Mellow Corn is one of the great curios of American whiskey — a bonded straight corn whiskey in a screaming yellow label that looks like it belongs on a 1970s gas station shelf. It is also genuinely good, and one of the cheapest Bottled-in-Bond whiskies on Earth. Made by Heaven Hill in Bardstown, Kentucky, it is distilled from a mash of at least 81% corn, then aged a minimum of four years in used bourbon barrels (corn whiskey, by law, cannot use new charred oak if it wants to remain corn whiskey).
That choice of cooperage is the trick. Without new oak shouting over it, the corn gets to be the star. The nose is unmistakable — buttered popcorn, sweet corn syrup, vanilla, banana bread, a quiet waft of breakfast cereal. There is something disarmingly homely about it.
The palate is sweet, creamy and surprisingly elegant. Corn pudding, vanilla, brown butter, toasted marshmallow, and a soft peppery warmth from the bonded 100 proof. It drinks far more polished than its fifteen-dollar price tag suggests, with a texture that hints at the bourbon distillate underneath.
The finish is medium and gently sweet, with corn husk, vanilla and a final flicker of caramel. Mellow Corn is not pretending to be bourbon, and it is not a novelty either — it is straight corn whiskey done seriously, and it remains one of the most quietly delightful pours in American whiskey. For the money, nothing else even tries.
