Knob Creek 12 Year Small Batch Bourbon

Drinks really nice for a 100 proof bourbon. Light nutty nose. Aging leads to savory undertones and medium body throughout. Taste starts with Notes of dark chocolate and spice to a light oaky finish

77% corn, 13% rye, 10% malted barley. Vanilla, caramel, oak, oily texture, dried fruit, marshmallow. Really enjoyable and wish I could find it more often.

Orange peel notes, mainly had a woody oaky flavor.

Very vanilla/oak forward aroma. Very orange/citrus palate in combination with vanilla. But of spice on the back end

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.