Tastes

This is probably the easiest review I’ve ever written, because everything about this whiskey is just so damn in your face; NO subtlety here. Get a whiff of this and you get fresh grilled elote, Texas style BBQ sauce, beef jerky, burnt tires, French burnt peanuts candy, and grill char. Go in too deep and you get a blast of ethanol that when combined with the aroma completely disables your sense of smell for 30 seconds. As for the flavor, just read the nosing notes above because it’s all there in the palate as well. In case you can’t quite grasp it, this is like drinking “burnt ends” barbecue in whiskey form. To say the flavors are “bold” is like saying the sun is hot. Finish redefines “long” as you can still taste it 20 minutes later and it obliterates your taste buds for the rest of night. Forget about tasting any other whiskeys (or hell any other anything) after drinking this beast. Mouthfeel is “total”. Coates every last inch of your tongue. I’m probably full of shit because they probably didn’t have anything remotely like this but it’s easy to imagine this would be what an “old west cowboy bourbon” would taste like. As someone who enjoys over the top flavors I guessed I might like this and I was right. But it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. You must know thyself to know if you will enjoy it. If you are the kind of person that eats raw habaneros, and drinks Triple IPAs or 15% ABV stouts, this might be your jam. Challenging. Ridiculous. Unique. Delicious. Rebuy.

Nose is medium strength aroma of vanilla, caramel, apple, plum, Brazil nut, grass, and freshly cut oak. A hint of floral underneath which is odd for a Knob Creek product. Appealing. Palate opens with a standard caramel + baking spices vibe along with the plum from the nose turning into more of a prune. Not much going on in the mid-palate; cuts quickly to the finish. But just when you think this might be boring or sub-par, in comes a delightful medium-long finish of milk chocolate, walnut, and more of that fresh oak from the nose. (I am a sucker for a good finish so this scored pretty well with me) Mouthfeel is a little thinner than I would like for this flavor profile, but it’s a minor flaw. Suuuuper dry. Like “bleached cows jawbone in the Arizona desert” dry. A little bit of prickly tingle on the tongue that really started to add up with repeated sips, almost like the building heat of eating chili peppers. Overall I really enjoyed and feel it’s worth the $57 I paid. Knob Creek has been knocking it out of the park lately with their new expressions. If you are a KC fan (as I am) then run don’t walk to grab this before it’s gone and the 12 year version as well. You won’t be disappointed.

Nose of banana, brown sugar, cherry, and leather with some ethanol heat in the background. On the palate we find maraschino cherry, a vanilla/caramel that is reminiscent of flan dessert, and cinnamon. Flavors are sharp; has considerable bite and drinks a little hot for 100 proof. Not terribly complex. Finishes with yet more cherry, a really nice toffee note, oak, and some barrel char. Finish really lingers. Mouthfeel is on the full side of medium. Ch-Ch-Ch-Cherry bomb! In all seriousness this bourbon brings a very “old school” kind of bourbon profile which I guess was the idea. There are some really nice notes, but you do have to like a bourbon that hits back a little. There’s only one problem; the price. At $48, there’s just so many I would buy before this one, so it’s hard to see myself buying this again. But I’ll certainly enjoy the rest of the bottle.

Act 7 Scene 2 Aroma is so well integrated that picking out individual notes takes some effort. Smells “good” but digging in finds wintergreen, nutmeg, bubblegum, honey, dill, cinnamon, chocolate covered cherry, and a hint of anise. Flavor opens with a balanced buttery sweetness heavy with baking spices and molasses; like a Christmas cookie. Flavors are rich and very rounded. No one flavor stands out. Transitions very smoothly to the finish. Finish is loooooong with cinnamon, apricot, while pepper, mint, oak, and a hint a dill. Mouthfeel is full and caresses the tongue. What stands out here is how balanced and full flavored this is while at the same time exhibiting softness and delicacy. Ideal for those nights when you want something a little subdued without sacrificing anything. Top notch and would rebuy again that the $75 price I paid.

Banana, charcoal, Burnt Cedar, Flan dessert, and bubblegum on the nose. Pleasant. A little ethanol sneaks in as well. Barrel spices, apple, vanilla, leather, ash, and sandalwood on the palate. Not a lot in the mid-palate at all, rushes right to the finish. Finish blasts with a prickly ethanol heat that obscures all other flavors for a second or two before settling into a nutty and chocolatey after finish. That after finish is by far the best part of this bourbon, and is decently long. Mouthfeel is oily and matches the flavor profile well. Sharp and biting, but there are some decent flavors In here. I wanted to like this more than I actually did, but ultimately the young component to this blend rears it’s head a little too prominently. At $36, the price is right and you get what you pay for but certainly nothing more.

