When Jim Rutledge left Four Roses to start his own distillery he kicked things off by sourcing some 11.5 year old barrels from Barton and resurrected the Cream of Kentucky brand. As a fan of 4 Roses, Barton and dick jokes I was excited. Unfortunately it wasn’t going to be distributed in Texas and had a somewhat prohibitive price point so I missed out on batch 1. Thankfully a fellow Austin Bourbon hunter is from Maryland and batch 2 of CoK didn’t exactly fly off the shelves there so he was willing to mule a few bottles back to trade. I’m always looking to trade up as I tend to have more of a shopping problem than a drinking problem.

Cream of Kentucky

Age: 11.5 years

Abv: 102 proof

Price: ~$130(Traded a Blanton’s and ECPB that were both purchased at retail)

Neat

Nose: Sweet, fruity and oaky with vanilla, caramel, banana rich oak and subtle spice notes.

Taste: More of the same from the nose with caramel and oak coming to the front and the banana taking a backseat. Decent mouthfeel but what I would expect for the proof.

Finish: Medium length and starts with a little vanilla and banana that fade to rye spice and oak.

Conclusion

This was like a good 1792 FP pick that was watered down a bit and marked way up with a little extra oak. If it wasn’t for the price I’d be interested in grabbing the next batch though I am still open minded about future offerings from Rutledge. I wrote up the tasting notes before having some folks over this weekend just in case people loved the CoK and killed the bottle but my fears were very unfounded

I’ll be doing a blind tasting video of this vs a couple of 1792 offerings on Instagram sometime soonish to verify my assertion about this bottle.

TL;DR: Good juice, too high a price, look for a good 1792 pick instead

8 - an excellent bottle I’ll buy from time to time

Poor - Overpriced, not worth the money

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You can also read this and my other reviews at atxbourbon.com or follow me on Instagram(@atxbourbon) to keep up with these reviews and my other whiskey-centric adventures.

You can also follow me on Instagram(@atxbourbon) or reddit to keep up with these reviews and my other whiskey-centric adventures.

For a brief, glorious moment in the late 90s, well before my bourbon days, Wild Turkey released a single barrel, cask strength offering called Kentucky Legend. Nick named ‘Donut’ due to its unique bottle shape, Kentucky Legend truly lived up to its name is highly sought after by dusty Turkey fans. I had the good fortune of getting to try the Legend and take home a small sample to write this review thanks to a legendary Austin bourbon hunter. Let’s see how this lives up to the hype!

Wild Turkey Kentucky Legend

Age: NAS

Abv: 115.8 proof

Neat

Nose: Very rich and complex with caramel, leather, pipe tobacco, warm baking spices and faint floral notes

Taste: First off this had an amazing mouthfeel! It was thick and creamy with caramel and vanilla notes backed by warm baking spices, rich oak and that same faint floral note from the nose

Finish: Long and warm, bordering on hot, with more baking spices, cinnamon and rick oak with a bit of caramel

Conclusion

This was fantastic whiskey that blended a lot of the notes from dusty Turkey with the modern notes that I am more familiar with. I definitely preferred it to the sample of 1997 Wild Turkey 12 year that I tried. It had some similar floral and dusty leather notes but they were subtler and added complexity instead of making the whole thing taste like a perfumed couch. The only thing holding it back from a perfect 10 for me was that this finish was a little too hot even with a couple drops of water. I didn’t have enough to experiment with watering it down to 100-110 proof to see if it got it there.

I am very sad that I couldn’t side by side this with my reigning Turkey King, Moonshine RR CGF, and disappointed that I missed out on the Single Cask Nation Wild Turkey bottles.

This bottle lived up to the name and the hype though I doubt I will ever own a bottle.

TL;DR: Truly a legend, but the heat on finish was a touch much for me

9 - a favorite I’d like to keep on my shelf

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W.B. Saffell is the third release in Campari’s The Whiskey Baron’s series and as far as I can tell the first one that Eddie Russel was involved it. The first two releases, Old Ripy and Bond and Lillard were not big hits but this was one supposed to be different plus it was NCF, 107 proof and contained 12 year old Wild Turkey so I had to grab one, also it had a turkey on the label so that was cool.

