The Knob Creek Rye
50 ml mini that Aly Raisman can now legally drink
Tasting notes:
The nose on this rye speaks assertively, like your grandmother with her all-caps comments on your FaceBook posts. Were she drinking this whiskey with you, she would type CEDAR-CHIP STUDDED LEMONS LAUNCHED ON A TREBUCHET! And she’d be right! There’s also white cranberry juice poured over fresh bay leaves and then stirred with cattails (Typha_angustifolia).
The mouth prompts me to plot a line between the x- and y-axes and point to it insistently. Bill and Stephen instantly see what I mean: this rye runs right down the middle like a balance beam gymnast. I wonder about the mash bill and guess that there’s enough corn in there to sand down the rye edges. For this is no rye bomb. No, no, it’s too sweet for that. Caramel grace notes round things out nicely as well.
The finish comes into focus through the gentle warming from the mouth. Even on a hot day, this would be welcome. And if the mouth made me think that this was just a rye-forward bourbon in rye whiskey clothing, the finish tells a different story. And that story is a bitter tale. But the bitter spices are the yang to the sweet yin, bringing this whiskey into a holistic balance that I, and the cadre of international judges, approve of.
Rating:
On the scale of exciting siege engines–
The Knob Creek Rye is the counterweight trebuchet–The marvel of its design continues to captivate, but consider this as well: only gunpowder and arrival of modern artillery could supplant its essential role in warfare.
–John
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