{"id":273278,"date":"2026-06-21T17:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T17:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/273278\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T17:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T17:30:09","slug":"whiskey-review-lasso-motels-13-year-rye-is-great-for-manhattans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/273278\/","title":{"rendered":"Whiskey Review: Lasso Motel’s 13-Year Rye Is Great for Manhattans"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWelcome to\u00a0Taste Test<\/a>,\u00a0where every week our critic\u00a0Jonah Flicker<\/a>\u00a0explores the most buzzworthy and interesting whiskeys in the world. Check back each Sunday for his latest\u00a0whiskey review<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother week, another celebrity-affiliated spirit brand<\/a>. This times things are different, however\u2014the celebrity, James Dean<\/a>, has not been alive for a very long time, and having his name on the bottle really doesn\u2019t matter at all. That\u2019s okay though, because this 13-year-old, 112-proof rye is a fantastic whiskey<\/a> in its own right, and one that you should sip on its own or use to whip up a killer Manhattan.<\/p>\n

\n\tLasso Motel<\/a>, which was founded by Dynasty Spirits president Devin Odell in 2024, is named after the Belmont Hotel in Dallas, Texas. The brand already has a deep lineup of sourced Kentucky and Indiana whiskeys, bourbons and ryes that are either bottled as straight whiskeys or given cask finishes. Last year, we covered the Darts<\/a> release, a decent bourbon finished in armagnac, sherry, and Cognac barrels that is meant to be enjoyed with a cigarette, kind of a riff on a cigar blend. Lasso Motel also has an excellent, award-winning 18-year-old American straight whiskey in the lineup that is worth checking out. <\/p>\n

\n\tSo let\u2019s dive into this new liquid. This is a 95 percent rye grain\/five percent malted barley mashbill rye whiskey<\/a> that was distilled at MGP<\/a> in Indiana. Right off the bat, this would be a hard one to get wrong. Thirteen-year-old MGP<\/a> rye bottled at 112 proof is a recipe for success, a classic rye style that is aged for longer than usual and bottled at a higher proof, which means less dilution, more flavor, and a deeper palate. Big notes of oak, vanilla, dried fruit, peppercorn, and cinnamon greet you as you sip, followed by flavors of dried orange, ripe pear, plum, and some maple syrup. Red Hots and caramel notes linger on the finish, which has a nice, warming heat. You should definitely sip this whiskey neat, but I encourage you to try it in a Manhattan as well, even with its $150 price tag.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd now the celebrity elephant in the room. The full name of this whiskey is Lasso Motel x James Dean 13-Year Rye Whiskey, because it was conceived and produced in partnership with the James Dean Estate. Dean was a fantastic actor who appeared in great movies like East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, and Giant. He died way too young in a car accident at 24, an unfortunate demise that cemented his legendary status. There is some marketing language from the brand about how the whiskey has the same \u201crebel soul and timeless Americana that continues to define James Dean\u2019s legacy.\u201d That\u2019s a lot, it\u2019s just whiskey. But it really doesn\u2019t matter at all, and I mean that as a compliment because this 13-year-old MGP<\/a> rye whiskey is just a really solid sipper, regardless of the name attached to it. And, after all, that should always be the most important thing for any whiskey.<\/p>\n

\n\tScore:\u00a091<\/p>\n

100\u00a0Worth trading your first born for<\/p>\n

95 \u2013 99\u00a0In the Pantheon: A trophy for the cabinet<\/p>\n

90 \u2013 94\u00a0Great: An excited nod from friends when you pour them a dram\u00a0<\/p>\n

85 \u2013 89\u00a0Very Good: Delicious enough to buy, but not quite special enough to chase on the secondary market<\/p>\n

80 \u2013 84\u00a0Good: More of your everyday drinker, solid and reliable<\/p>\n

Below 80\u00a0It\u2019s Alright:\u00a0Honestly, we probably won\u2019t waste your time and ours with this<\/p>\n

\tAuthors<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Jonah\"Jonah<\/p>\n

\n\t\tJonah Flicker\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Flicker is currently Robb Report’s whiskey critic, writing a weekly review of the most newsworthy releases around. He is a freelance writer covering the spirits industry whose work has appeared in\u2026<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tRead More\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to\u00a0Taste Test,\u00a0where every week our critic\u00a0Jonah Flicker\u00a0explores the most buzzworthy and interesting whiskeys in the world. Check…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[105241,105242,75,84,83,9,24,63,12294,44700,26155,8114],"class_list":["post-273278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-james-dean","tag-lasso-motel","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-review","tag-rye-whiskey","tag-taste-test","tag-whiskey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}