INTRODUCTION:
This whiskey really got me thinking! I don’t post to this Reddit often, this is only my Fifth review here because for the most part I’m able to read other great post from both experienced professionals and professional alcoholics and they perfectly articulate everything that’s needed to be said. However, I like a fruitful discussion and seeing how J.W Kelly Silver Springs Single Barrels are fairly new and getting older… I decided to write about how this bottle utterly exposes the flaws with extorted consumerism surrounding the modern age of bourbon.
Whiskey has gotten f***ing expensive!
And I’m not just talking about the secondary market. Over the last several years we’ve watched major distilleries increasingly push the premium whiskey ceiling up into the $150, $300, and even $500+ range. Age statements have become luxury features, barrel-proof releases command premiums, and LE’s increasingly arrive wrapped in elaborate packaging and marketing campaigns telling us why the liquid inside is special. After you taste Silver Springs whiskey it’s abundantly clear why they have been gaining popularity. The SB’s are highly recommended throughout this Reddit with just about every bourbon-tuber raving about them as well.
That’s really the purpose of this review.
Not just to analyze Silver Springs, but to talk about its value along side the current state of American whiskey. So I’d truly like to hear from everybody if they have a 2026 123proof and if you agree/disagree with my conclusion.
As for my background, I’m a certified level 2 Sommolier with the CMS & WSET Level 3 Certified. Also, I was involved with the team who selected knob creek & Weller Antique 107 barrel picks, back in 2016-2018 with the company I worked for at the time.
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J.W Kelly Silver Springs Single Barrel Rye:
Age: 8 to 9 Years old (Distilled 2017 - Bottled 2026)
Proof: 123
Single Barrel: 7714
Mashbill
• 65rye/15corn/20mb
(J.W. Kelly describes Silver Springs as being matured in #3 charred oak and bottled at cask strength. This is also a Sweet mash rye, meaning every distillation cycle they use freshly fermented grains with no back-set.)
Historical significance
The J.W. Kelly story is an interesting one of two different companies separated by time. The orginal Chattanooga Whiskey house and the modern revived brand. James Watt Kelly was originally in the wine trade but moved to Nashville in 1864 after hearing about the whiskey business. In 1866, he settled in Chattanooga and established what became J.W. Kelly & Co., including the Deep Spring Distillery. Deep Spring was the operating Tennessee distillery and historically carried registry “No.7”, not to be confused with Jack Daniels. Fun fact,
It’s just how the federal registration system worked as Tennessee was divided into internal revenue districts and Deep Springs Distillery sat at “No. 7” in specifically district two. Importantly Deep Spring produced more than ten labels, many named after Tennessee places and history. One of those labels was Silver Spring, produced from approximately 1900–1919. To continue, James Kelly was a significant business man in Chattanooga, besides whiskey he was known for Tobacco and real estate. In 1892 he was named among the “One Hundred Men Who Have Done Much for Chattanooga”. Unfortunately in 1907 he passed away where the business continued under Carl White, but the 1909 Tennessee prohibition hit the Distillery hard. Because of this the company split its whiskey and tobacco interests, and production eventually shifted out of Tennessee. In 1911, Carl White acquired a half-interest in the Kentucky Peerless Distilling Plant. By the later 1910s, J.W. Kelly & Co. had shifted whiskey production to Henderson, Kentucky, while the Chattanooga business sold non-alcoholic beverages ( interesting how J.W Kelly always had Kentucky connections even back in the early 1900s). When national Prohibition arrived in 1919, the whiskey company sadly ceased operations.
Deep Spring itself was demolished in 1927 effectively ending the whiskey business.
Fast forward into the future, Keeper’s Quest began researching/reviving the J.W. Kelly name around 2016 and officially relaunched the brand in 2017. The modern company revived the name as Silver Springs, adding the “s” and reimagining it as a sweet rye. (From shut down caused by prohibition in 1919 to the brands revival in 2017 was 98 years… nearly a century!)
So now the modern J.W. Kelly & Co. is part of Keeper’s Quest Brands in Chattanooga. This particular whiskey, however, isn’t distilled there. All bottles explicitly state “Distilled in KY,” while Keeper’s Quest in Chattanooga is identified as the bottler. This makes J.W Kelly an independent bottler, not some Deep Spring revival since it’s not a Distilling operation, just simply a resurrected brand. As most people know J.W Kelly Silver Springs is Sourced/Contract-Distilled and then aged, blended, and bottled in Chattanooga under the J.W Kelly label. With that established this brings us to the next question… Where the heck is the Distillate coming from ? Well thanks to the “Bourbon Culture” article written a few years ago by Mike F. & Mike B. We now have a pretty solid investigation leading to New Riff, in Newport, Kentucky contract distilling this unique Silver Springs Rye mashbill for J.W Kelly. The article specifically notes that old Rabbit Hole barrels carried New Riff’s DSP-KY-20016, confirming New Riff’s role as a contract producer for other brands during that period. In the initial article Bourbon Culture considered Brown-Forman, New Riff, Bardstown, and Rabbit hole as the most likely distilleries but couldn’t soundly find any evidence pointing to one or the other. Then in a 2024 update, the authors said they learned that Penelope had been using 65/15/20 rye distilled at New Riff, which they considered enough to resolve the likely provenance of the Silver Springs barrels.
