Sagamore Sauternes Rye Review: Is This $90 Pick Worth It?

Sagamore Spirit’s Sauternes Store Pick Barrel Reserve is a mellow, wine-forward rye that we liked more than we loved. The fruit and honey stand out, while the rye spice stays in the background. That balance worked better for Steve than Tom, who wanted more rye character beneath the wine finish.

At a glance

• Type: Rye whiskey finished in Sauternes wine casks
• Proof: 117.4
• Age: 7 years total, with 4 years before a 3-year cask finish
• Price: $90 for our bottle
• Tom’s rating: Solid blue on our scale
• Steve’s rating: Double blue on our scale

A collaborative pick with time to open up

Our bottle was a Maryland store pick, a collaboration between Angel’s Share, Allview Liquors, and Pasadena Wine and Spirits. Sagamore used a blend of its rye whiskey for this Barrel Reserve release.

We first tried it at a whiskey night. The advice at the store was to crack it open, get past that initial “wine funkiness,” and give it time to open up. This tasting gave us a chance to revisit it after opening.

Nose: Grape juice, honey and wine funk

The nose is sweet and pleasant, with a little wine funk still hanging around. We picked up grape, almost like grape juice, alongside a grain note. There’s also some citrus and subtle oak.

Honey adds to that sweet impression. The rye character is quiet on the nose, with very little spice coming through.

Palate: Wine-led fruit with gentle rye spice

The first sip is very winey, and it’s definitely distinctive. It also drinks surprisingly gently for the proof. We expected more heat from a finished rye, but this has very little punch or chest burn. We wondered whether those three years in the finishing cask helped mellow it out.

There’s still some white pepper rye spice, along with honeyed fruit, grape, citrus, and raisin. The sweetness never becomes overpowering. Oak comes through more clearly as we keep sipping.

Mouthfeel and finish: Light texture, lasting flavor

The texture is thinner than we usually like, without much viscosity. It coats the palate briefly, but that coating doesn’t stick around.

The finish lasts longer than the light mouthfeel suggests. Lingering sweetness and fruit carry into slight oakiness, with an almost cinnamon-like spice at the end. It hangs out instead of fading away immediately.

Value: $90 leaves us considering other Sagamore picks

In our experience, around $90 is pretty standard for Sagamore’s specialty store picks. We don’t love that price, even if it’s familiar. A good pick closer to $60 would make us happier.

Tom likes the whiskey, but this particular kind of unique isn’t quite his thing. He thinks it may be a little overfinished, with the wine keeping the rye from shining through. To him, it feels more like a wine-and-whiskey collaboration than a rye with a supporting wine finish.

Steve enjoyed the experience, though Sagamore’s other unusual picks make another bottle less tempting. At the time of our tasting, a maple finish was expected later that year, and that was another release we were interested in trying.

This is a bottle Steve would bring to a share

For Steve, this fits a night with friends or a bottle share, a little below a special Friday-night pour. He’s happy to have experienced it without needing a second bottle. That’s where this pick lands for us: enjoyable to explore, even if it doesn’t earn a permanent spot on the shelf.