Knob Creek 12 Year Small Batch Bourbon

I find that the mash bill on this whisky - as with all Knob Creek - is 75% corn, 13% rye, and 12% barley. It's 100 proof, a fifth cost me $69.99 at the Kelly Liquors store in the Mountain Run shopping center here in Albuquerque. Of course there's a 12 year age statement on the bottle. In the glass it has a dark copper color. NOSE: Immediately I got honey butter with cinnamon. Next came a musty corn note, smoke, milk chocolate, hot vanilla, candy corn, photo cocoa, a tinge of citrus, vanilla icing, and something floral. After I had the first sip a burned wood note also entered the nose. MOUTHFEEL: Smooth and somewhat creamy. TASTE: Spring water, fresh flowers (these two aren't tastes so much as things the whisky reminded me of), cinnamon, dark, chocolate, and a little oak. I never get as much on the palate of a complex whisky as I do on the nose, but I had the impression that there were notes just outside my range, which someone else could pick up but I couldn't. FINISH: Long, beginning with oak. Semisweet chocolate comes in, and fades into a lingering oak and chocolate. SUMMARY: This is recognizably a Knob Creek bottle, but it's different from both the 9 year and the Single Barrel Select store pick I have. It began, in the first glass I had, with far too much oak, but it's opened up wonderfully, and that overabundance of oak is no longer there. I got notes on the nose I've never gotten from anything else, and if my palate were so inclined I believe I would've gotten more notes there. The price is high for me, but the whisky's worth it - it's fantastic stuff. RATING: My hick scale has eight levels, with 1 being the lowest and 8 the highest. I give this whisky an 8, Mighty Fine. This is equivalent to five stars, or 100/100 or 10/10.

Remember the (usually magnificent) 120 proof Single Barrel Select store picks that you could get between 2018 and 2020 for around $60? That sometimes were aged 13, or 14, or even 15 years? That were usually rich and creamy and sweet and dry and exquisitely balanced? Well, this is not that. But it is pretty damn close. Nose is caramel and vanilla and Bit-O-Honey smoothly moving to dried peanuts and toasted oak. Not what I would call exciting, but also much better than most other readily available American whisky. Palate is rich and creamy and sweet. It doesn’t so much coat your mouth as it does climb up your tongue. Dark caramel, brown sugar, burnt honey, fresh nougat and maraschino cherries burst across the palate. When you think it’s heading toward too sweet, it shifts to dry, dark chocolate and the wood finally makes itself known with just a little oaky ash and tannic astringency. Finish is medium-short, and closes with a pleasant caramel note. A nice, flavorful, and balanced drink. Equally suited for generic end of day relaxation, quiet contemplation, or a special occasion shared with friends. Two caveats: 1) This needs air. It needs time in the glass and also gets markedly better with oxidation in the bottle and 2) I’ve seen this on shelves for $120, and it is emphatically not $120 whisky. If you can find it for under $80, I do recommend.

Cherries on the nose, and it has a very balanced feel on the tongue. Buttery toffee, apricots, cherry, changing over to baking spice, and toffee. On the first swallow the toffee goes to a black peoper, oaky, charcoal, cininmin burn (a little hot for a low proof but perfect imo) as the after burn starts to fade it ends with cacco to dark choclote to a hot chocolate by a smokey campfire. The ending to me was best. I would definetly rank it in the88 to 90 range. The age of the nectar is definitely noticable in the feel and flow. Loved it very savory and robust.

Nose: slightly muted but the sweet oak comes through and marmalade. Palate: That 50% abv os the right spot with vanilla custard amd a smooth creamy texture that you don’t get woth the standard nine year bourbon Finish: is slow and smooth woth that soicy characteristic that comes with the brand. This is a well rounded and refined version of knob creek. It still has the powerfull flavors and spices without being too much in your face like the standard bottle and not super oaky like you get with older single barrel bottles.

For the neck pour, very smooth, got some light flavors, not over powering but a bit faint for taste. A bit watered down. For a 100 proof, it does a an oily feel and coats the palate. Some pepper in the back end that lingers. Would be an easy choice as an intro whiskey for those never had whiskey. Edit: As it opened up, it was very ketucky esk with flavors developing more. Starting to get a nice cherry which is lovely. Considering a higher rating but will come back another time

Nose is burnt brown sugar, vanilla, and oak. Pallate is very vanilla forward, followed with some spice and a honey sweet finish with orange peel. Much more oak in the oalate then the 9 year but not at all in a bad way. Finish is just a tad shorter than I would like but overall a great sipper.