W.B. Saffell

Age: Blend of 6, 8, 10 and 12 year

Abv: 107 proof

Color: Deep gold

Price: $40.99 for a 375ml

Neat

Nose: Spicy with oak and rich caramel notes with some faint vanilla

Taste: Warm baking and holiday spices, rich caramel and clear, but not bitter, oak notes. A very nice mouthfeel.

Finish: Long with baking and rye spices throughout balanced by sweet vanilla and more subtle oak.

Conclusion

This is very clearly Wild Turkey but also very good Turkey. I’d say it’s almost on par with Master’s Keep Decades but more on the spicy side of the Turkey profile. I really enjoyed that it had a lot of flavorful spice but wasn’t hot. I usually don’t love overly spicy whiskey but this bottle nailed it.

I probably won’t pick up another bottle of this one but I’ll definitely grab the next release in this collection assuming it also has decent specs.

On a side node this was a lot better than the last blend of 6-12 year old bourbon with a fancy label, bird and high price tag so it had that going for it.

TL;DR: Very good spicy turkey bourbon, a little pricey, glad it came in a 375

8 - an excellent bottle I’ll buy from time to time

Fair - Worth the money, happy with my purchase

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For the third and final entry in the Knob Creek series I’ll be tasting two of their rye options: the standard 100 proof Rye and the 2018 Knob Creek Cask Strength Rye, which was one of the Whiskey Advocate Top 20 for 2018 which I am vaguely trying to taste and review all of this year. To set expectations I traditionally haven’t been a fan of Knob Creek ryes and am definitely more of a bourbon guy overall.

Knob Creek Straight Rye Whiskey

Age: NAS

Abv: 100 proof

Color: Light amber

Price: $24.99

Neat

Nose: Slightly harsh with bold spices and herbal notes backed by a little bit of cherry

Taste: Spicy but balanced with some vanilla and a little oak. Nice mouthfeel.

Finish: Medium length with rye spice and a touch of oak.

0 Stars - Poor to Fine: I would not specifically choose to drink this

Knob Creek 2018 Limited Edition Cask Strength Rye

Age: NAS (barreled in 2009 so 8-9 years old)

Abv: 119.6 proof

Color: Dark amber

Price: $74.99

Other: Warehouse A

Neat

Nose: Sweet, especially for a rye, with honey and rye spice backed by faint herbal notes

Taste: Spicy, herbal and hot with rye spice, pepper and dill. Not nearly as balanced as the nose. Very nice and viscous mouthfeel though.

Finish: Long, hot and herbal with rye spice and dill notes.

0 Stars - Poor to Fine: I would not specifically choose to drink this

Conclusion

The regular KC rye is fine, a little hot and a bit on the spicy but also had some good characteristics with the herbal notes and the mouthfeel. In a world with the great and cheaper Old Forester Rye and the power house Willet 4 Year for something nicer I can’t see myself buying this bottle again.

The 2018 Limited Edition Cask Strength Rye was way too hot and the dill note wasn’t for me. The nose and mouthfeel were great though. A little ice helped the heat but the spicy and dill notes were still a turnoff for me. Oddly the LE doesn’t say straight rye whiskey on the bottle. I’m not sure what’s up with that. I’m glad I was able to trade the rest of this away for a Barrell store pick instead from a fellow bourbon drinker who didn’t care for the Dickel notes in the Barrell. I’m really surprised that this was picked as one of the best ryes of the year by Whiskey Advocate.

Overall I am going to stick with Knob Creek’s excellent bourbon line up and leave their ryes for other folks!

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Following up on the r/bourbon community review of Knob Creek Small Batch this month I thought I’d finally get around to reviewing the trio of single barrel store picks I have on hand. Knob Creek Single Barrels come in at 120 proof and with a 9 year age statement on the label though many are significantly older than that. We had a few of these drop in Austin earlier this year and I picked up the picks from Twin Liquors, Oak Liquor Cabinet and Chris’s Liquor. I tasted these blind and picked a winner and then went back to pick out some of subtler notes after the blind tasting.

