Tasting the Newly-Crowned Crown

After selling through the few bottles we had in stock over the weekend, we're ready to aim and fire with today's "Whisky of the Year" email to customers. I popped a bottle in the bar this morning to re-taste the Crown Royal rye and, again for the record, this is a very pleasing whisky. I'm actually pretty excited to offer it because I can finally tell people: 1) yes, we DO have that whisky you read about, and 2) yes, it's actually pretty darn tasty. Do I think it's the best whisky I've tasted this year? No. But do I think it's a pretty good bottle of juice for the money, one that will definitely help a larger group of drinkers discover an entirely new genre? Absolutely. If I had to find a comparison, I'd say the Crown Royal is like Lot 40-light. It's got all those baking spices with a softer, less peppery and herbaceous profile. This isn't a bold, brash, dill flavored bag of German bread. It's like something in between LDI distillate and some of the more potent Alberta/Hiram Walker whiskies we've seen bottled on the independent market.

One thing I can tell you without hesitation: it's definitely worth $25 to find out whether you like it or not.

Whether you'll think it's "a masterpiece", I can't say. But if you're buying a $25 bottle of Crown Royal because you think "whisky of the year" implies it's literally better than Sazerac 18 or other rare editions of the spirit, see my post from this past weekend. And please post any Sheldon Cooper-like rants about that topic on Twitter for my amusement.

Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye Whiskey $25.99

-David Driscoll