Crown Royal Noble Collection Wine Barrel Finished
This whisky is the second member in Crown Royal’s “Noble Collection” – a new line of higher-end products from the Gimli, Manitoba distillery. This expression is finished for six months in freshly emptied, medium-toast Cabernet Sauvignon casks from the Paso Robles region of California.
Fresh wine cask finishes can impart some interesting notes – although not always universally pleasant ones. Unlike fortified wines, I find you can get some sourness along with fresh fruit notes in these whiskies. And while I am personally a fan of Green Spot Chateau Leoville Barton, I’m not so keen on the Arran Malt Amarone Finish.
I have not posted a review yet of the base Crown Royal expression (aka “DeLuxe”) – but I find there are better Canadian rye whiskies among the bottom-shelf options (e.g. Canadian Club 100% Rye, J.P. Wiser’s Double Still or even Hiram Walker’s Special Old). I have had some higher-end Crown Royals that I’ve quite enjoyed (e.g. Monarch), so I was keen to give this Cab Sauv finished Crown Royal.
Bottled at 40.5% ABV (oddly), it currently retails for $70 CAD at the LCBO. I picked it up for $60 during the Canada Day online sale.
Here are how the various Crown Royals compare in my Meta-Critic database:
Crown Royal: 7.59 ± 0.46 on 19 reviews ($)
Crown Royal Black: 8.21 ± 0.49 on 16 reviews ($$)
Crown Royal Hand Selected Barrel: 8.86 ± 0.28 on 10 reviews ($$$)
Crown Royal Limited Edition: 8.30 ± 0.19 on 11 reviews ($$)
Crown Royal Monarch 75th Anniversary: 8.62 ± 0.48 on 12 reviews ($$$)
Crown Royal Noble Collection Cornerstone Blend: 8.35 ± 0.80 on 4 reviews ($$$)
Crown Royal Noble Collection Wine Barrel Finished: 8.72 ± 0.55 on 5 reviews ($$$)
Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye: 8.55 ± 0.35 on 18 reviews ($$)
Crown Royal Reserve: 8.47 ± 0.67 on 14 reviews ($$$)
Crown Royal XO: 8.56 ± 0.57 on 7 reviews ($$$)
While only a few reviews are in so far, this is a very good score for a Crown Royal – the second-highest in my database, to date.
And now for a few other non-fortified wine barrel-finished whiskies:
Arran Malt Amarone Cask Finish 8.76 ± 0.33 on 11 reviews ($$$)
Arran Malt Pomerol Bordeaux Cask Finish 8.35 ± 0.62 on 8 reviews ($$$$)
Arran Malt Sassicaia Wine Cask Finish 8.76 ± 0.17 on 5 reviews ($$$$$)
Arran Malt Tokaji Aszu Wine Finish 8.78 ± 0.34 on 4 reviews ($$$$)
Bruichladdich 21yo Cuvée 640 Eroica 8.74 ± 0.40 on 9 reviews ($$$$$)
Bruichladdich 21yo Cuvée 382 La Berenice 8.57 ± 0.56 on 6 reviews ($$$$$)
Forty Creek Evolution: 8.70 ± 0.68 on 8 reviews ($$$)
Green Spot Château Léoville Barton 8.81 ± 0.34 on 7 reviews ($$$$)
Longrow 7yo Gaja Barolo Finish 8.59 ± 0.51 on 7 reviews ($$$$)
Longrow 10yo Tokaji Finish 7.47 ± 1.10 on 6 reviews ($$$$$)
Longrow Red 11yo Australian Shiraz 8.86 ± 0.34 on 6 reviews ($$$$$)
Longrow Red 11yo Cabernet Sauvignon 8.43 ± 1.15 on 11 reviews ($$$$$)
Longrow Red 12yo Pinot Noir Finish 8.84 0.34 on 7 reviews ($$$$$)
Longrow Red 14yo Burgundy Wood 8.54 ± 0.70 on 5 reviews ($$$$$)
Teeling Single Grain (Wine Cask Finish) 8.53 ± 0.32 on 10 reviews ($$$)
What strikes me in the above list is how different wine cask finishings have both enhanced and reduced the typical scores for the given distilleries – as well as having greatly increased the variability in reviewer scores in many cases. It seems that wine cask finishing can be a bit hit or miss.
