Review: Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye (2017)
Review: Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye (2017)
In 2015, I reviewed Crown Royal Northern Rye. I thought it was OK. I graded it a B.
Later that year Jim Murray named it his whisky of the year, and all hell broke loose. A $30 Canadian whisky is the best whisky of the year? Sales went through the roof. The price shot up. Everyone asked me about the little whisky that could.
That’s bothered me for the last two years. Was I wrong? Was I missing the plot on this one? I reached out to Crown Royal to see if I could get a fresh sample, in order to see if I could suss out what I missed.
To refresh your memory, this is a 90% rye, bottled with no age statement. Let’s give a brand new bottle a fresh look.
Well, much as I said previously, the nose is loaded with dried apple notes, cinnamon, and caramel. It’s apple pie in a glass at least aromatically. I can see how someone would like it, but the fruit is so blown out that it strikes one as a a flavored spirit.
The palate offers few surprises, though the caramel is stronger and notes of barrel char, and, now that I explore it more deeply, a character closer to baked pear than apple. Slightly gummy and fragrant with cinnamon, ginger, and allspice, it’s got sweetness pushed almost to the breaking point, with a lasting finish that is fragrant but gummy.
In the end: I still don’t understand the fuss. In fact, I like it even less now than I used to. And no, I’m not trying to be contrarian, mom.
90 proof.
B- / $45 / crownroyal.com [BUY IT NOW FROM CASKERS] [BUY IT NOW FROM TOTAL WINE]
Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye (2017)
$45
What I recall from that whisky of the year when I got a hold of one is – flavorings. Up to 9%, I think, of flavorings, whatever the hell that is, is legally allowed in whisky from Canada. I hated it. Hate em all, damn near, because of flavorings.