On the nose getting ginger, nutmeg, fresh cut lime, spun sugar, fennel, spearmint, and toffee. An unusual combination to say the least. On the palate, it opens with a generic kind of sugar cane sweetness followed by rye spice, nutmeg, ginger, a bit of vanilla, and prominent anise. White pepper, more anise, and lots of bitter oak on the finish which has has some pop to it and is medium in length. Mouthfeel is light and grainy. Despite being a little bit disjointed and chaotic, the whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts. Enjoyable, but not a top choice at this price point. Glad I tried it, but at $54 it falls a little short of rebuy status for me.

Vanilla, cinnamon, banana, and a hint of unspecified nuttiness nose. Aroma is very weak; have to struggle to get much at all. Taste improves things a little. Vanilla cream and sweet corn up front, followed by caramel, cinnamon, orange peel, and the faintest whisper of oak. Very traditional. Flavors have some richness to them that the nose didn’t suggest but just not a lot going here overall. More vanilla in the finish, (notice a theme here?) this time in the form of French Vanilla ice cream along with peppery spice. Overall finish is painfully short, but there is one lingering toasted toffee note after everything else fades that is by far the best thing about this bourbon. Mouthfeel is creamy, which fits the profile well. For what is certainly a young whiskey judging by the lack of oak presence, it’s ok. There’s no harsh astringencies or anything like that, but nothing really special about it either. An easy sipper, but just doesn’t justify it’s $49 cost. Multitudes of better options out there at this price point.

Before the review starts, as long as Willett/KBD continues to put wax on screw top bottles I’m going to continue clowning them for it. :) Nose is pungent with toffee, candied nuts, prune, date, fig, pear, and maybe I’m hallucinating, but getting a hint of patchouli oil. All this riding on a bed of alcohol fumes underneath. That critique aside, this aroma is my jam. Palate is bold and opens with rich nutty toffee and molasses notes with some of that fig and pear from the nose in the mid-palate. Quickly transitions to the medium length finish of hot cinnamon gummy bears and peppermint, which then morphs again into a lingering brittle and nut. Nice ride. Mouthfeel is unctuous; fatty and oily. Not sure if this is chill filtered or not but it sure doesn’t feel like it. I will say, this surprised me a bit even thought I do tend to be a fan of Willet expressions. While it does suffer from a little lack of complexity initially, the richness of the flavors and interesting finish make up for it. Lot more going on than it’s cheaper, inferior, higher proof cousin Pure Kentucky XO, and more rich and decadent than it’s sister Rowan’s Creek. An under the radar bourbon; at $45, “it’s a rebuy for me, dawg”

They say that Four Roses is the distiller behind Bulliet, and I can definitely see the Four Roses DNA here, but if you think this is simply one of the FR products under a different label, it does exhibit some distinctions. Read on... On the nose getting cream soda, apple, barrel spices, mixed cocktail of citrus zest, and a hint of cedar. Palate opens with vanilla custard and ripe plum, leading to cinnamon and charcoal in the mid-palate. Flavors have a decent amount of richness. Not the most complex, but what's here is nice. Finishes with spicy peppercorn, oak, and cherry cough drop. Finish is enjoyably long for the proof. Mouthfeel is soft and delicate even when the palate isn't. Overall I enjoyed it and found this to be tasty, but at $50 there are better options available. Misses the 4.0 re-buy rating on price; would have made it if it was $35.

Almost impossible to find in my area, scoring the only bottle of this at a random little mom and pop liquor store was quite the coup. Let’s dive in: Nose of fresh cut grass, ginger, herbs, eucalyptus, dill, honey Graham cracker, pepper, and buttered biscuit. Palate features honey, mint, white pepper, and what I would call “cooking spices”, meaning thyme, basil, sage, and rosemary. Make no mistake this sucker is no 51% “Kentucky Rye”; herbaceous to the core without straying into medicine territory (no small feat) Flavors pop to the point that this one punches above its weight class. Finish is a surprisingly long blast of hot rye spice and cinnamon, morphing into cooling menthol. Mouthfeel is grainy. Being a fan of herbal ryes this one hit the right notes for me. Nothing that moves the earth here, just really good MGP 95/5 rye. You can tell that MGP saved some of the best stuff for themselves, as this is easily distinguishable from the ubiquitous expressions that flood the market under different labels. At $42, it’s a win and a rebuy.