Grain & Barrel Spirits follows up final 12 months’s Hen Cock particular version rye with a a lot totally different luxe providing — a Kentucky straight bourbon that’s completed in Cognac barrels. No age statements right here, however the mashbill is revealed as 70% corn, 21% rye, and 9% malted barley. Like different current Hen Cock bottlings, Chanticleer is sealed in a collectible commemorative tin, this one celebrating the longstanding partnership between France and the U.S.; the tins, by the best way, are designed to evoke Prohibition-era booze smuggling containers. Now you realize.
Simply 32 barrels had been produced, so let’s dive in earlier than they’re all gone.
Cognac and whiskey could make for a magical mixture, and this bottling is not any exception. Initially fairly woody on the nostril, evoking some age, the lumberyard notes are tempered by fruit, deep notes of plum and a thick smear of spiced syrup shifting right into a raisin character, clearly pushed by the brandy barrel, with time in glass. The palate has all this effectively represented in a swirl of fruit and spice, notes of cinnamon and apple melding effectively with an more and more persistent raisin high quality — virtually pruny at instances. That is all in fact by design, the Cognac barrel doing its job of sweetening up the whiskey and giving it a decidedly youthful character. Milk chocolate notes construct with time in glass and on the end, although what clings most clearly to the palate via and thru is a daring raisin character, frivolously spiced, and bursting with sunshine.
Followers of Cognac will instantly gravitate to this whiskey — and I believe it’s a pleasant change of tempo from the same old fare — although I can perceive definitely the way it could be seen as too candy for some.
112 proof.
A- / $500 / chickencockwhiskey.com
Hen Cock Chanticleer Cognac Barrel End
$500
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