Ok Let’s Get Into It
Nose:
It’s immediately apparent this isn’t a typical rye at all…. You get hit with lots of aged Leather, chocolate, and warm Brown Sugar Cinnamon syrup. Next the barrel aging hits you with some deep vanilla tones and underneath all that…. You find the rye with some cooked Cinnamon Apples, clove (Baking Spices), and rich Carmel. The nose hits you in exactly those three waves or layers of aromas. It’s clearly deep, rich, and complex really giving you something to think about. I’ve never had anything quite like this for a rye whiskey. On the next day a big vanilla cherry coke / black raspberry syrup / sarsaparilla note started to jump out and it’s fantastic! I also think this is the most leather I’ve ever smelled in a modern whiskey.
Palate:
Wow…. This is so unique and full of flavor. The initial attack needs time to build on the mid-palate where some Leather Rye and baking spices slowly transform into Rich brown butter, carmel, and brown sugar. The mouthfeel starts to build and becomes a nice medium bodied experience. The cooked cinnamon apple note is there and then explodes into the layered finish. Baked cinnamon apples and brown sugar galore are wrapped in warming baking spices as they build. Then something amazing happens…. that all transforms into a Mocha coffee/chocolate finish which is just special. This holds 123 proof well and is a layered, complex experience from nose to finish. My particular Single Barrel had a fantastically long finish which really pushed my rating up. ( I have a 118proof that’s excellent but nowhere close to how dark and rich this 123 proof is…)
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Overall:
Silver Springs SB 123proof (90/100 or 9 T8ke)
( I don’t particularly like the T8ke rating system as I think it lacks nuance but I’m going to start rating for both whenever I do a post to appease anyone reading )
J.W. Kelly Silver Springs Sweet Rye SB 123proof Final Thoughts:
That 20% malted barley immediately separates this from the ubiquitous 95/5 rye recipe we’ve seen from MGP for decades. The corn pulls the whiskey toward sweetness while the unusually large malt component appears to give this a completely different personality.
Seriously. This bottle left an impression on me because Silver Springs represents everything I miss about whiskey now…. Even bourbon hunting. Nobody had to tell me this was special, allocated, or convince me it was a unicorn so I should wait in a line at the crack of dawn. I bought a lesser known bottle because the mash looked interesting, the price was right, and I discovered something fantastic. That is exactly what hunting whiskey used to be about.
This bottle has fundamentally made me question what we’re paying for in modern American whiskey… Why are we paying $100, $150, $200 and sometimes $300 for subpar 8–10-year rye when something like this exists? And I’m not making that comparison hypothetically. I own a 9 year Willett Family Estate rye that cost me well over $200 and I prefer this!!? Now, I’m aware that’s obviously my palate and my particular SB, but that’s precisely the point. The price printed on a whiskey bottle doesn’t magically create quality.
I recently did a review on Michter’s 10 Year Rye which has now reached a $210 suggested retail price for the 2025 release and that’s only a 92.8proof single barrel with roughly one more year of age than Silver Springs. Woodford’s current Barrel Strength Rye is $129.99 at 125.1 proof**.** Meanwhile, older Willett Family Estate SB ryes have occupied LE pricing territory!
Then here’s Silver Springs….No elaborate presentation box, prestige bottle, or giant marketing campaign convincing me I’ve been given the privilege of purchasing it.
Just a fairly plain bottle containing a Kentucky distilled, cask-strength, SB rye that cost me $45 bucks. And the whiskey is F***king excellent. It’s genuinely refreshing.
That being said I don’t think every expensive whiskey is a ripoff because aging costs money. Barrel tax and Inventory costs money. Evaporation costs money. Long maturation ties up capital for years. Single barrel selection has its own financial hurdles, and small production runs from craft distilleries don’t have the efficiencies of enormous brands.
So sure, there are legitimate reasons one whiskey costs more than another. But Silver Springs demonstrates something important… Price and quality have become increasingly disconnected at the premium end of American whiskey!
We’re increasingly asked to pay for scarcity, brand prestige, collectibility, packaging and the story surrounding the whiskey in addition to the liquid itself.
Sometimes the story becomes more important than what’s actually in the bottle.
That’s where I think the industry has starting losing me and many others.
A great example for me personally was the recent Kentucky Boy release honoring Chris Morris. Kentucky Boy was released as a one-time $100 tribute to Morris’s 50-year career, incorporating whiskey associated with Woodford Reserve, Old Forester Birthday Bourbon and King of Kentucky.
For me, the liquid didn’t remotely live up to what that story represented. And that’s what bothered me.
Chris Morris isn’t just some marketing figure attached to Woodford Reserve. He’s a Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Famer who began at Brown-Forman in 1976, helped create Woodford Reserve, succeeded Lincoln Henderson as Master Distiller, and was responsible for some of the most important bourbons ever created including Woodford Double Oaked, Birthday Bourbon, and King of Kentucky.
This wasn’t just another limited release. You’re putting the name and legacy of one of the most important people in modern Brown-Forman whiskey history behind it.
So, If you’re going to tell me this bottle represents Chris Morris, then I want the whiskey to make that argument when I taste it. I personally didn’t think it did along with many others.
That’s obviously a subjective assessment, it’s not that the company was intending to mislead anyone but it’s representative of a broader frustration I have with where whiskey has been going.
Sell me the whiskey! Not the FOMO.
Not the lottery and story about how privileged I should feel to buy it.
It’s really easy… just put something great in the bottle and charge me a price that makes sense for what’s actually there.
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These bourbons were observed and tasted over a period of 3 hours. No, they were not blind. All notes were taken individually as tasted, and I used, what I consider to be my best glasses. They are always the same to guarantee consistency.
