This year for the holidays I’m going to try a brand new whiskey every day in December. #lifegoals Dec. 13 Somebody needs to create a general entry for the Knob Creek SiB store picks. I feel kind of bad adding yet another one to scroll through, but here we go: Barrel: 5403 Picked by: Celebrations Wine & Spirits Age: 13 yrs, 2 mo (I see what I did there.) ABV: 60% Barrel Date: 6/8/04 I’ve had many Knob Creeks over the years, and as far as stats go, this one earns second place to some of the greats. Only 1 year younger than 2001. Only 1.65% lower ABV than my 25th Anniversary. So it’s in extremely good company, but substantially cheaper. I’m excited! Nose is astringent, but that makes sense. Behind the burn there’s honey, caramel, and lemon. Body loses the honey and lemon, but keeps the caramel. There’s also milk chocolate. A very pure, authentic chocolate flavor. Not mocha or powdery like other drinks. I’d say chocolate wins out. Delicious. Finish is leathery and spicy. I’d go with a black pepper spice. Mouth feel does not betray that 120 proof. If you’re into that kind of thing, this one delivers. I added a bit of ice to see if that opened up anything new, and it basically reduced the nose to caramel, made the body taste like Yoo-hoo chocolate milk, and eliminated the backend heat and flavors. I’m generally in camp “drink neat”, and this pick is a perfect example of why. There was so much happening 5 minutes ago, all gone now. But what’s special about this pick is that if I wanted to get drunk fast, I could pour 5 fingers over ice and pound it down like dairy. It really is a damn Yoo-hoo. ‘Tis the season. I don’t know if I actually have 18 more new whiskeys lined up, so if you’re reading this and there’s something readily available out there you’d like me to enjoy/suffer through this holiday season, leave it in the comments.