The rise of rye – America’s original whiskey – Category Intel

Compared with Bourbon and Scotch, the rebirth of the rye whiskey segment is in its infancy. Even so, there is still plenty to be excited about as brand owners spread their wings. It’s easy to forget that rye was America’s original whiskey. Planted by European settlers in the mid-18th Century, it was gradually subsumed and overtaken by a rival: the mainly corn-based whiskey segment that we have since come to know as Bourbon. As Bourbon became the dominant style in the US, rye became the almost forgotten province of the whiskey geek. “When we first began working on resurrecting the Mich