Oak Liquor Cabinet Pick

Age: 13 years 10 months

Abv: 120 proof

Color: a deep amber

Barrel Info: #7713

• Barreled on 10/14/04
• Selected on 8/23/18
• Warehouse :
• Floor 5
• Rack 31
• Tier 1

Neat

Nose: A balance of rich oak and sweet caramel with vanilla and spice in the background.

Taste: Well balanced sweet caramel, rich oak and rye spice with an excellent mouthfeel. Just a slight hint of tannic oak near the end.

Finish: Warm and long with loads of rye spice, sweet caramel and rich oak

Chris’s Pick

Age: 9+ years

Abv: 120 proof

Color: a deep amber

Barrel Info: #6763

Neat

Nose: Softer than I’d expect for a 120 proofer with soft, sweet brown sugar and subtle oak.

Taste: Rich and sweet with strong brown sugar and rich oak notes supported by hints of warm spice and smoke.

Finish: Medium length finish with brown sugar, peanut brittle and warm spices.

Twin’s Pick

Age: 9+ years

Abv: 120 proof

Color: A medium amber

Barrel Info: #5630

Neat

Nose: Bold nose with oak and spice notes and a bit of ethanol.

Taste: Strong oak notes that are slightly bitter with lots of baking spice, some black pepper and a nice viscous mouthfeel.

Finish: Long and spicy finish with supporting oak notes.

Conclusion

First off all of these were great, the Oak Liquor Cabinet and Chris’s pick especially so. These Knob Creek Single Barrel picks are one of the best values in bourbon right now imo. It was super hard to pick a winner but in the end I went with the Chris’s pick for that brown sugar note. I picked up two of the OLC picks and I wish I’d grabbed another of the Chris’s. Another round of these will be hitting Austin soon and I can’t wait to taste them.

Also I am trying to track down the ages and other info for the Chris’s and Twins picks and will update this if I do get anything.

TL;DR: All 3 were great, Chris’s was the best if you have a sweet tooth, Oak otherwise, Twins was definitely in 3rd but still tasty.

Oak Liquor Cabinet pick

8 - an excellent bottle I’ll buy from time to time

Great - A great deal, I’d buy it again

Chris’s Liquor pick

8 - an excellent bottle I’ll buy from time to time

Great - A great deal, I’d buy it again

Twin Liquors pick

7 - a great whiskey I’d order at a bar

Great - A great deal, I’d buy it again

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The blind tasting video for this is up on Instagram(@atxbourbon)!

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r/bourbon is doing a community review of Knob Creek this month so I figured why not get in on that and use it as a jumping off point for a review series on Knob Creek. The Knob Creek Small Batch is what I used to think of fancy bourbon back in my early drinking days so it’s a bit funny that I see it as on the lower end now. I’ve always liked it and can’t distinctly remember the old 9 year aged stated versions being better. I picked up a pint of this with the shiny new label for the community review and I’m super primed on 100 proof whiskey after my bottled in bond series so let’s see how this guy stacks up.

Knob Creek Small Batch

Age: NAS

Abv: 100 proof

Color: A medium gold

Price: $15 for a 375ml

Neat

Nose: Sweet with nutty notes, caramel and oak

Taste: The nutty note from the nose is more clearly peanut with more oak and caramel and some rye spice notes. Good mouthfeel which is expected at this proof.

Finish: Medium to long finish with rye spice, oak and a bit of caramel.

On a rock

Nose: Faint nutty sweetness

Taste: The ice quenches almost all the up front flavor though caramel and a bit of oak do surface later.

Finish: Short to medium finish with sweet caramel and peanut notes.

1 Star - Good whiskey: I would choose to drink this over readily available whiskies

Conclusion

It’s good whiskey, it’s fairly priced and finish was more interesting than I expected. Other than the finish and Beam nutty note it doesn’t really stand out at all though. If I’m going Beam these days I’d rather spring for the Knob Creek Single Barrel which is rapidly making most other Beam juice redundant for me.

