Taken: Neat in a Glencairn glass, rested for about 15 minutes.
Distillery: James B. Beam Distilling Co.
Release#: KC001.
Proof: 100.
Age: 21 Years.
Mash bill: 75% Corn/13% Rye/12% Malted Barley..
Price: $249.99.
Appearance: Dark caramel.
Nose
Caramelized dark brown sugar, dark chocolate, pecan pie, vanilla beans, dried apricots, baked apples, orange citrus, nutmeg, toasted oak, subtle campfire smokiness, and allspice. This nose is dark and delicious. As expected, there’s a lot of oak, but what’s not expected is how much fruit there is. As the glass empties, the profile gets sweeter with butterscotch and more chocolate, vanilla beans, stone fruit, and baked apples.
Palate
With a medium-creamy mouthfeel, the palate leads with caramelized dark brown sugar, rich toffee, toasted oak, and chocolate, with molasses, pecans, raisins, stone fruit, nutmeg, delicate wood smokiness, and a moderate amount of allspice. Oak is the star of this profile, but there’s also an impressive balance of other flavors that make this much more complex than expected. It’s also worth mentioning how much flavor this has for being at 100 proof.
Finish
Allspice lingers with toasted oak, orchard fruit, pecans, orange peel, nutmeg, leather, and dark tobacco. This has a long, but delicate, oak-forward finish with no astringency and a woodiness that lingers on the palate for a very long time
Conclusion
Knob Creek 21 is more complex than I expected and is far from being over-oaked. Compared to Knob Creek 18 Batch 1, Knob Creek 21 has a similar oak-forward flavor profile but places less emphasis on caramelized brown sugar and chocolate (though there’s still plenty of both), and features more stone fruit, vanilla, orange peel, and nutmeg. Overall, it has more balance and complexity. This is a testament to how much better the folks at Beam have gotten at managing the barrels for these ultra-aged Knob Creek releases. When comparing Knob Creek 15, 18, and 21 side by side, there’s a very noticeable improvement as the age increases. To sum it up, KC15 has a lot of astringency and teeters on being over-oaked. KC18 Batch 1 is a much better-balanced chocolate oak bomb with no astringency, and here we are with KC21.
$250 is a lot of Bennies to spend on a bourbon, but it’s a very reasonable price for a 100-proof, 21-year-old Kentucky bourbon. I paid more for a 16-year BuffTurkey that I didn’t love as much as Knob Creek 21. The low barrel yield alone must make this release an expensive venture for Beam, and I’m always surprised when they keep releasing whiskey this old. It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. If you don’t love bourbon with a lot of oak, Knob Creek 21 may not be for you. But if you love oak and don’t mind bourbon at 100 proof or loved Knob Creek 18, I highly recommend Knob Creek 21. It’s not a high-proof, super complex powerhouse, but it stands on its own merits, doing what it was crafted to do. I think Beam did an excellent job with this ultra-aged release.
Rating: 8.5/10.
1 | Disgusting | So bad I poured it out.
2 | Poor | I wouldn’t consume by choice.
3 | Bad | Multiple flaws.
4 | Sub-par | Not bad, but better exists.
5 | Good | Good, just fine.
6 | Very Good | A cut above.
7 | Great | Well above average.
8 | Excellent | Really quite exceptional.
9 | Incredible | An all-time favorite.
10 | Perfect | Perfect.
