Highwood Century Reserve 21 Year Old

This whisky, despite what it says on the bottle, has no rye in it - it is a 100% corn whisky, produced by highwood distillery from stock originally obtained from Potters. Also it's a whisky over 20 Years old which is less than $50...

Nose: Oak, not surprisingly, comes through quite clearly, along with green grapes, maple, and blackcurrant. Spice, and dried corn cobs come through (like those halloween decorations), along with some nuttiness like almond with the skins on. Vanilla increasingly emerges with time. It's quite rich, and preps me for a rich delivery - though still maintaining quite a light quality. I also want to label the nose as slightly floral, though, in fact, I can't identify any particular flower aromas at this time- but it has a light, nectar like quality of flowers nonetheless. As it sits, the oak grows, and the nose continues to improve. 88%

Taste: Fairly thick in texture, with a nice backdrop of bourbon and vanilla notes. It is reasonably sweet, and the corn is felt throughout this - corn oil, dried corn husks, and even some flavours of sweet corn. There is light honey on this, throughout - it is indeed rich. Surprisingly, it is not as oaky as I expected from the nose. It's very pleasant, and the oak has done some wonderful work in taming this whisky into quite an elegant product. Some berry notes also come through - a bit of blueberry mainly. It's not loud, bold or aggressive - but soft, smooth, and honeyed. 92%

Finish: Lightly sweet, with very light background spices - though I find them a little difficult to distinctly describe. Light honey also comes through, with nectar and vanilla. The oak comes through, though the flavour is less felt than the "feel" (i.e. tannins) of the oak. The body of the finish is good, and it has good grip too. As I often find, with more sipping the spices seem to emerge more - and combined with the tannins it works really well. 88%

Intrigue: This is a very good whisky - nicely balanced, and the oak certainly hasn't taken too much of a toll even after 21 years. Highwood certainly has been outputting an impressive line of products, and at excellent value. 93%

Weighting the nose 25%, taste 35%, Finish 15%, and Intrigue 25% the overall grade is 90.

*I realized I would never have time to upload all my Canadian whisky reviews to connosr properly, so I've been importing the tasting notes in bulk to expand the whisky base on connosr. For more info on the whisky (with similar tasting notes), see my post at whiskywon.wordpress.com/2014/05/…