There was a time when rye whiskey meant one thing: a spirit born in Kentucky or Pennsylvania, blended quietly from anonymous barrels, and bottled without much explanation about where it actually came from. Those days are fading fast. A small Vermont-based outfit called Lost Lantern is making sure of it.
The company just dropped Far-Flung Rye II, the second batch in its flagship rye series, and the whiskey world is already paying attention. VinePair named it their Best Rye Whiskey to drink in 2026, which is no small thing for a release limited to just 800 bottles.
Image credit: Lost Lantern
But the award is almost secondary to what this bottle actually represents. Far-Flung Rye II is a blend of straight rye whiskies pulled from five different distilleries across five different states, none of which have ever been blended together before. That sentence alone should stop anyone who thinks they know what American rye tastes like.
FIVE STATES, ONE BOTTLE
The distilleries contributing to this batch read like a road trip across middle America and the eastern seaboard. New Riff Distilling out of Newport, Kentucky brings the first-ever Kentucky component to the Far-Flung Rye series. Union Horse Distilling Co. in Lenexa, Kansas adds a Plains state perspective that almost nobody associates with whiskey. Baltimore Spirits Co. represents Maryland, a state with deep historical ties to rye that predate Prohibition. Middle West Spirits from Columbus, Ohio and Wollersheim Distillery in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin round out the blend with Midwestern character.
Every one of those distilleries is listed right on the label, front and back. That level of transparency is practically unheard of in blended whiskey, where most producers hide behind vague terms and undisclosed sourcing arrangements. Lost Lantern does the opposite. They want drinkers to know exactly what they are getting and exactly who made it.
The components range from five to seven years old, and the whole thing is bottled at a hefty natural cask strength of 124.4 proof. It is non-chill filtered with no color added. In other words, nothing about this whiskey is dressed up or dumbed down.
WHAT IS IN THE GLASS
The tasting notes paint a picture of a rye that leans into the grain's natural personality rather than fighting it. The nose is fresh and grassy, with hints of mint, lemon, and balanced oak spice. On the palate, things get more complex. There are herbal and grassy flavors layered with notes of lemon pound cake, fresh mint, and bold oak and spice. The finish is warm and rounded, and it sticks around for a while.
At 124.4 proof, this is not a casual sipper for someone who wants something light after dinner. It demands a little attention. A few drops of water might open it up for some drinkers, but plenty of rye enthusiasts will want it exactly as it comes out of the bottle, full strength and unapologetic.
HOW IT DIFFERS FROM BATCH ONE
The first Far-Flung Rye drew entirely from Midwestern distilleries. That gave it a regional focus that was interesting but somewhat narrow in scope. Batch two breaks out of that geographic box by pulling in Kentucky and Maryland, two states with completely different rye traditions.
The Kentucky addition is worth talking about on its own. New Riff is not some anonymous mega-distillery cranking out barrels for whoever writes the biggest check. They are a craft operation in Newport that has built a strong reputation for doing things their own way. So while this is technically the first time Kentucky rye has appeared in the Far-Flung lineup, it is a very different animal from the Kentucky rye that fills most mass-market blends.
Lost Lantern thinks of each batch as a sibling to the ones before it. Similar enough to share a family resemblance, but with its own personality and story. The company says that anyone who enjoyed the first version should feel confident picking up the second, while still finding something new and different in the glass.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
What Lost Lantern is doing with Far-Flung Rye taps into something that has been building in American whiskey for years. The craft distilling movement has spread to every corner of the country, and there are now serious producers making excellent rye in states that never had a whiskey tradition before. Kansas, Wisconsin, Ohio — these are not places that show up on most whiskey maps, but the liquid coming out of their stills is changing the conversation about what American rye can be.
The problem has always been visibility. A small distillery in Prairie du Sac or Lenexa does not have the marketing budget to compete with the big Kentucky and Tennessee brands for shelf space or mindshare. By blending these lesser-known ryes together into a single cohesive product and then putting every distillery's name on the label, Lost Lantern gives these producers a platform they would not otherwise have.
It also creates flavors that have literally never existed before. When ryes from five different states and five different distilling traditions come together in one barrel, the result is something no single distillery could produce on its own. That is the whole point.
A BOTTLE WORTH HUNTING
With only 800 bottles produced, Far-Flung Rye II is not going to be sitting on every liquor store shelf in America. Lost Lantern has been rolling it out gradually, and bottles have already started appearing in some markets. The whiskey is also available through the Lost Lantern website and through the online retailer Seelbachs.
Nora, who handles the blending for Lost Lantern, creates a new batch of Far-Flung Rye or Far-Flung Bourbon whenever the previous one is close to running out. That means the series is meant to be consistently available, even if each individual batch is limited. It is an unusual model in the whiskey world, where limited releases tend to disappear forever and allocated bottles become objects of speculation rather than things people actually drink.
For anyone who wants to taste through the lineup and compare batches, Lost Lantern also operates a tasting room in Vergennes, Vermont, at 11 Main Street. The room recently reopened and runs Fridays and Saturdays from one to six in the afternoon.
WHY THIS MATTERS
American whiskey is in the middle of a quiet revolution. The old guard still dominates the market, and there is nothing wrong with reaching for a familiar bottle from a well-known distillery. But the most exciting things happening in rye right now are coming from unexpected places, made by people who are not following anyone else's playbook.
Far-Flung Rye II captures that energy in a single bottle. It is proof that great rye whiskey is no longer defined by geography or tradition alone. It comes from everywhere now, and the best way to understand that is to pour a glass and taste it for yourself.
