Balcones True Blue Single Barrel Cask Strength Straight Corn Whisky (700ml) - Australian Exclusive

The Balcones classic returns as a cask strength / single cask selection. 162 bottles for Australia only.

Once described as "Cornographic" by whisky writer, Jim Murray, True Blue hasn't been in the country for around 2-3 years but was always one of the most popular Balcones lines - generally on par with the Brimstone as far as sales go. The difference here is that this True Blue is an uncut single barrel pick for the Australian importer, as opposed to the standard issue multi-barrel blend. A mash of 100% Blue Corn matured in a variety of new charred barrels, it's an exuberant, full-throttle, Bourbonesque experience with the sweetness of corn as a keynote. It's also one of the last standouts representing an almost lost American whiskey category - the forerunner and kissing cousin to Bourbon, American Straight Corn Whiskey. Balcones isn’t the only craft distillery producing a 100% corn style. That said, True Blue will be an eye opener for many, and it tastes better than any other example we've come across - no doubt partly due to the roasted blue corn that founder, Chip Tate set as a standard.

Aged in a used American oak barrel, then transferred into a used Kentucky Bourbon barrel equating to a total of 55 months - a relatively old age statement for the warm Waco climate - compared to other craft whiskeys around the same age, it boasts a seriously deep flavour profile, jam-packed with typical Balcone's wood spices yet somehow remains approachable uncut. As with pretty much all of their cask strength whiskies, the alcohol needs five minutes to blow off to get you through to a mix of sweeter scents including maple glazed pancakes, coffee cake, wisps of fairy floss and cinnamon. These come bolstered by fresher oak input. Mouth coating, buttery and sweetly oaky on entry, then akin to high cocoa dark chocolate through the middle stages, hints of wild honey, hazelnut, cafe cremes and ripe peach add to a super-charged finish. The bittersweet and spicy notes are reigned in before toasty oak and Toblerone bar rebound late in the aftertaste. A benchmark for corn whisky that gets better every time you try it, sampling this against older American whiskeys highlighted how the richness and grain-oak integration are a match for Bourbons two or three times its age (and price). In short, cask #21303 is a bargain. Emptied on the 5/16/2022 with an outturn of just 162 bottles, we have a fraction of that available. Expect it to go quick. 61.4% Alc./Vol. Non chill filtered.