Cheryl Lins gave me this bottle at our recent BourbonEnthusiast gathering in Bardstown. This is a 100 proof single barrel pot distilled product from Cheryl's distillery. It is from barrel 1 and is bottle number 2. It was aged for a few months in used oak barrels. It also contains some barley malt (the enzymes from barley are needed for the conversion of the sugars) and some malted rye as per the 19th century recipe.
The nose has a distinct (and very nice) buttered corn cast, with some candy corn aroma thrown in for good measure. There is also some ground corn and popcorn along with other organic aromas wafting about......... altogether interesting and lively!!
The taste is sweet and well rounded upfront, with the corn predominating as one would expect. The whiskey is rich, thick and oily and offers some of the organic grainy taste at mid-palate. It has the 'edge' of a young whiskey, but I find it far and away the most interesting and robust corn whiskey I have ever had (I must confess that I am not overly fond of corn whiskey).
I compared it to the corn whiskey from a Georgia micro distillery (13th Colony Corn Whiskey) which is 95 proof and also aged for a short while in used oak barrels. The Georgia whiskey is very nice corn whiskey, but I think Cheryl's whiskey has a lot more character with its earthy/grainy components. The 13th Colony has a slightly acetone like taste that is a bit offputting.
Thanks Cheryl!!