Corner Creek
This 'n That Muddled Together
0 582
Review by @Victor
- Nose~
- Taste~
- Finish~
- Balance~
- Overall82
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- Brand: Corner Creek
- Type: American
- ABV: 44%
Corner Creek Reserve Bourbon Whiskey is a product of Corner Creek Distilling Company and bottled by Kentucky Bourbon Distillers, Ltd. KBD, Ltd was formerly the Willett Distilling Company until Even Kulsveen bought it in 1984. This bourbon is stated to contain all four major whiskey grains: corn, rye, wheat and barley. This is my fourth sampling from the reviewed bottle in about one year.
Nose: caramel, vanilla, honey, and a little spice
Taste: caramel, much more rye spice than in the nose, moderate oak, vanilla. Any wheat flavours are rather indistinct and muddled in the ensemble. This is rather sweet and rather light in body.
Finish: the spice elements exit fairly early, leaving mostly wood and caramel
Balance: The first two times I tried this, when the bottle was first opened, I thought, "This whiskey badly wants to say something, but I am not sure what." I wasn't very favourably impressed. Trying it now, a year later, I can see that there has been some opening of the flavours, which allows the sweet quality to be more greatly enjoyed, if you are in a mood to enjoy sweet. I still don't see any real advantage here in combining the wheat and the rye. Wheat, rather predictably, gets drowned out or muddled by the more strongly flavoured rye. Maybe someone knows a better proportion for the mashbill for this in order to taste both grains, but this one doesn't harmonise well in my book. In summary, I like some KBD products a very great deal, but this one requires just the right frame of mind to get excited about. Maybe the idea of a "dessert bourbon" isn't too far off. You can have a good time with Corner Creek Reserve if you don't ask too many questions or ask for it to give you what it cannot give you.
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Nice review, @Victor, and not a terribly different impression of Corner Creek than my own. Just for a touch of clarity, though, the "Corner Creek Distilling Company" is simply a subsidiary of KBD, not a distiller—or even a company, really—in its own right. No one quite knows the source of the KBD whiskey (though some are convinced its mostly or entirely Heaven Hill). I'm guessing you know all of this, but fellow Connosrs might not ; )