High Wire Jimmy Red Straight Bourbon Whiskey

The list of recognized corn varieties is long enough to make your eyes glaze over, but almost all Bourbon comes from a handful of commercial cultivars, usually basic yellow dent corn. Now, not every variety of rare heirloom corn is worth eating, let alone distilling, just because it has a good story. But many were known to bootleggers in Prohibition and beyond for making great moonshine. Among these, Jimmy Red (from "James Island") fell from fame into obscurity. At one point just two cobs were left on the planet. They survived, and High Wire is taking part in replanting and resurrection. The corn's vivid color doesn't make it all the way to the whiskey. But it is viscous, sweet, and brimming with cinnamon, vanilla and date fruit, and it imparts the most remarkable nutty, peanut butter flavors I have ever tasted in a spirit.