Tasting notes

nose

Praline pecans and toasted oak, with caramelized fig and a bright note of ripe peach

palate

Rich and grainy; vanilla buttercream and toffee up front, then black pepper, dried sage and baking spice building slowly

finish

Full and lightly sweet; honeyed cornbread, orange zest and caramel corn linger, with an earthy, herbal edge to the end

Mash bill

75% Oaxacan Green corn, 15% soft red winter wheat, 10% malted barley. Oaxacan Green is an heirloom corn first grown in southern Mexico, and Whiskey Acres raises it on its own DeKalb farm with the rest of the grain in the recipe. Wheat stands in for rye as the secondary grain, as in all the distillery's bourbons, leaving room for the corn's savory, herbal side to show.

Why it's craft

Oaxacan Green is an heirloom corn from southern Mexico that Whiskey Acres plants in its own Illinois fields, then mashes, distills and ages on the same farm, as part of its Artisan Series of single-variety corn bourbons. Jim and Jamie Walter, fifth-generation farmers, opened the distillery in 2013 with partner Nick Nagele, and the label reads Estate Grown and Estate Distilled because every grain comes from their land. Like the house's other bourbons, it is not chill filtered.