Knob Creek Small Batch Rye Whiskey
50% ABV
$40
Website
What the Distillery Says:
Made with a blend of the finest quality rye to create an extraordinarily smooth yet spicy finish.
Color
Shades of gold to light amber.
Taste
Bold rye spiciness with undertones of vanilla and oak.
Aroma
Expansive notes of herbs and rye with nuances of oak.
Finish
Warm and smooth with spice throughout.
What Richard Says:
Nose: Rye spice, lightly minty, herbal notes reminding me of herb liqueurs like herbsaint, and a little cinnamon.
Palate: Creamy and bitter…an odd combination. This isn’t a minty lightly sweet right. This is spicy.
Finish: Black pepper, bitter wood, and very dry.
Comments: Beam Global really wants you to pay $40+ for one of their ryes. They first tried it with Ri(1) a few years back and no one wanted to pay that much for Jim Beam Rye in a sexy bottle (same recipe as Beam only makes one rye whiskey recipe). Now they want to leverage their successful Knob Creek brand and get you to pay that much for a NAS (no age statement) rye at 100 proof just because it has the Knob Creek name on it. Well, it’s $10 more than 9 year old Knob Creek bourbon so I’ll say no thanks. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad rye. It’s just nothing special and in my mind you can do a lot better for a lot less coin.
Rating: Average
Tags: Knob Creek Rye
Blanton’s Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
46.5% ABV
$55
Website
What the Distillery Says:
In the winter of 1881, Albert Bacon Blanton was born into one of the first families of bourbon history. At the age of sixteen, he started work in the Distillery as an office boy and fast became a leading pioneer in the development of bourbon. From the time he was made company president in 1921 until his retirement in 1952, his Distillery expanded from 44 to 144 buildings to become the largest Distillery of its day. During that period Colonel Blanton created his very special and limited supply of bourbon – his private reserve – handpicked and stored in what now is known as the famous Warehouse H. Although Colonel Blanton died in the spring of 1959, his legacy lives. The Single Barrel Bourbon is the first of its kind.
Tasting Notes:
A deep, satisfying nose of nutmeg and spices. Powerful dry vanilla notes in harmony with hints of honey amid strong caramel and corn. A medium finish composed of returning corn and nutmeg flavors.
What Richard Says:
Nose: Light and powdery on the nose. Vanilla and wintergreen stand out with a little anise. Orange and citrus notes as the nose develops.
Palate: Surprisingly sweet and reminiscent of Corn Pops. Heavy vanilla, caramel, and oak.
Finish: Dry, oaky, and slightly bitter.
Comments: Elmer T. Lee’s groundbreaking single barrel bourbon is still and damn good dram. The “single barrel” field has exploded since this was first release in 1984 but Blanton’s still sets the benchmark. An excellent mid priced bourbon. Either try it for the fact it was the first single barrel bourbon commercially release or just because it’s damn good. Either way, try it.
Rating: Must Try
Tags: Blanton's
Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Tennessee Whiskey
47% ABV
$45 to $50
Website
What the Distillery Says:
Single Barrel is matured in the highest reaches of our barrelhouse, where the dramatic changes in temperature cause its color and taste to deepen further. We still hand select each barrel for its robust taste and notes of toasted oak, vanilla and caramel.
What Richard Says:
Nose: Caramel, vanilla, oak and peanut butter on burnt toast.
Palate: Richer and creamier than regular Jack by far. More vanilla, caramel, black pepper, and wood in the mouth.
Finish: The alcohol gives it a little more heat on the finish riding into pepper and oak.
Comments: Not challenging by any stretch but much better than Old No. 7. $50 better? Well, no. I do enjoy this and to me it’s what Jack Daniels should taste like but it’s not a $50 bottle. At least not if it’s my money. That said, if you haven’t tried it and see it at a bar I would recommend giving it a try.
Rating: Must Try
Tags: Jack Daniel's Single Barrel, Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Select
Colonel E.H. Taylor Small Batch Straight Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey
Bottled in Bond
50% ABV
$40-$50
Website
What the Distillery Says:
As founding father of the bourbon industry, Colonel Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr. left an indelible legacy. His dedication to distilling began at the close of the Civil War when he purchased O.F C. Distillery. There, he developed innovative techniques that are still in use today. Made by hand, this Small Batch Bourbon Whiskey has been aged inside century old warehouses constructed by E.H. Taylor, Jr. Barrels are evaluated and selected to create a perfect blend of distinctive character that is like no other. This bourbon is a true sipping bourbon that honors the uncompromising legacy of E.H. Taylor, Jr.
TASTING NOTES:
Tastes of caramel corn sweetness, mingled with butterscotch and licorice. The aftertaste is a soft mouth-feel that turns into subtle spices of pepper and tobacco.
What Richard Says:
Nose: Hot, with notes of maple syrup and mint.
Palate: Caramel, hot peppers (jalapeno like heat, not peppercorns),
Finish: Oak mellowing into rich black tea.
Comments: In the spectrum of of the E. H. Taylor range I would put this second only to the Warehouse C Tornado bottling. It’s a good, well constructed, and moderately aggressive bottled-in-bond bourbon. Fortunately, it happens to be the cheapest in the E. H. Taylor range.
Rating: Stands Out
Tags: E. H. Taylor Small Batch
Wow. It’s been a long time. I feel like a guest blogger. Richard’s been doing a great job during my long sabbatical.
An article appeared on io9 yesterday entitled “Wine Tasting Is Bullshit. Here’s Why.”
The article cites multiple studies and anecdotes that prove the lack of objective science in the rating systems for wine tasting. This is not new knowledge. We all know that “taste” is subjective in all its meanings. Everything is different for everybody all the time. We’ve never said anything different on this site. We don’t even claim to be experts. Just enthusiasts with bad memories, so we have to keep a blog of our endeavors or else lose them forever.
Richard once played a trick on me. He sent me an unlabeled sample and asked me to guess what it was. Based on it’s color, I thought it had to be bourbon. So, I approached it as if it was bourbon. The flavor was great, but it was somehow wrong. Was it some strange bourbon aged in wine casks? Was it a single malt from some obscure region, left to age in a barrel long enough to have the color of bourbon? What is the origin? On the slab? Off the slab? New York? Oregon? Gallifrey? I knew it was whiskey. I wanted it to be whiskey.
It was brandy.
After years of tasting, the first test I received and I failed miserably. I will admit that I’ve tasted peat where the distiller claims there is none. The same with Sherry. Does that make my tastings less authoritative? The truth is, they were never authoritative, because they are (and always will be) subjective. Even for those who train their palates and immerse themselves in whisky tasting, things change. Some days, I can’t stand peat. Some days, it’s all I want. I sometimes taste bananas when I drink the Balvenie or Belgian beer. I will forever associate the smell of Jim Beam with frat house vomit. And the list goes on…
What I’m saying is this: every review we (I’m using the universal collective “we” here) write is tempered by every experience we’ve had. There are environmental factors to each specific sitting. There is what we know about the distillery. There are our expectations and a thousand other factors. So read the reviews, taste what you can taste, and drink what you like.
The most interesting bit of the io9 article is at the very end, where it shows an inverse relationship to price and enjoyment for the average wine drinker. Do you, dear reader, think this is true for whisk(e)y as well? I know we often adjust our ratings based on something being perceived as over priced, but does that mean we enjoy it less?
Matt
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