Continuing with our rye week, last night we tasted Knob Creek Rye Whiskey. Originally released in July 2012, Knob Creek Rye is the newest offering from Knob Creek.
There isn’t a whole lot of info about this rye on the bottle, but overall it’s a very enjoyable whiskey. It has a nice golden color and a nose with light touches of vanilla, oak, and some herbal qualities. Rachel specifically noted basil and mint in the scent. Knob Creek’s taste has the spice we expect from a rye. The spiciness starts out subtle and then builds on the tongue with the longish linger, though it never overwhelms. There’s also a hint of vanilla and pear sweetness that provides a bit of complexity. We think this is a rye that finishes like a bourbon.
We’re not sure of the mash bill, and the only information we could find is that Knob Creek Rye is “made with a blend” of rye grains. The only age statement is that this whiskey is “aged patiently.” Knob Creek can be found in most places for about $41. We enjoyed Knob Creek Rye very much and would recommend it to any bourbon drinkers who are considering dabbling in rye.
Even though this nightcap was on Knob Creek’s tab, we will always review products honestly. Contrary to popular belief, free drinks don’t automatically taste better.
Sometimes we like to change things up, which is why we decided to make this week a rye week on There Will Be Bourbon. In addition to our bourbon, we’ve got a few bottles of rye in our bar. It’s seems to be a natural progression for anyone who enjoys bourbon to try rye. Plus, Patrick’s favorite cocktail is the Sazerac. Today we’re focusing our attention on Masterson’s Rye Whiskey.
Masterson’s is a 100% straight rye whiskey made from rye grown in the Pacific Northwest and barrel-aged for 10 years. Its color is a very nice honey-gold. Its scent is light and sweet, with a touch of pepper and vanilla. Its flavor is smooth to a fault. There is only a slight peppery spice, which we expect more of when drinking 100% rye whiskey. Rachel noticed a little banana sweetness, while Patrick thought the only sweetness was the vanilla that is imparted from the barrel. Masterson’s comes in at about $65+ in our location, so we expected a lot more from it. We were fortunate to receive this bottle as a gift, but if we were to spend the same amount of money on a bottle of rye, we’d choose the far superior WhistlePig Rye.
Knob Creek can be a little too spicy for our tastes, but when we got the chance to try their limited release Single Barrel Reserve, we thought we’d give it a fair shot to impress us. It did.
The color is a beautiful rich amber/caramel. It smells strongly of vanilla and oak with a hint of mustiness. The taste is pretty spicy and alcoholic at first sip, but as our palates settled into it, we really appreciated the depth in this 120-proof bourbon. Vanilla, raisin, and caramel are the dominant flavors, along with hazelnut. We love hazelnuts, so this was a pleasant surprise. The linger is long and leaves a bit too much burn in the back of the throat for Rachel’s preference, but Patrick liked the lasting sweetness that coats the tongue.
Even though this nightcap was on Knob Creek’s tab, we will always review products honestly. Contrary to popular belief, free drinks don’t automatically taste better.
Baker’s Bourbon is part of the Small Batch group of bourbons from Jim Beam, along with Knob Creek, Basil Hayden’s, and Booker’s. We’re big fans of Basil, but occasionally we want a little more punch than the relatively low proof it offers (80). We also weren’t sure we wanted to make the jump all the way up to the 120+ proof of Booker’s. At 107 proof, Baker’s is a good middle ground.
We expected a super strong alcohol burn from Baker’s, especially because the bottle suggests adding ice or water to it. We decided to taste it first without adding anything. The color is a dark, reddish amber. Its nose is very sweet, with raisin and vanilla notes. Its flavor is surprisingly balanced. The high proof is apparent, but it’s also matched by the vanilla, raisin, and caramel flavors. The lack of strong peppery spice up front that is often apparent in high-proof whiskeys also helps prevent the proof from overwhelming the flavor. There is a spice that holds up in the long finish, but it wasn’t overpowering.
We later added a bit of ice to our Baker’s, which really opens up the aroma and flavor. A bit of dilution tames the bourbon quite a bit, making it very mellow and smooth. Rachel said its smell with ice reminded her of caramel banana. While it’s very good with ice, Patrick prefers the complexity of the Baker’s on its own.
We were surprised to see a bourbon from Nantucket on the shelf at a local liquor store, and since it was relatively inexpensive ($24) we of course bought it, thinking the novelty/curiosity factor alone justified the purchase. Not like we ever have a hard time justifying bourbon purchases, but that’s beside the point.
There is hardly any information about the bourbon on the distiller’s website, but we did find some internet chatter from several years ago indicating that the bourbon is not distilled on Nantucket, but is bottled and aged there. For how long it is aged, we don’t know. Nor do we know if they have begun distilling their own bourbon at this point, seven years after the report we saw came out.
The bottle design has printing on both sides that overlaps through the clear bottle, creating a nice layered effect. The cork is tight-fitting. We hoped the care they put into the packaging would be indicative of their approach to the product too.
For the most part, this bourbon is satisfactory. The nose is sweet and slightly peaty, which we thought may come from the ocean air. The taste is extremely sweet with vanilla, apple, and spices coming through strongly. It kind of tasted like apple pie, actually. The mouthfeel is quite thin. This bourbon is 88.8 proof.
Overall, we thought this bourbon is…a good start. It’s not bad by any means, but it would benefit from more aging and perhaps a more complex mash bill to reduce the corn sweetness. We were glad to try a local bourbon, which for us in Boston is a rare experience.
