Review: Chicken Cock Island Rooster Rye

The latest Chicken Cock release has arrived: Island Rooster, a Kentucky straight rye (95% rye, 5% barley) finished in Caribbean rum casks for six months. No age info on the base spirit, however.

The results are decidedly strange — and they distinctly lean toward the rum side of the fence. The nose is very floral, almost to the exclusion of anything else aside from barrel char. It’s a tough note to place — lilac and lavender, then an extracted molasses note. The palate is equally odd and slightly off-putting: very sweet and floral, with a cane syrup note laid on thick. The whiskey — easy to forget it’s a whiskey, not rum — is a bit gritty as it develops on the tongue, more molasses showing alongside vanilla, brown butter, and a creosote note that clings to the roof of the mouth for ages. The finish concludes with a more tropical rum character mixed with an oxidized wine note, almost sherry-like at times — and all laid on a bit thick in the end.

There’s a ton going on in this bottle — and both the first and final calculus land far too much in rum’s wheelhouse for me to get very excited about it.

95 proof.

B- / $200 / chickencockwhiskey.com 

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