At the versatile Heaven Hill Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky, they also produce a corn distillate from a 90% corn, 10% rye / malt mashbill. For it to be labelled Bottled in Bond, it has to be bottled at exactly 100 proof (50%) and must have matured for at least four years (among a handful of other rules). So, that is what we know it is (at the least), now let’s taste what that tastes like.
50% abv, €30
straight corn
Nose: creamy sweet corn, fresh from the cob, together with a fair share of vanilla and a whiff of chalk and alcohol
Palate: a fat and creamy one, this. Spicy sage and white pepper, with sweet honeyed vanilla, and a thick dab of salted butter. Somewhere in between all this, there is a sliver of dried bananas. I know, right?
Finish: medium long, with more raw and sweet corn flavours and a whiff of vanilla. More of the salted butter and banana slivers are there for a somewhat extended period.
Conclusion: It is “just” distilled corn, and it shows, but it also shows some of the finer notes of the woody vanilla the casks have released into the liquid