Here is what I find in the glass for this Crown Royal:
Nose: Very sweet and fruity, but with a definite underlying sourness. Cola and Juicy Fruit gum note (i.e., high-fructose corn syrup sweet). Prunes, raisins, sour cherry, with red and black currants. Also gooseberries (aka ground cherries). Citrus, lemon in particular (reminds me of Pledge furniture wax, but in a good way). Earthy, with anise and some tobacco. A bit grassy. Spicy, with cloves and a bit of pepper. Some similarity to Green Spot Chateau Leoville Barton, but the rye whisky is definitely present here – it is just being overshadowed by the wine cask. There is a fairly unique off-note that reminds me of a musty kitchen sponge – plus of course acetone (with all that fruity sweetness). Definitely complex and unique.
Palate: Caramel and vanilla dominate on the initial palate – surprisingly so, since I didn’t detect them on the nose. These are followed by those dark fruits and cola syrup notes. Buttered popcorn. Definitely oaky (fresh, young oak). A lighter mint note joins the earthiness from the nose. The rest of the baking spices – nutmeg, cinnamon and all spice – join the cloves. The initial mouthfeel is rather watery (as to be expected for 40.5% ABV), but it leaves a sticky residue on the lips and gums. Subsequent sips have a decidedly alkaline feel (i.e., slippery, almost oily), but sticky after you swallow. Quite unique in my experience. Astringent on the way out, with some classic Crown Royal bitterness (sadly).
Finish: Long. Lingering cola and dark fruits initially, turning more into wine gums over time. Mouth-puckering astringency is there, but not much bitterness fortunately. Oddly enough, it ends with a more typical rye spice finish once all the fruits/wine gums finally die down.
Water lightens the mouthfeel and doesn’t bring anything new – I recommend you drink it neat.
This is a unique Crown Royal – and a quality one at that. I can’t think of anything quite like it on the Canadian whisky scene (correction: Forty Creek Evolution is a comparable style). While I wasn’t sure on the first initial sniffs, it really grew on me as I started to sample it. I haven’t tried the cognac-finished Crown Royals (e.g. XO), but this is kind of how I imagine it could taste, given my experience with Bruichladdich Cuvee 640 Eroica. While perhaps a bit steep at list MSRP, this Wine Barrel Finished was certainly a good buy on sale – especially if you like your whisky sweet and complex.
Very popular with Jason of In Search of Elegance. and Davin of Whisky Advocate. I am not quite as positive, but would still give it an above average score for a Canadian whisky, and one my highest scores for a Crown Royal. Debbie of Whiskey Reviewer gave it a below average score (although with a positive review, and also considering it one of the best CRs). Devoz of Reddit was less positive of this expression.
I guess Forty Creek Evolution should have been the one this was judged against.
A good point, I’ve just added the FC Evolution scores from the database to the list in this review (as it is also Cabernet Sauvignon finished). As you can see, it gets a comparable average score (and variability).
I have a sample of this FC expression, but haven’t tried it yet. Will try to get to it soon, so I can directly compare.
I noticed that on your older Crown Royal Comparisons the Monarch and Northern harvest Rye had higher scores. I also see there are about twice as many reviews for them now. Did you tweak your algorithm since then or is it just the additional reviews bringing the scores down?
And if the latter, do you find that’s a common occurrence when you update scores with more reviews available?
Yes, the extra number of reviewers is the main reasons for the score change. I’ve found that “early adopters” tend to be among the most enthusiastic, and average scores drop as more reviewers come in. In an earlier build, I ran boostrapping exercise and estimated that ~7-8 reviews were required before the average score tended to “stabilize”. But as a rough rule of thumb from most recent data, I would say average scores tend to remain consistent once around ~10 reviewers.
A minor factor is my periodic re-calibration of the reviewer ranges. Although the algorithm itself is not altered, the normalized scores for individual reviewers can change slightly as they do more reviews. In general this re-calibration tends to have the effect of slightly lowering their earlier scores, as most reviewers progress to reviewing higher quality whisky. In most cases though, this is very minor – I’ve typically seen average scores move by no more than 1-2 one-hundredths of a point.