That said this is great step up from super budget drinkers like Evan Williams BiB or Early Times BiB. I’d even spend the extra $4 for this over Wild Turkey 101 if I want to drink it neat but sweet and nutty bourbons are my jam. That said I thought a 100 proofer would do better on the rocks than this does.

TL;DR: Good stuff, nothing special but hard to beat on the shelf at its price point, doesn’t hold up as well to ice.

After drinking my way through a number of sub $40 bottled in bond bourbon we’ll come to the end of the line with EH Taylor Small Batch and compare it side by side with it’s more expensive Single Barrel expression. As far as I know the EHT lineup are Buffalo Trace’s only bottled in bond offerings, other than the EHT barrel proof of course. In a world where Blanton’s and Eagle Rare are getting harder to find EHT Small Batch is still pretty reliably available at retailish prices here in Austin. But we’re not here to muse on the Buffalo Trace line up so let’s taste some whiskey and see how they stack up against the rest of the bottled in bond drinker lineup!

2018 Colonel EH Taylor Single Barrel

Age: NAS but 4+ years from Bottled in Bond

Abv: 100 proof

Color: A medium gold

Price: $59.99

Laser Code: L18187010722K

Nose:Sweet vanilla, caramel, a touch of citrus and hint of oak

Taste: Caramel and oak dominate with faint spice notes, and a very nice mouthfeel

Finish: Short to medium finish sweet with mostly caramel and a little oak and warm spice

2017 Colonel EH Taylor Small Batch

Age: NAS but 4+ years from Bottled in Bond

Abv: 100 proof

Color: A medium gold

Price: $39.99

Laser Code: L172830112097

Nose: Vanilla, caramel, cherry and oak

Taste: Oak, vanilla, caramel, cherry, slightly thinner mouthfeel than the SiB but still nice

Finish: Short to medium length sweet with cherry, oak and vanilla

Conclusion

These were both very good and handily beat out the rest of the bottled in bond bourbons in this series. I’m a fan of the Buffalo Trace profile and a higher quality, higher proof release at a good price is hard to argue with. After drinking the EHT Small Batch alongside the Dickel BiB I realized that the Dickel wasn’t going to have a long term place on my shelf as long as EHT was easy enough to find.

To compare the two this SiB was a bit better but not by much and definitely not by enough to justify the price increase. Somewhat oddly this SiB did not have nearly as much vanilla as I usually get from EHT. I prefer my current bottle of Blanton’s to both of these and they are on par to slightly better than the bottle of Eagle Rare I have right now. I’ve had some amazing EHT SiB but unfortunately this barrel was just ‘good’. Given the price, scarcity and variance on the Single Barrels I don’t think they are a good value proposition and I’d recommend grabbing the Small Batch over it to most folks. All that said I’ll probably pick another one up at some point chasing those honey barrels.

TL;DR: Great whiskey, go with the Small Batch.

SiB

7 - a great whiskey I’d order at a bar

Poor - Overpriced, not worth the money

SmB

7 - a great whiskey I’d order at a bar

Great - A great deal, I’d buy it again

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Our next bottled in bond bourbon is Jim Beam’s Old Tub. My mother in law picked this up for me as a birthday present while she was in Kentucky for work. It’s 4 year old, Kentucky only release that is supposedly the pre-prohibition family bourbon recipe from the Noe family and was named by Booker Noe back in the day when folks would bring their own jugs to fill with Old Tub. Fancy backstories aside, let’s get to what really matters: how does this drink?

Old Tub

Age: 4 years

Abv: 100 proof

Color: a medium gold

Price: $16 for a 375ml

Neat

Nose: Beam nuttiness, vanilla, caramel and faint oak notes

Taste: Average mouthfeel for 100 proof with the same notes from the nose the caramel is more pronounced here.

Finish: Surprisingly long with warm sweet caramel, spice and nutty notes. Definitely the best part of this dram.

