Knob Creek 15 Year Bourbon (2020 Release)

Taste- 2 oz. neat in Glen cairn Nose- departure from the usual boiled peanuts, caramel, and brown sugar of signature Beam products. This has smoke, oak, and vanilla front and center and then you get the sweeter notes. Palate- Upfront is oak and vanilla giving way to cherry, like a cherry cola and a bit of honey. There is a woodshop taste about it too which isn't overly done but puts it right on the edge of overoaked. In addition I get cigar box and just a hint of bitterness towards the back. Finish: Nice warming finish. Not the ass kick of the 25th Anniversary bottle, or the warming sensation of KC120, but more gentle. The finish is nice and long with a sweet cherry pop on the end. Definately outkicks it's coverage so to speak at 100 proof. Overall: A bit too much oak for me here. Although I enjoyed it, I didn't find it better than a 12-14yr KC 120 at twice the price. Will you be sad you bought it- absolutely not! Will you be happy with bang for the buck?- that is where you might scratch your head?

Nose is a beautiful array of fresh cut oak, peanuts, plums, a slight black pepper spice, and coffee. Th palate delivers with cherries up front, then earthy tones of sweet tobacco and leather, cinnamon and rye spice before delivering on a wonderful, oily finish of sweet toasted oak and spicy black pepper. I just can't get over how well this bourbon delivers.

Great spice, much less heat than usual KC even considering the lower proof, long finish. Would be 5 stars except for a less oily mouthfeel than expected for a 15 year

OK a few house cleaning notes here. First, this is a release of about 55k bottle so this wasn't one batch or even two and there's going to be variation because it's Beam and their quality control is borderline pathetic. So please keep this in mind as I expect we'll see some very different notes because of it being beam. Nose - Apples and caramel with baking spices. Hands down the sweetest nose I've had one a beam to date. At the very finish there's a touch of oak, very much that beam oak which is somewhat gritty and dusty. It's however very faint. Water amps up the apples and spices but in a wonderfully pleasant way. Taste - The bottle mentioned caramelized oak and I couldn't explain it better. It's this sweet and wonderful upfront pour and then it lightly and gently starts to heat up as spices and oaks build up. The finish then gives way to more oak and some really nice and fun peanut butter elements. Water does up the spice and the oak bite but also brings more sweetness up front. It really adds an element of intensity which is unusual with water. Overall, one of the best beam products to date. Sure a bookers fan will be upset this isn't a kick in the balls and they might hate that there's complexity and nuance to it. A knob single barrel fan is going to also be missing the higher proof notes. That said there's a complexity to the whisky that's really something else. This will be subjective as to if you like this more or less than a store pick, but I can safely say this drinks unlike any pick I've had. Well, I put my money where my mouth is and I bought a second bottle of this. 105 bucks makes this a value bourbon in 2020 and with a HUGE production run, this won't be a bottle you have to chase like some idiot running after the girl who's cheated on you, but you just can't get over. I'm at a very solid 3.5. This is a showcase of aged beam...but again I know there are bottles out there that aren't going to be this sweet and I've even had some people say their bottles were over oaked. Sadly, I can't speak to that, but I know enough people who've had this and LOVED the sweetness that I know these sweet bottles are by no means some "honey barrels" that aren't out there or normal either.