‘April is the cruellest month’ (T.S. Elliot)

Oddball whiskies, part 1: Corsair Oat Rage (single pot still whisky, 50% ABV, natural colour, UCF)

Just before you start worrying I’m getting all arty farty on you by putting poem quotes at the top of my reviews: I promise it’ll be a one-time thing. Rest assured: I’m still the wonderful, down to earth, not-taking-things-too-seriously whisky drinking halfwit I’ve always been. I just thought it fitting to put that little quote on top as it sort of explains why I chose to cover some oddball whiskies this month. April is, if not cruel, then certainly odd, and where I come from there’s a saying ‘April does as it pleases’ (trust me, it sounds better in Dutch), alluding to the fact that just as easy as you can have lovely Spring weather one day, you’ll be digging out that winter coat the next, only to find yourself looking for your wellies the day after – I believe on Islay this phenomenon also tends to be referred to as ‘Tuesday afternoon’.

In any case: April is a peculiar month, let’s leave it at that, so it sort of fits to put the focus of attention towards some peculiar, unusual whiskies. I owe a huge amount of gratitude to the wonderful malthead that is Stefan Nowak, who kindly provided me with samples for most of this month’s reviews.

So, dear blog visitors, representing Nashville, Tennessee, please put your hands together for Corsair distillery. A craft distillery that, if not by their creative approach regarding all things whiskey, will certainly draw your attention by the fact that they absolutely nailed the cool factor with their labels. Intentional or not, the resemblance with Tarantino’s cult classic ‘Reservoir Dogs’ is striking with the 3 suited up wiseguys strutting along.

I probably should know better, but these rather cool looking bottles alone are enough to tickle my fancy. This has more to do with my nineties nostalgia (where all things Tarantino often play first fiddle) rather than stepping back in an attempt to see and evaluate things rationally. Then again, going through life spending an awful lot of time and an awful lot of money trying as many distilled grain spirits as possible, probably doesn’t qualify as rational to begin with.

Corsair is the lifework of two childhood friends from Nashville, who, after meddling about trying to make bio diesel, soon figured out it would be more fun and interesting meddling about with whisky, starting up Corsair back in 2008 as a result. Since then, they’ve created a series of spirits – whisky and gin, with cool, tongue in cheek sounding names like ‘Insane In The Grain’, ‘Ryemageddon’, ‘Buck Yeah’, ‘Grainiac’ and this ‘Oat Rage’. The puns are strong with this one, indeed.

A recent rebranding kept the 3 cool dudes on the label, but seems to have gotten rid of the more adventurous and experimental approach from those pioneering years to focus on a more consistent core range with two whiskeys (Dark Rye and Triple Smoke) and two gins (Barrelled Gin and American Gin) currently offered. Which means this particular Oat Rage might seem to be a bit harder to find these days, although whiskybase still mentions at least 1 store where it’s available. More recent expressions should be available through The Whisky Exchange. Cool little bonus thing: on the back label it reveals the mashbill, which is made out of a mixture of roughly 50% oat (duh!), and 50% six row barley and coffee (coffee, not Coffey!) malted barley. Let’s find out if the contents can live up to the appearance…

Nose

Inviting, with a rich sweetness but also a dry and woody note as if cola cubes were dropped in a bag of pencil shavings. A hint of rye-green freshness (menthol and eucalyptus). Dense, with sweet spices and almonds, while hints of fudge and butter are suggesting a thick, creamy viscosity. A drop of water and that rye / green fresh note jumps out (but it’s oat!!). While it’s rich and fairly sweet, it all remains perfectly civil.

Palate

Initially less viscous than I expected. Clear notes of coffee, but then a full orchestra of rich spices falls in. Continuing from the nose, a combo of wood and candy sweetness with that ‘rye like’ green note to it which again gets accentuated after adding water. On the mouthfeel it’s a bit spirit driven, showing its youth, which in my opinion is by no means a bad thing, as it allows the interesting mashbill to make a mark – something that might otherwise have gotten cancelled out when left in the cask for a longer period of time.

Finish

Medium long with a bit of a prickle at first but then it lingers on towards an increasingly warm and spicy end.

Final thoughts

While oat is quite common when it comes to brewing (often bringing a creamy texture and mouthfeel to the beer - a trait which, I believe, can definitely be found in this whisky too), we don’t see a lot of oat in the world of whisky. That might have something to do with oat being difficult to work with from a distiller’s point of view, but if this is anything to go by, I ‘d love to see more oat whiskies out there. This has been a very pleasant first encounter with an interesting, warming, oat driven whisky. ‘I need you cool. Are you cool?’ (*door slams)... ‘I am cool’.