Crown Royal Barley Edition
Noble Collection | 45% ABV
Do you like whisky for real?
My fiancée, who identifies as “very online”, typically keeps me updated on the latest social media trends by forwarding posts to my Instagram account which I check religiously on the second Thursday of every month via desktop computer.
If something is more interesting, urgent, or extremely amusing and she’s looking for a more immediate response, she will either text a link or show me a post directly on hers.
The other day she burst into my office, which is located two metres from her office (I use the term “office” loosely - the joys of working from home) to show me an entertaining clip of a man trying to convince himself he enjoys whisky.
Jokes aside, this clip resonated with me because it’s a phenomenon I’ve thought about many times before. Popular culture says it’s sophisticated to have a nice collection of bottles and enjoy sipping them on occasion. But a nice wine cellar is a different thing from a stocked liquor cabinet in that, usually, people care what the wine tastes like.
It’s not infrequent in the Dramface writers group or among whisky enthusiasts for someone to ponder why some brands get away with selling mediocre products at elevated prices year after year. The truth is, as whisky exciters, we are in the strange position to be interested in the taste of a consumable product that most people consider relatively non-consumable. It comes across as a bit gatekeeper-like, but the truth is high alcohol is the gatekeeper here, blocking true enjoyment for those who haven’t spent the time to build up a bit of a weathered tongue; and marketing wins the spot on the shelf.
When I look at the collections of those who’ve caught it, I typically see a lot of air in the glass. There are other cues. It’s very easy for us to spot our kin from a quick observation even if individual tastes don’t align. Little signals like the way a glass is held and swirled, or rotated on its side slowly and carefully to coat the entire interior of the glass, the positioning of the nose relative to glass, or how it becomes totally natural to sniff and sip 60% alcohol like somehow we were meant to. Sometimes I feel it takes significant effort to not come across as a snob when discussing whisky things with muggles, and I hate that.
We can look upon a collection of unopened bottles, or a large horde of Blanton’s, and try to instigate a conversation that fuels curiosity and wonderment even while at the same time wondering: Do people even like drinking the stuff?
Review
Crown Royal Noble Collection, Barley Edition, Canadian Whisky, 7th and final in the series, 45% ABV
USD$82 (£65) paid.
The Crown Royal Noble Collection is one that’s prime for, ahem, collecting. Although I haven’t heard much noise from the series, I’ve no doubt there are many Crown Royal super fans out there with multiples of each of the releases. This is the seventh and final release of the series which now officially makes them collectible antiques - pretty bottles that look good in a display case. Precisely why my Barley Edition was opened within 30 minutes of it coming in through the front door.
I had to buy it because of how much I loved the previous Noble Collection release - Winter Wheat. Being Diageo and a tradCan distillery, obviously there’s not much transparency or information to be had. We don’t know how it was distilled, what type of barrels were used and for how long it was matured. I’m pleasantly surprised to see they disclose this blend is 85% un-malted and 15% malted barley, but we don’t know whether the barley components were mashed together or separately and then blended to make this release. As usual, it’s probably chill filtered with added colouring.
Like many, I’m currently on a Diageo ban, but Crown Royal doesn’t count for me because it’s Canadian and I’m Canadian and I like to buy, talk about, and review Canadian whisky, OK?
But do I like it? Well, that’s a different topic.
Nose
Raspberries and purple fruit, maple and vanilla. Nail polish and soft rubber. Banana peel, toffee, and cream. Luxurious with a slight musty, funkiness. Toasted oak and bourbon ghosts.
Palate
Oak char. Watermelon candies. Round and juicy with a nice silky mouthfeel. Silky nutmeg ganache, finishing with chilli pepper heat at the back of the throat. The palate is a little flatter than the nose and doesn’t jump out as the nose would lead you to expect. No malty cereal essence as I was expecting from a barley spirit. Water thins it out and slightly increases harshness but doesn’t bring anything new.
The Dregs
I was expecting to perceive a bit more malt or barley sugar essence shining through that Crown Royal distillery profile, and from that perspective this was a bit of a let down for me. It’s still a decent enough sipper with a certain elegance and luxury feel in the mouth and on the nose, just not different enough and doesn’t hold a candle to the Winter Wheat Noble Collection.
It’s been a little while since I was excited about a Canadian whisky aside from a few of the usual, smaller, enthusiast-focused players. None of the big Canadian distilleries have released anything worth mentioning lately. It leaves me wondering if the enthusiast market just isn’t really worth pursuing for them. It makes me sad as I want nothing more than to celebrate Canadian whisky makers, tradition, and innovation by tasting and reviewing interesting Canadian whiskies. I surmise that setting higher prices associated with enthusiast releases on Canadian product is largely a cultural no-go, which leaves bottles on shelves, and the economics simply don’t work out for the large volume producers.
They’re left to try and sell the more interesting product as collectibles. To sit in a display case as a completed set - The Noble Collection.
Score: 5/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. AMc