 Cadenhead's Potter Corn 24yo  
Alberta Distillery - Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
Tastes & Smells
It's pretty burny at first whiff, which gradually moves towards kerosene, a lit fire and then just-picked spearmint. Quite spiced, with oranges and icing sugar. Definitely creamy over time, complemented by rosemary and a woody leafiness and strangely enough, swimming pools. Pop it in your mouth and it's amazingly sweet and smooth, like warm liquid caramel. The orange aroma is now sweet orange candy and the creaminess is now buttery. It's also slightly mackerelly (which works really well) and this becomes more oily on the finish. A little tingly at the end with lemon and orange again, and a it finishes with a portion of salted popcorn.
Graintacular?
A dessert whisky, mostly just rich sweetness - I kept saying "hot caramel" and it really sums it up. At one point I felt like it gave a tiny amount of sourness too, but I wasn't 100% on that. The creaminess in the nose almost totally dies from thereon in, dominated by sweetness, but that sweetness blossoms in lots of delicious ways. In some ways this is extremely basic, but in others it has a surprising complexity - very hard to call, but there's a simple enjoyment in deciding. - see Barry Bradford's tasting notes for another opinion, from the very same tasting.
Summary & Ramblings
It was tasted just down the road from a shop called The Fudge House, and it felt like I'd accidentally gone in there instead, standing over bubbling vats of fudgy sweetness instead of sampling this.. It was tasted with a genuine bona fide Canadian who had no inkling it was a Canadian whisky (was a blind tasting) - that says something, I'm sure.
NB: You may notice the label states "Distilled at Potter Distillers, Kelowna" - however, I was informed this was impossible as the whisky is older than that distillery. The cask was bought from them, but they must've purchased it from elsewhere - their best guess being Alberta Distilling Ltd, which is where I've tagged it to be from - this is not guaranteed to be accurate. Oh, and 'Indian Corn' is slang for animal-grade maize, apparently. I like that.
|
Tasted on: 21/02/14
|
  My first Canadian grain, and a very attractive bottle. |
tldr;
Sweet, mysterious Canadian corn whiskey - simple, yet tantalising. A dessert dram, for sure, in fact it would be perfect next to a sweet, creamy pudding. I like it more each time I describe it, and I bought a bottle after the tasting. So there.