King of Kentucky 14 Year Bourbon (2020 Release)

Tons of great oak and cherry

Really great flavor up front w strong burn on the finish. Creamy smooth at first and then hits hard. Excellent overall!

Amazingly smooth. I get a nose of pecan pie with a vanilla body and smooth butterscotch finish.

So first off it was a cold night outside around a fire when this was tried. I couldn’t get much out of the nose but I think it had more to do with surroundings than bourbon. Upon first sip you can immediately tell it’s an ultra premium bourbon. Explodes with flavor and coats the mouth. It’s an oak bomb for sure. The finish is long and drying and takes you back for more. My only complaint is I would have liked a touch more sweetness out of it. It’s heavy on the oak and cinnamon with zero alcohol burn. It’s a damn fine drink and one I would never turn down. Cheers

First off: this is wildly unique. The nose is one of the most robust I have ever smelled. The front end of the first sip is very aggressive (forward ethanol up front) but finishes smooth and complex. That being said, the secondary price for this is certainly not worth it. I would put it on par with the Buffalo trace Antique collection. The shear uniqueness of this is worth a 1 oz pour to try. Everyone is going to think differently about this because of the profile.

Nose complex, oak, sweetness, vanilla, spice... Pallet wow maybe not hype a lot of what's picked up on the nose carries through onto the palate full mouth Finish is good little bit of heat something is slightly off can't put my finger on it At retail or slightly more I would absolutely positively recommend this. At secondary not worth it but definitely worth having a couple ounce sample so you're not investing in an entire bottle

The 2019 King of Kentucky I an many others are on record for stating it is truly the greatest Bourbon ever made. Tonight I bring you my fist bottle review of the 2020 which pulls the age statement back to 14 years from 15 and sadly while they made about the same number of bottles, these are going to be much more heavily sold at the distillery and as a result they'll be far harder to get and likely much more price prohibitive for those of us who loved last years to get it. Lets just say my cost to get this was insane. The nose starts sweet and I'd argue a bubble gum like note. Brown sugar and rich french vanilla is coming through. Oak and leather are here. The biggest problem with this is that it's overly sweet and somewhat youthful. At least youthful in the sense that WLW is a bit young, not young like an evan williams. Water is bringing out apple cinnamon. It brings down that "WLW" bubble gum sweetness and creates a more integrated and balanced over all profile. Complex, rich and well integrated spices, oak and sweetness now. Taste - Upfront I'm once again getting a huge sweet bubble gum. Then a transition to vanilla, rich oak, huge spice bomb driven by cinnamon and tobacco, and then finishes with burnt oak. Once again I'm getting something just off here. It's good, it's extremely good, but it's not ready. You can just tell this bottling is too young. Water - once again well more spice and oak tannins and just huge oak spice. Crème brûlée with a richly overly sweet oak. The spice really went to 11. Well folks, I'd really wanted to find out tonight I was off on my first tasting but this is by far the worst of the 5 king of kentuck bottles I've had, 4 being last years release. I think the 1 less year, especially with that heat sync where a year is more than a year really did do this a disservice. If you pay over 400, god I hope you find a better barrel than this. Barrel 16 and this is one of 75 bottles and at 64.55%. I'm sorry guys, but the king is dead. I hope to find at least one more barrel just to confirm that the age drop really did hurt it. I will however just note, I paid basically retail (store cost was a touch high so I paid 270), but I did buy 3 HP 30's to cover my "right to buy"...which has me close to the right on a second. A last note is that while I get some youth, I also get some over oaked notes. I think this needed MORE oak to fix the off oak notes. But it just needs more sweetness that was what put the 2019's on a whole other level. The intensity of sweetness is what made King of Kentucky 2019 perfectly balance with what they claim is the oak character of a 21 year old bourbon. Anyway 3.75 vs a 5.0 on last year's bottle. The difference in perfection and outstanding is really narrow sometimes as you simply can't have flaws like I'm getting here to be a 4 let alone a 5.