New Riff Balboa Rye:
The Only Whiskey in the World Made from a Forgotten Grain.
95% Balboa heirloom rye. A grain nearly extinct from American distilling since the 1940s. Bottled in Bond, 100 proof, non-chill filtered. Limited annual release and almost certainly the only bottle using this exact grain available anywhere on earth.
Buy Balboa Rye — $64.99 →What It Tastes Like
The Balboa rye grain produces a flavor profile unlike any standard rye whiskey softer, more complex, and with a finish that reveals itself slowly.
Balboa Rye — Full Tasting Notes
Nose
Toasted oak and red fruit open first, followed by a bright hit of orange zest. Rye bread fresh and grain-forward weaves through with a touch of lemon. Clean, inviting, and distinctly different from the pepper-and-fire nose of conventional rye.
Palate
Dry and chewy the Balboa grain's texture is immediately noticeable. Layers unfold: orange rind, butterscotch, raisin, and clove. A warmth that builds without heat. The familiar comfort of rye spice, but softened and made more complex by the heirloom grain's own character.
Finish
Long and crescendo-building: cinnamon graham cracker gives way to sandalwood, seared mint, and pink peppercorn. Clove lingers. It's not a simple finish it keeps revealing itself. The kind of finish you sit with and let develop rather than drink past.
The Production Credentials
The Grain That Time Forgot
Balboa rye is an heirloom grain, a variety that was once widely grown across Indiana but fell out of agricultural use as modern, higher-yield rye varieties took over in the 20th century. By the time New Riff's co-founder Jay Erisman began talking to the distillery's trusted corn farmer, Balboa rye had been all but forgotten by the American farming community for decades.
What brought it back was a simple realization: Balboa rye tastes different. The heritage grain carries a deeper, more complex flavor profile than the commodity rye used in virtually every other American rye whiskey, more fruit, more texture, more depth, and a distinctly softer character that challenges every assumption about what rye whiskey should taste like.
Growing Balboa is genuinely difficult. It's labor-intensive to cultivate, yields less than modern varieties, and requires the kind of careful agricultural attention that commercial farming economics usually punishes. New Riff does it anyway, because Jay Erisman, a former President of Cincinnati's Slow Food chapter and a longtime champion of agricultural biodiversity, understood that some things are worth preserving even when they're inconvenient.
The result is a whiskey that's almost certainly the first time Balboa rye has appeared in a distilled spirit in decades and quite possibly the only bottle using this exact grain available anywhere in the world right now.
Balboa Rye vs. Standard Rye Whiskey
If you think you know what rye whiskey tastes like, Balboa Rye will challenge that assumption.
What Makes Balboa Rye Different
Standard Rye Whiskey
Commodity rye grain · Spicy, peppery, direct · Familiar and assertive · Heat-forward character · Widely available year-round · Consistent release to release
✓ New Riff Balboa Rye
Heirloom Balboa rye grain · Softer, fruitier, more complex · Orange zest, raisin, sandalwood · Dry and chewy texture unique to this grain · Annual limited release only · Almost certainly the only Balboa rye whiskey available today
This Is the Bottle. Right Now Is the Time.
Balboa Rye releases roughly once a year. New Riff distills 2.5× more of their flagship rye than they do Balboa, which tells you how rare this is. When it sells out, it's gone until the next annual release.
Buy New Riff Balboa Rye — $64.99 →The Philosophy Behind Balboa Rye
Jay Erisman isn't just New Riff's co-founder, he's a genuine advocate for agricultural biodiversity and traditional grain culture. His background in the Slow Food movement, where preserving heirloom ingredients and traditional production methods is the central mission, directly shaped how New Riff approaches its grain sourcing.
For Erisman, Balboa Rye is more than a product launch. It's an argument: that heirloom agricultural varieties produce genuinely different and often better, flavor outcomes than the commodity alternatives that have replaced them. That the economics of mass production have cost the whiskey industry something real in terms of flavor diversity. And that some of that cost can be recovered by working with farmers willing to grow difficult, lower-yield varieties for a buyer who cares.
In a category where most rye whiskeys use the same commodity grain from the same sourcing network, Balboa Rye is an act of genuine craft. You're not just buying a bottle, you're participating in the preservation of a grain that had almost disappeared from American agriculture entirely.
