WS#6: All About Dat Corn


For a whiskey to be a Corn Whiskey it must be made from a mash bill of at least 80% corn (compared with 51% for a bourbon) and matured (if at all) in new or used oak that has not been charred. Them's the rules and we abode them as Aly took us on an amaizingly corny investigation into this much misunderstood spirit. Moonshine it wasn't.

1. Abasolo Corn Whiskey
86 proof. Two years? From Mexico.
Made of 100% Cachuazinthe corn that has been planted for more than 200 generations, the whiskey is made using a 4,000 year old cooking technique.
$43.

2. Ivy Mountain Appalachian Corn Whiskey
90 proof. Age: 6 years in American oak. Origin: Georgia
$52

3. Hudson New York Corn Whiskey
92 proof. Unaged. From New York City.
Made of 100% New York Corn. Among the first, legal whiskeys distilled in New York after prohibition.
$33.

4. Sierra Norte (white corn)
90 proof. Age: 10 months. Origin: Oaxaca, Mexico.
85% white corn, 15% malted barley.
The first single-barrel Mexican whiskey available in the U.S.
$50
sierranortewhiskey.com

5. Sierra Norte (black corn)
90 proof. Age: 10 months. Origin: Oaxaca, Mexico.
Made with black corn.
$60

6. New Southern Revival Straight Bourbon
95 proof. Age: Minimum of 2 years. Origin: Charleston, S.C.
Made with 100% Jimmy Red Corn (recently rescued from extinction)
$100