Review by: dustbunna
Every once in a while I get this idea in my head that I can find a way around my general distaste for really strong oak influence. Usually, it’s some weird mashbill that grabs my attention, or an American single malt with a strong new oak component that I can’t help but try anyway. In this case, I bought a bottle of this single barrel pick by Loch and K(e)y Society only really knowing that 1) Corsair Distillery was known for doing a ton of experimenting with their mashbills, and 2) Oatrage seemed to be one of the less crazy things they did, but also one of the most successful.
The mashbill for Oatrage, which bills itself as “American malt whiskey”, is 51% malted oats, 27% 6-row malted barley, and 22% “coffee”/chocolate malted barley. The regular release clocks in at 50% ABV, but store picks vary widely from the mid 50s to the mid 60s– this one is on the lower end, at 55.2%, and was aged for 2 years in new American oak barrels.
Distillery: Corsair.
Bottler: Distillery bottling.
Region: Tennessee.
ABV: 55.2%. Cask strength.
Age: 2 years. Bottled in 2020.
Cask type: New American oak barrels.
Price: $55 USD.
Natural Color. Non-chill-filtered.
Bottle open across approx. 6 months, notes taken leisurely across that period. Bold notes taken beneath the shoulder, regular-formatted notes taken further into the bottle past the halfway point.
Nose: malt, cherry, herbs in the background, a unique wet dog/dog-breath funk, acrylic paint, eucalyptus, cardboard, funkier notes recede a bit.
Palate: medium-thin body ~ stronger spices here, oak, liquorice, more cherry, hints of floral underlay, some mint.
Finish: medium-long ~ VERY strong espresso, like biting into the bean itself, a bit of cola and spices on the tail end, more mint and cardboard to round it out.
Conclusion: The finish is easily the most interesting thing here in that the espresso bite is stronger than anything I’ve encountered in spirits before, including coffee liqueurs. That gets this some brownie points, and as the fill level dropped it integrated much better than at the start, but for much of this bottle’s life I found myself pouring more often for novelty than to enjoy as a drink. This whiskey has a weird, disjunct nose that doesn’t quite meld together until air time rounds off the weirdest elements. It’s better on the palate, but there’s not a ton of complexity, and the oak influence is holding in there pretty strong until that espresso note kicks into gear and blooms. I can see ordering this at a bar for the experience as I don’t know a whole lot of other malted oat whiskies out there, but it’s unlikely I’d ever buy another bottle of it for the cabinet.
P.S. I don’t do eggnog and whiskey (dairy just wrecks my palate) but my partner says this is an outstanding pairing, for what it’s worth and since it’s that time of year.
Final Score: 72.
Scoring Legend:
- 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
- 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
- 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
- 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
- 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
- 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
- 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
- 50-59: Save it for mixing.
- 0-49: Blech.
Malt Runners 