How to Drink Balboa Rye
A whiskey this rare and complex deserves to be experienced properly. Here's the recommended approach.
Neat — The Right Way to Start
- 2 oz New Riff Balboa Rye
- A proper Glencairn glass or small tulip
- Room temperature
- Optional: a few drops of water after the first neat sip
Pour neat and let it sit for 30 seconds before the first sip. The Balboa rye grain's character reveals itself over time in the glass, the orange zest and red fruit on the nose, the dry chewy texture on the palate, and the long crescendo of the finish. After the first neat pour, try adding 3–4 drops of water: the finish opens further, the sandalwood and pink peppercorn become more pronounced, and the butterscotch softens beautifully. This is a whiskey built for slow, attentive drinking — not to be rushed or mixed away.
More from New Riff — While You Wait for the Next Balboa Release
If Balboa Rye is sold out or you want to explore the rest of New Riff's lineup, these expressions share the same Bottled in Bond philosophy and non-chill filtration commitment.
Balboa Rye — Frequently Asked Questions
What is Balboa rye and why is it unusual?
Balboa is an heirloom rye variety that was widely grown in Indiana through the mid-20th century before being largely abandoned in favor of modern, higher-yield commodity rye strains. New Riff sources Balboa rye from a trusted regional farmer who has preserved the grain. It's very likely the first time Balboa rye has been used in a distilled spirit in decades and almost certainly the only bottle using this exact grain commercially available today.
How does Balboa Rye taste different from regular rye whiskey?
Standard rye whiskeys tend toward bold spice and pepper assertive and direct. Balboa Rye is softer, fruitier, and more texturally complex: dry and chewy on the palate, with orange rind, butterscotch, raisin, and clove, and a long finish of cinnamon, sandalwood, seared mint, and pink peppercorn. The heirloom grain's own flavor character produces results that commodity rye simply cannot replicate.
How limited is Balboa Rye?
Very. New Riff produces 2.5 times more of their flagship rye than they produce Balboa Rye. It releases approximately once per year, sells out quickly, and doesn't become available again until the next release. If it's in stock when you read this, buying now is the right call.
What does Bottled in Bond mean for Balboa Rye?
All Balboa Rye is Bottled in Bond meaning it meets the requirements of the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897: aged a minimum of 4 years, bottled at 100 proof, produced at a single distillery in a single distillation season. It is also non-chill filtered, meaning the natural oils and full texture of the grain are preserved in every pour.
Should I drink Balboa Rye neat or in cocktails?
Neat, always for the first pour. The Balboa grain's unique character — its soft texture, its orange zest and raisin complexity, its long sandalwood finish is best experienced without dilution or competing flavors. Add a few drops of water after the first sip if you want to open the aromatics further. Using it in cocktails is your choice, but you'd be mixing away what makes it worth buying.
Who is Jay Erisman and why does he matter to this bottle?
Jay Erisman is New Riff's co-founder and a longtime champion of agricultural biodiversity a former President of Cincinnati's Slow Food chapter who brought those values directly into the distillery. His commitment to heirloom grains and traditional production methods is the reason Balboa Rye exists. Without someone willing to invest in growing difficult, low-yield heritage grain, this whiskey simply wouldn't be possible.
If You Love Balboa Rye's Depth, Scotch Single Malt Thinks the Same Way
The philosophy behind Balboa Rye — preserving heritage grain varieties, prioritizing flavor over yield, producing in small quantities with full transparency — is exactly the philosophy that defines the best family-owned Scotch distilleries. The best Speyside single malts are built on the same values: traditional barley varieties, small-batch production, and decades of patient barrel maturation that commercial economics could never justify. If what you love about Balboa Rye is the craft, the grain, and the authenticity, Scotch whisky is worth exploring particularly the Glenlivet 12 for approachable depth, or Balvenie 12 Double Wood for the same commitment to craft and heritage you found in Balboa Rye.
Explore the Full Scotch Collection →
The Only Balboa Rye in the World. In Stock Now.
Limited annual release. Non-chill filtered. Bottled in Bond. 95% heirloom grain. When it's gone, it's gone until next year.
Buy New Riff Balboa Rye — $64.99 →
