Batch 1
Batch 1
Indiana 95/5 Rye · Cask Strength · 520 Bottles
Where it all started. Batch 1 is a proprietary blend of three components: straight unfinished Indiana rye, rye finished in toasted American white oak barrels with four-year seasoned staves, and rye finished in a previously used Mizunara oak cask. All sourced from Indiana. All 95% rye, 5% malted barley. Seven-plus years old, bottled at cask strength with no chill filtration.
520 bottles. Every one of them numbered.
The Story Behind Batch 1
Batch 1 grew out of a question I’d been asking myself for years: what would happen if a whiskey writer—someone who’d spent over a decade tasting, analyzing, and being honest about other people’s barrels—got to make his own? The WoodWork Collective gave me the chance to find out.
The answer turned out to be rye whiskey finished in uncommon wood. Not because finishing is trendy, but because the right barrel can take good rye and make it say something new. I started with Indiana-sourced 95/5—a mashbill I know intimately from years of reviewing—and then the blending work began.
Three components, each doing something different. The unfinished rye provides the backbone: herbal, peppery, grounded. The toasted American oak adds sweetness and warmth without overwhelming the grain. And the Mizunara—that’s where it gets interesting. Sandalwood, coconut, something almost incense-like. Not dominant, but unmistakably present.
I blended those three until the whiskey said something I hadn’t heard before. That’s when I knew it was done.
Tasting Notes
Nose
Strawberry-rhubarb crumble, vanilla milkshake, maraschino cherry. Then it opens up: sandalwood, cinnamon spice, toasted oak, brown sugar. Sit with it longer and you’ll find herbal notes—pine needles, a whisper of incense from the Mizunara. The kind of nose that rewards patience.
Palate
The citrus hits first—bright orange crème, almost candy-like—then the herbal rye backbone comes through. Cherry Twizzlers, clove, leather, straw. A few drops of water bring out more of the fruit and soften the spice without losing the structure. At cask strength, it’s bold. With water, it’s revealing.
Finish
Long, layered, and unexpected. Cherries and anise give way to something like Watermelon Jolly Ranchers—not a note you’d predict, but it works. Underpinning everything is toasted oak and a lingering potpourri quality that the Mizunara contributes. This isn’t a finish that fades quickly. It sits with you.
The Label
The name Raconteur means a person who tells interesting stories—and we wanted the label to tell one too. The design pulls from 1800s poster art, with a raised surface and golden inlays that catch the light. The old-timey figure in the top hat is loosely inspired by the kind of larger-than-life characters you’d find in period films. It had to be printed on a 1950s-era press to get the texture right.
Every label lists the source state, the mashbill, the barrel types, the age, and the proof. That’s not a marketing decision. That’s just what we think a whiskey label should do.