulders.

Full Proof Rye Whiskey is a rye whiskey with 55 percent alcohol from Stork Club in the Spreewald, matured in freshly toasted oak and then refined in used sherry and wine casks. It enters the glass neither colored nor chill-filtered, and you can taste that from the very first sip.

Darker than its sibling, it sits in the glass with an almost amber hue, running sluggishly down the sides. The 500 ml bottle makes it a great gift for people who already have everything.

Dried fruit, nut, and a hint of sherry

On the nose, caramel and walnut take the lead, followed by dried figs and raisins from the sherry cask.

On the palate, the Full Proof Rye Whiskey is dense and oily, with dark chocolate, dried fruit, and the peppery heat of the rye, which balances the sweetness of the wood. Robust, spicy, long – the finish lingers for minutes, becoming increasingly dry.

The sherry cask was previously filled, meaning the wood was soaked and gives a bit of that back. An empty barrel couldn't achieve that. Therefore, in the end, there is no added flavoring, simply the wood and the time that was allowed for it.

A drop of water opens it up

At 55 percent alcohol, a little water is worthwhile, because only then do the fruit aromas emerge from the alcohol.

Add a few drops, wait a moment, and try again; the difference is clear. Neat, it belongs at the end of a long evening, paired with dark chocolate or a handful of roasted walnuts. In an Old Fashioned, it replaces the milder Straight Rye when the drink needs a bit of an edge.

From the Spreewald, with broad shoulders

Like all the distillery’s whiskeys, the Full Proof is distilled from German rye in Schlepzig, right in the middle of the UNESCO Spreewald Biosphere Reserve.

The barrels made of American white oak and German Napoleon oak are individually toasted before the fresh spirit enters, and only at the end does a portion move into used sherry and wine casks. This second maturation is the difference compared to the Straight Rye: it brings the dark fruit that the pure oak maturation lacks.

Behind it all are Steffen Lohr, Bastian Heuser, and Sebastian Brack, three men from the Berlin bar scene who took over the old distillery in October 2016. Since then, their rye has won gold in San Francisco, London, and at the ISW. Quite impressive.

Serving suggestion

Two centiliters in a bulbous glass, three drops of water, wait five minutes. It pairs particularly well with dark chocolate containing at least seventy percent cocoa, as well as aged hard cheese. Further robust bottles can be found under Whisky, and you can find the entire Stork Club range on the manufacturer's page. Store cool and upright so the high alcohol does not affect the cork. Once opened, the Full Proof barely changes over months; that’s how much strength it has.