Originally Posted by TMOliver

"Smooth" Rye? If true to its heritage, born from the haze induced by half a jug of Monongahela Popskull, a whiskey raw enough to strip the lining from a turkey's Gizzard, Rye ought not to be too smooth, my quarrel with Texas distillery's "Yellow Rose", smoother than a slatternly tavern wench's tongue. Drinking rye ought to be like kissing the thigh of a "Dirty leg" girl who hasn't shaved her legs in a while, a bit abrasive.....

That's the reason that you put Vermouth in a Manhattan, to cut the hard edge off the Rye Whiskey. If it's smooth you're after, there's always that Canajun stuff, little more (if more at all) than water, grain neutral spirits and caramel.