Knob Creek Small Batch Bourbon Review:

"I feel the ideal way to enjoy Bourbon is to drink it the way you like it. If a person wants to mix Bourbon, with anything, it is alright. Soft drinks, cocktails, water, or even neat are perfectly ok." - Fred Noe, Sr.

This last Christmas Santa put a wonderful little nugget in my stocking: a mini of Knob Creek Small Batch Bourbon. And no, this is not an abnormal gifting experience. The Christmas prior Santa put 750 ml bottle of Makers Mark in my stocking, with a box of sugar cubes, Angostura Bitters, and an orange. Anyway, I have been so busy with all my other whiskey tastings I only just remembered the mini hiding in the back of the home bar. A nice little surprise!

Produced by Beam Inc. at the Jim Beam Distillery in Clermont, Kentucky, Knob Creek is a straight bourbon whiskey. One of four in a collection of Jim Beam small batch bourbons, including Basil Hayden’s, Booker’s, and Baker’s, Knob Creek is aged 9 years, the longest of any within the group. And it is also the most popular. In 2009, because demand for the bourbon ran well over the prior 2000 forecast, when the stock began the aging process, Beam consequently ran a well placed campaign publicizing, and fully embracing, their failure. It seems to have worked, because people really seem to love it.

Beam worked this whiskey to supposedly express a pre-prohibition bourbon. Yet, based on the sheer size of Jim Beam and the number of bottles they are producing, this sounds dubious. So let’s see how it pans out.

Knob Creek Small Batch Bourbon Review:

                                    

Price: Around $30 for a 750ml bottle. I have seen a lot of variation on the price.

Packaging/Labeling: Clean modern label with rhetoric that does it no justice, suggesting it to be an old-school small batch and artisan style bourbon.

Alcoholic Content: 100 Proof, 50% ABV. 

Nose: Maple syrup and agave on the front. Makes me think of pancakes. Flint locked notes of blueberry and cherry. There is an oak and creaminess which permeates the whole thing. 

Tasting: This is an oak-centric bourbon. On the front palette there is a straight forward thick cut chocolate dryness. You have syrup and floral notes - violets and cream. there are some great woody/brown spices which end with a (long) dry and bitter oak finish. 

Conclusion: I rather enjoyed this. This is a tasty and solid bourbon with no off notes or flavors, but it is very one dimensional. Likewise this is not something which will provide everything for those with a heavy corn palette. And to enjoy this completely you have to appreciate strong char and oak. This is great to sip neat, though I can't say it is an easy sipper. Cocktail drinkers would love this because of those dominant flavors which could easily be teased out in a mixed beverage, say a manhattan.

*Sorry - no time for an image this week. Here is the image link.