Bulleit is a constant staple in our bar, both the bourbon and the rye. They are each are delicious on their own. The rye makes a great Sazerac, and the bourbon works well in just about any cocktail. This means we were very eager to try their newest release, which is the same high-rye mash bill as the standard Bulleit, but aged 10 years. (I believe Bulleit’s standard bourbon is aged 6 years.)
Those extra years really impart the barrel’s oak and char into Bulleit 10. With a light amber and slightly golden hue, its color is a bit lighter than its younger sibling. The vanilla flavor that comes from the wood is really strong in both scent and taste, though it’s not overpowering. We found Bullet 10 to be very balanced, with raisin and plum flavors, and a long, subtle but spicy rye finish. At its price point of $45, Bourbon 10 is comparable to other bourbons in this range. Some markets may have a hard time justifying the price jump from Bulleit to Bulleit 10, but that’s not really something we can attest to. While Bulleit 10 seems to stick around $45 everywhere (that we’ve seen), we’ve found Bulleit to range from $25 on the lower end to our up to $38 in our market. Either way, we think it’s delicious and worth every penny.
We tried Wathen’s Bourbon a few months ago at a bourbon tasting and were very pleased with our small sample. The only reason we hadn’t picked up a full bottle before now was because the holidays distracted us. We’re very happy we finally added it to our bar.
There’s not a lot of background regarding Wathen’s bourbon, especially because their official website is kind of an information desert. What we do know is that Wathen’s is distilled in Owensboro, KY, and is 94 proof.
Wathen’s Bourbon is a golden amber color and smells of both sweetness and woodiness. Rachel noted some fruitiness in the scent also, reminding her of red delicious apples. The scent of this bourbon promised a balance of flavors that it delivers on. Its slight apple, citrus, and pear flavors are balanced very well with cinnamon and oak. Wathen’s finish is of long, lingering spice. We were very pleased with Wathen’s, and for less than $35 (in our area), it’s one of the better values in its price range.
Breaking and Entering bourbon by St. George Spirits is a relatively new product that we’ve had a couple requests to review. We both really enjoyed this bourbon, which is produced by mixing a number of bourbons together. For this reason, Breaking and Entering bourbon doesn’t have an exact age. We are sometimes a bit skeptical of this approach to bourbon, but were pleasantly surprised.
Breaking and Entering has a dark golden color. The nose is fairly sweet and fruity with a touch of alcohol. We detected strong caramel, vanilla, and peach aromas. Patrick’s notes say it smells of “high hopes,” so take that how you will.
Peach comes through again in the flavor, with some dark fruit notes (Rainier cherry came to mind for me), and Patrick noted some apple flavors. It has a light mouth feel. This is a well-balanced bourbon with rye spice, vanilla, and oak flavors easily detectable. The rye carries through the medium-long finish with a satisfying burn.
We love it when houseguests surprise us with gifts. In this case, my parents brought us some whiskey that we can’t buy here in Boston. We’ve been anxious to taste the Woodinville Whiskey Bourbon because we still have an ever-lingering love for the Pacific Northwest (Woodinville is a suburb of Seattle, WA). This bourbon (and the Woodinville Whiskey Rye, which we’ll also be trying soon) were made available earlier this year.
Labeled as “Mashbill No. 9 Bourbon,” this whiskey is aged in eight-gallon barrels, where the spirit comes into contact with three times the amount of wood compared to a normal barrel. Unfortunately, this may be the bourbon’s biggest fault. Woodinville’s bourbon is a deep amber, cherry-wood color and smells very sweet, like vanilla, caramel, and raisin. Rachel detected a slight bit of peat in the nose too. Its flavor follows the profile, making this a fairly flat tasting experience. It doesn’t taste bad. In fact, I actually liked the vanilla and oak flavors and peppery linger, but Rachel pointed out that we couldn’t actually taste any of the grain. We felt that the flavors imparted by the oak overpowered everything else. In addition, there is no information on the bottle or website about what grains make up Mashbill No. 9. Woodinville Whiskey Bourbon carries a price point of about $50. (We’re not sure how much of that is part of Washington’s 20% tax on alcohol, but it still seems crazy, even from our vantage point in Puritanical Massachusetts.)
Occasionally we like to take a detour into nonbourbon spirits. Thank you for indulging us this week as we explore the Dutch spirit genever. You can think of genever as falling between gin and whiskey. Its producers distill a malt of wheat, rye, and corn in copper stills before adding a botanical distillate. Gin evolved from genever, and many of the classic cocktails we drink today were originally made with genever. Bols genever is produced by the oldest distilled spirits company in the world. We can’t imbed their videos here, but if you’re interested, we recommend watching the “master distiller” video in the “about” section on their website.
Bols genever has an aroma reminiscent of white whiskey, but much smoother, with prominent floral notes. Its taste is remarkably smooth and malty. The rye spice tingles mid-palate. We taste anise, juniper, and maybe a hint of rosemary. It really coats the tongue and produces a silky mouthfeel that lasts into the aftertaste. It doesn’t have much of a finish or linger to speak of, and almost no burn.
We don’t often find ourselves reaching for Bols genever as a sipping spirit, but we do find it very interesting. It really shines in cocktails, and we’ll highlight a few in the next couple days.
(Source: therewillbebourbon.net)
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