Georgia Moon Corn Whiskey: A Great Little Spirit With A Great Little Heart

This week we’ve stripped back our favourite dram, delved into the delectable world of American moonshine and pulled out of the boozy bag a young whippersnapper that is eager for your unconditional love. So tip your caps and exuberantly welcome into your well-oiled hearts one moonshine that delivers taste, nostalgia and a damn good price: Shine On Georgia Moon Corn Whiskey. We’re already experienced with another type of moonshine, Irish Poitin, so you can imagine our excitement when this little fella dropped through our letterbox and gave us the first chance to taste moonshine from our cousins across the pond. And if is there is one young spirit that will leave you wanting to pick up some old pot still and try to make your own (although that is illegal so, well, just be careful!), then this little dude is your corn-chewing, tobacco-spitting boy!

So before we get on our high horse and ride off into the blistering sunset with this under our arm, let’s take a peek at the origins of this blossoming moonshine. Hailing from the most prominent, bourbon producing state in America, Kentucky, this un-aged corn whiskey may be devoid of colour, but it’s definitely not devoid of taste. Made from over 81% corn and bottled less than 30 days old, this spirit may only just be a little baby but a baby that packs a punch! It’s produced by America’s largest independent, family-owed spirit company, Heaven Hill Distillery, who are also producers of brands such as Elijah Craig and Evan Williams. So you may not be exactly getting a craft, small batch, back-of-the-woods type of moonshine, but what you are getting is a great little spirit that has a great little heart. With branding and a bottle design that oozes a stereotypical southern hick lifestyle (a good marketing ploy maybe?), we can almost envisage ourselves lazying around under statuesque trees on a sticky, hot, Kentuckian day with a glass of this in one hand and a liquorice rollie in the other. That sounds pretty damn good to us!

But as soon as we got this under our nose we could certainly tell it was only a baby. It’s unapologetically un-mellowed but carried with it a yearning quality and a spritely character. We were bowled over by the full on, head strong corn dominance, which is not surprising really when this is the majority of it's make up. But it's a corn hit full of wonderful buttery tones and you can almost pick out the mash itself. It has a nice sweetness to it that is unexpectedly alluring, like it’s inviting us into an enchanted forest when we’ve no idea what’s up ahead, but we bewitchingly follow anyway. On the back foot there is a subtle sourness that hits the back of the nose, maybe a whisper of cinnamon too and it also delivers a good deal of potency, as if someone's just kicked you in the snout with a 24 carat gold boot!

But it’s the taste of this young, undisciplined buck that really got us in a spin. Corn predictably sings oh so loud an very proud in the centre of this palatable production but it also brings along with it a captivating sweetness. It delivers such wonderful waves of hot, buttery popcorn, throwing us back to childhood days when the cinema air was thick with it’s luscious smell and we ferociously tried to shove as much popcorn into our cake-holes as physically possible! It has that nostalgic element to it, well for us it does. You can subtly detect notes from the mash which gives this un-aged corn whiskey a rawness and edge that certainly helps balance out its sweetness. But what is most surprising about this whiskey is it's smoothness. Being un-aged we kind of expected it to cascade down our throats kicking and screaming in bitter anguish, but it didn't. Jackpot! Even the texture is pleasing; slightly creamed with a good consistency making it so easy to knock back.

But if this corn whiskey is one thing then it’s efficient, hellishly efficient. It darted off our tongue quicker than it had arrived with a finish shorter than a pair of Borrower's trousers! It leaves only but a fragmented memory of what it was and we can’t quite make out whether that's a good thing or not. But after mulling this around in our skull for a few minutes we thought to ourselves; maybe that’s not what this corn whiskey is about, maybe it’s doesn’t want to linger around. Maybe it just wants to give us one huge crack in the chops then leave to save it’s own skin. Maybe, who knows, but what we do know is this that it packs a great punch and a neat little flavour. Another ace thing about this corn whiskey is it’s a cracker for the price, £23.25, and it comes bottled in something resembling a giants jam jar or a make-shift wasp catcher! The most difficult thing about drinking this whiskey is trying to figure out how to pour it out the bloody bottle! You'll need to invest in a funnel if you want any chance of the liquid making it into a glass!

But for us it's those warm, buttery popcorn notes and the nostalgic elements that make us want to shout about this corn whiskey from the rooftops. It reminded us a lot of poitin. It has that young, punky spirit, that determined courage in which moonshine embodies and we love that. With a history more colourful than Boy George's wardrobe, American moonshine is certainly one genre of spirits that we'll be dipping more of our toes into and if you're a bourbon lover too, then it's also one you should get involved in, starting with this feisty chap!

Pick yourselves up a bottle from Master of Malt

#CornWhiskey #Review #Moonshine #GeorgiaMoon #American #whiskey