chicken cock cotton club 20 year old rye 750ml

Grain & Barrel Spirits, the company behind the Chicken Cock brand’s revival, continues to push the brand upmarket, releasing limited expressions of all kinds of (sourced) whiskeys, revolving around bourbon and rye. This latest expression is a doozy: A 20 year old Canadian rye named in honor of Harlem’s Cotton Club, where the original Chicken Cock was the house whiskey back in the 1920s and ’30s.

Let’s give this rarity — with 9570 bottles produced — a whirl.

The nose has that classic Canadian softness, all butterscotch and marzipan, with layers of baked apple and overripe banana. A bit doughy and super-sweet with cotton candy notes, it feels like it’s going to be a sugar bomb when it hits the tongue. Good news: The whiskey is quite sweet, but it has plenty more going on to keep the sugar in check. Significant notes of almond extract and butter pecan ice cream temper a sugar cookie dough core, fruitier notes building underneath. The finish is heavy with notes of fresh apple fritters, a just a touch of herbal greenery, and a lingering brown sugar note that clings to the tongue for quite some time. Its inherent sweetness may prevent it from being a whiskey that works perfectly for everyone — and I can fully understand those who might shy away, particularly at this price — but if you give in to the dessert side of things, it’s a rye that I’m confident will win most drinkers over.

100 proof.

750mL