Rating: 21/23 Another tasting of Corsair's legendary bourbon that shouldn't have worked but somehow did! Is it as amazing as I remember it being? I sure hope so. N: The corn is obviously there, but the rye and spelt jump right out too. It took a minute, but I'm getting the buckwheat and barley as well. I might be getting a hint of creaminess from the oats, but that's usually more a component that affects the texture and palate, so that's no surprise. Oddly, I don't think I'm getting the quinoa right now. There's no way I'm getting the wheat, of course. I still don't no what triticale is, but maybe I can smell it. Wood with light creosote, apples, lemon rind, caramel, spices, clear oiliness, and faint nuttiness. None of the broader scents is anything particularly amazing, but the subtlety that allows the individual grains to show through is really stunning. P: The palate is on the lighter side, which is what allows the individual grains to show through. Unfortunately, this does mean that there's a bit of mineral the comes through. It reminds me of my first impressions of Eagle Rare in that regard. Getting past that though, I get apples, lemon rind, cherries, wood, spices, a little bit of light caramel. I can really pick out all of the grains. Well, except for the triticale and wheat I guess (unless I'm allowed to attribute some of the mellowness to the wheat). It's smooth, light, and tremendously complex. The grain really shows through here, but not in a way that makes the bourbon taste like young spirit, though I'm sure that it can't have been aged for long. I don't pick up any weird notes from excessive heads or tails. A fantastic palate, though not one that will suit those who just want a big, rich, strong bourbon. That bit of smoky creosote does help to give this a bit of maturity in spite of its mellowness, sort of like Eagle Rare I guess. F: Apples and minerals. A bit of spices that mix well with the wood, which still retains a little bit of creosote. There's just a little bit of harshness, but it works well with the spices and lemon peel brightness. It's tragic that this is a one-off. Corsair, if you're listening, this should be your flagship! It's a new take on bourbon with really great execution. I'd love to see how a bit more tweaking might be able to bring down the minerality and bring out more fullness. It's an easy sipper and a surprisingly good introductory bourbon because of its lightness. I'm absolutely amazed that the individual grains are identifiable in this. Well, at least 7 of them are for sure and I understand why I struggle with the other 2. This should have been a muddled mess with a high chance of being completely out of balance. If you pitched this 9 grain premise to me today, I'd say that the best chance you had to make anything decent was to produce a traditional 4 grain bourbon with a few teaspoonfuls of the other 5 grains. That absolutely is not what Corsair did and their boldness had bred great success! This is definitely not one to pass up given the opportunity to taste it. I realized that I found this kind of reminiscent of Eagle Rare in this element of lightness and balance that it has. To get a baseline, I tried them both side-by-side when I had a worn out palate just to get the basic profile. This was a pretty new bottle of Eagle Rare, so I'm not going to commit to it being anything better than a solid 15 or maybe 16, but it's still a useful baseline. The Eagle Rare was richer, but even on a worn out palate, the Corsair's complexity really leapt out. I would give the win to the Corsair here. Since the main point of this bourbon is its complexity, I think that the worn out comparison confidently sets a minimum bar of 16 for it. I can't imagine a 23 given the lightness and minerality, but a 22 is definitely possible. If I just split the difference and called it a day, I would be giving this a 19, which is an excellent rating already. That would tie this with Wild Turkey Rare Breed 116, for example. Realistically, I think I will be giving this something in the 19 to 22 range - though that is not to suggest in any way that my rating will fall in the middle of that spectrum. I've never tried this and thought that it was less than great. It's clearly young, but the complexity is just amazing. It's very different from Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Barrel Proof, but I'm trying them side by side because they're both so incredibly good (particularly for the price). Honestly, it's a tough call between them and Jack Daniel's is a 21 at worst, so there's no way that this is a 19 and I'm doubting a 20 as well. This isn't exactly low proof itself, but it never comes across as harsh and the alcohol never shows through. On a reasonable, though perhaps suboptimal, palate, this is at least as good as the Jack Daniels due to its immense complexity. I really think that this has to be at least a 21. So it's a 21 to 22. It's a really tough call here. I love how complex this is without tasting overly young. Sure, it's on the light side and it's restrained at times, but it doesn't taste weak either. It's more like it's elegant. I think I'd place this at least on par with Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Barrel Proof, but I'm not sure I'd put it as high up as Elijah Craig B520. It's especially tough to rate this because it just is not all that much like the other bourbons that I've rated this highly. I think I'm going to give it a 21 for now, but if it changes, I expect it to go up to a 22.