Whiskey Review: Sazerac 6 Year

Sazerac 6 Year Old Review

The Sazerac 6 Year Rye Whiskey or “baby Saz” is distilled and bottled by the Buffalo Trace Distillery. It’s known as baby Saz because of its famed older brother and member of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, Sazerac 18. While current bottling’s of Sazerac 18 are not distilled by Buffalo Trace (yet) the mashbills are very similar if not exact. The rye mashbill used in baby Saz is approximately 51% rye, 39% corn and 10% malt.

Buy Sazerac 6 for $31.99

SAZERAC RYE-6 YR 2Unlike the growing trend of high rye whiskeys in the market today Sazerac 6 is a “low rye” rye whiskey. Meaning, Sazerac 6 is only 51% rye, just barely meeting the requirement for the “straight rye” designation. Because of the higher corn content Sazerac 6 has a sweeter and fruitier flavor.

Now for the review:

Sazerac rye 6

Nose: A fruity spice like a spiced apple cider. Cloves, sweet corn and a little bit of tobacco.

Taste: Medium sweet. There’s a honey and mint taste. A lot of spice (cinnamon, cloves, pepper). I get a somewhat surprising corn flake taste. This is probably due to the 39% corn in the mashbill.

Finish: Fairly quick but a lot of flavor on the finish with some nice woody notes.

Overall: For the price this is a very tasty whiskey. I would go as far to say that it is the best best rye whiskey under $40. It’s always tough rating a younger version of a whiskey (a la Stagg jr.) because there’s usually no way for them to live up. However, baby Saz does a pretty good job of holding its own at just 6 years old.

This is a great whiskey for $31.99 however it lacks some complexity and depth of flavor and based on that I give Sazerac 6 Year Rye whiskey a BSRS of 84

14 comments

    This is pretty tasty stuff, if you’re willing to enjoy it for what it is rather than isn’t. It’s not Saz 18 and it’s not a high rye whiskey.

    I’m curious though if this is actually still 6 years since there isn’t an age statement on the bottle.

    Buffalo Trace hasn’t confirmed it but most likely Medley or Berheim. They dumped the barrels into stainless steel vats to stop the aging at 18 years. The current Sazerac 18 is bottled from the steel vats until the Buffalo Trace 18 year is ready

    I managed to buy a bottle of this from a friend who purchased it out of curiosity. I enjoyed it VERY much. That was in autumn 2016. I have not found another bottle since. No one in my area has seen it at all—-not on shelves, not from distributors—not at all! It is actually easier to find Pappy and the Buffalo Trace antique collection than it is to find this simple bottle of 6 year Rye——why?????? I’m told it sits on the shelves in Wisconsin but here in Missouri it is simply not to be found. I emailed the company and they maintain production remains constant and strong. Baffled. It’s really very good and I am glad someone is enjoying it somewhere—-just not here.

    Pretty much everywhere you look in MN as well. It’s also one of my favorites. Who knows, you may find someone to ship you a bottle.

    Just paid $25 for a bottle this week in New Orleans and brought it back with me to MI. Haven’t tried it yet but doesn’t sound like I’ll be disappointed!

    At anywhere near retail, Baby Saz is a steal. This has been showing up more frequently in Central Kentucky, but it is still relatively hard to find.

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