Wood Hat Spirits was founded in 2012 by Gary Hinegardner, a local agronomist and businessman, located right by the side of the highway in New Florence, Missouri. Gary is also a wood turner and creates, among other things, the wooden hats after which the distillery is named. More pertinent to this website, Gary also creates whiskies and cordials. The Wood Hat Aged Blue Corn Whiskey uses Hopi blue corn and is aged in toasted chinquapin oak barrels, a specials of white oak native to eastern and central North America.
Distillery: Wood Hat
Age: NAS
Strength: 40%
Price: $39.00
Maturation: Toasted chinquapin barrels
Location: New Florence, MO
Nose: Corn, brown sugar, molasses, mint
Palate: Corn, crème brulee
Finish: Corn, mint
Comments: The Wood Hat Twin Timbers was part of our World Whisky Day 2021 tasting.
Adam – As someone who is not usually a fan of the shock-and-awe component seen in a lot of higher strength (and young) bourbons, I appreciate how approachable the Aged Blue Corn is. The nose is gentle, with a light sweetness reminiscent of standing over my grandmother’s jar of mints. You know the kind. It’s comforting. Some corn from the nose enters in full force on the palate. It’s not a complex palate at all with the corn so dominating, but with an oily texture in the mouth and lower alcohol strength, it makes for easy sipping. And sometimes, honestly, it’s nice to have a whiskey that tastes good and doesn’t demand your attention the way a more complex, nuanced whiskey might. The corn bores through from beginning to end with some parenthetical mint to leave a light, refreshing taste in the mouth after a quick finish. Priced appropriately for what it is, I am curious to see what else they can do with heritage corns.
Kate – Cereal but in a really weird way. It’s very weird. There’s something plastic-y, almost latex. Then you taste it and it’s like crème brulee.
Henry – Nose this at the wrong angle and you get butyric acid and sour mash. Change the angle of nosing to allow more air in and lovely things appear: gentle corn sweetness, after dinner mint, and wintergreen appear. Layers of corn on the palate, with robust blue corn notes at the front of the palate fading to a light and brief finish.
Ben – I get blue corn, blue corn, blue corn, one note. When you drink it at first it’s too easy and then it’s a little dull. I wonder if this would be any better if it had more fire (strength). My one sentence review of this is: I’ve had Balcones.
My one sentence review of this is: I’ve had Balcones.
Bill – I just want salsa now. This is almost like mellow corn, in a way, but it’s not yellow. I think it has a better nose than palate and I don’t know if that’s because it’s so young. This product just needs more time. This is lacking muchness.
Mike – You get a corn dust on the nose, very prominent. A little bit of sweetness.
Sam – The Aged Blue Corn reminds of being at the ag farm when a bucket of corn is starting to germinate, like it’s an almost off note. It’s very one-note but I think it suffers a bit from being so low proof. At the same time, I think even 90 proof would be just enough more to make it better. It tastes young, and it kinda tastes like they didn’t do a good job washing the wort. It has an over-funky taste to it.
Kim – Its smooth and sweet and easy, but highly underwhelming. It’s a single dull note that drones on and drowns you in corn.
