Knob Creek SiB: Greenville Bourbon & Whiskey Society

Knob Creek SiB: Greenville Bourbon & Whiskey Society

Cost: $60 to club members (upstate South Carolina)

Age: 9yr 2mo

Proof: 120

Mash Bill: 75% corn, 13% rye, 12% malted barley

Here in the upstate of South Carolina, the main whiskey club (only one that I know of even) is the Greenville Bourbon & Whiskey Society. It’s a pretty casual club, but recently, it went through the ropes of making its first barrel pick! Sadly, I didn’t take part in that selection experience, but I did take part in enjoying and reviewing it and am proud to be a member of a club that is making it’s own private barrel picks! In this review, I’ll be reviewing that first barrel pick which is a 9 year 2 month Knob Creek expression. Let’s get to it!

Reviewed neat in a glencairn. This barrel resided in warehouse M on floor 5, rick 12

Appearance: It’s Mahogany (1.6) in color, perhaps with a little more of a reddish hue than typical of Knob Creek. It has medium thickness legs and medium viscosity as they run down.

Nose: Big cinnamon vibes, maybe even some ginger, definite burnt brown sugar, boiled peanuts, bourbon caramel galzed donut (I hate describing a bourbon using the word bourbon, but I’m not sure how else to describe that caramel note I’m getting…it really is kinda like a caramel bourbon glaze or sauce though). There is a light note of vanilla on the nose, but I only picked it up after I noticed it in the finish. The proof definitely stands out, but I’ve certainly had lower proof whiskeys that burn more. This one has a lot of pleasant notes first and foremost. This might be the best nose Knob Creek I’ve ever had. I’m loving the dominate cinnamon, ginger, and brown sugar – makes it feel like a winter cookie almost.

Palate: It’s oily with the cinnamon and caramel notes standing out as the most dominating on the palate. I’m picking up a little peanut brittle with some chewing. There’s a decent amount of charred oak as a base throughout the sip and some leather fading into the finish.

Finish: This is a rather long finish, lasting for probably a good 45 seconds to a minute after the swallow still picking up notes. It does turn into a rather tannic dryness that really makes the palate feel rough. Thers a decent amount of ethanol as well (which from my experience with Knob Creek, this will fade with time as the bottle breathes quite noticeably). I’m picking up on that tannic oak, some peppercorn numbing the palate, and a little leather and caramelized sugar. While I didn’t pick up much vanilla earlier with the cinnamon spice really dominating, the vanilla is showing up as a delayed note in the finish.

Rating: 5.9/10 on T8ke scale

Overall: So, let me clear one thing up right off the bat: I’m not a Knob Creek fan. I got a shit ton of flack for giving KC12 the rating I did previously, but simply put, I’m just not a Knob Creek fan. It’s decent, but it always drinks hot to me and it doesn’t have a lot of complexity to it. That said, the nose on this bottle is fantastic! I’ve been thinking recently about changing how I do my ratings and actually rating the nose, palate, and finish separately and then combining them for the overall rating (and potentially having a “value” component). If I were to do that for this bottle, the nose would have a perfect score! That cinnamon Christmas cookie/gingerbread cookie vibe I’m getting off the nose is intoxicating. But the palate starts showing a bit more of that heat, and then the finish is layered, but rather hot (there’s some heat in this new bottle that I’m having to dig past to get to the payoff, but that’s typical for me with Knob Creek). Two things to note though: 1) I ranked this bottle higher than I did Knob Creek 12, and I 100% stand behind that, and 2) this was the first pick by our local whiskey club and I 100% support that and looking forward to the next one!