Conclusion

I went in with low expectations given the 4 year age statement but with some hopes as I tend to like fancy Jim Beam ie Knob Creek Single Barrels and Booker’s. There was also the added pressure to appreciate the gift. Through the nose and palate I was underwhelmed but when I got to the long, warm, sweet finish this was saved. I enjoyed drinking through this little bottle and would be tempted to grab another one if I’m ever in Kentucky and saw it on a shelf. I was also a fan of the small form factor, backstory and old timey label though those don’t factor into the score.

I preferred Old Tub to the Early Times BiB by a fair amount though the Heaven Hill 6 year BiB and George Dickel BiB were a bit better.

1 Star - Good whiskey: I would choose to drink this over readily available whiskies

TL;DR: A fun novelty bottle, decent whiskey with a nice finish especially given the age

I’m done traveling for a bit so it’s time to get back to bourbon reviews! I got a bottle of this discontinued dram from a fellow member of Austin Bourbon Hunters who went to Kentucky. Since this was discontinued late last year this will likely be the only bottle of this I ever have though I’ll definitely be keeping enough to compare with the 7 year when it hits central Texas. Reviewing alongside a slew of potential replacements feels like the right thing to so on to part 3 of the affordable bottled in bond drinkers series!

Heaven Hill 6 Year Bottled in Bond

Age: 6 years

Abv: 100 proof

Color: A slightly darker amber

Price: $15

Neat

Nose: Slightly faint but sweet and nutty with honey, caramel and vanilla notes.

Taste: More of that nutty note Heaven Hill releases often have for me alongside honey and oak. A little thinner than I’d like for 100 proof but not bad at all.

Finish: Short and warm with oak, baking spice and caramel.

Conclusion

This was a huge step up from the Early Time BiB and definitely on par with the Dickel. It was a little thin across the board but had good notes and was very easy drinking for the proof. It’s crazy to me that this is about half the age of the Dickel BiB and of a very similar quality. I don’t think it is worth the tatering and hype that it got just after being discontinued but that’s bourbon these days. It’s good but nothing you couldn’t replace, albeit with something more expensive like Old Ezra 7.

That said, I’m very glad I got the opportunity to get a hold of a bottle of this before it all disappears. On the other hand if this guy was one of the sacrifices we had to make to get those new Old Fitz BiB decanters then it was worth it for me. I’m looking forward to trying the 7 year and seeing if an extra year makes a big difference or just costs more for effectively the same product.

TL;DR: Unbeatable at it’s old price point, but Old Ezra 7 is better and available.

Quality

6 - a good whiskey I’m still happy to drink

Value based on what I paid

Great - A great deal, I’d buy it again

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Early Times is a Brown-Forman brand that really leans in on the patriotism and early American distilling angle. It was also cheap, bottled in bond and generating some hype online so I picked up a bottle alongside the Dickel BiB last week. So we’re going to keep the affordable Bottled in Bond drinkers reviews rolling!

Early Time Bottled in Bond

Age: 4 years (back label and BiB)

Abv: 100 proof

Color: Amber

Price: $22 for a liter

Neat

Nose: Vanilla, caramel and light ethanol.

Taste: More vanilla with supporting caramel and grain notes and a bit of oak and spice. Average mouthfeel for 100 proof.

Finish: Short and hot with mostly cinnamon spice and some caramel trying to balance it.

Conclusion

This whiskey was fine, the proof and mouthfeel were nice, the classic caramel and vanilla notes are always enjoyable and while the nose and finish were a little harsh for me. It really didn’t stand out at all and I don’t see myself every reaching for the bottle over other things. I definitely preferred the Dickel to this, even considering the price.

All that said, if you’re looking for decent, cheap drinker with some classic notes and extra kick this will do. It’s about the same price as Evan Williams Bottled in Bond and a little better in my opinion but when I wanted ~100 proof on a budget I’d spring the couple extra buck for Wild Turkey 101.

TL;DR: Nothing special, good price. I prefer it to EW BiB. Benchmark BiB is better though.

0 Stars - Poor to Fine: I would not specifically choose to drink this

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