Kentucky at last: Knob Creek Hollywood Barrel

It’s a grotesque oversight that I have not gotten to my fair home state’s glorious produce until now.  I apologize, and expiate:

Intending to avail myself of the positively silly current post-off on Eagle Rare 10 year, I stopped in at one of my regular haunts, Hollywood Liquor Store, to survey their new digs.  They’ve moved a few blocks west of their erstwhile location, into a gigantic old carpet warehouse that, so far, gives the unfortunate impression of shopping for one’s sippin’ corn in an airport terminal.  Snarkiness aside, they remain among the best two or three locations for whisk(e)y on the east side of Portland.

It was either testament to this or clever marketing (both?) that they offered a “private selection” made by Knob Creek to their specifications; apparently they were given the choice between several different blends, and chose the one they preferred, which they offered in an attractive flip-top tin.  Unlike the regular bottling, this selection is finished in a plastic screw-cap.

It’s good!  Brash, bright, and unabashedly Kentuckian, accurately described by the staff at Hollywood as a bit smoother than the standard Knob 9-year, this is an excellent value at under $35.  It’s got that trademark Knob heat- you know you’re drinking whiskey here- with all the big flavors that that entails, but wrapped round with a compelling complexity and multilayered sweetness, without ever straying into the realm of the cloying.  

Further, Knob occupies a special place in my heart: before I fully embraced spirits, I would usually have a bottle of Hendrick's Gin and Knob Creek on top of my fridge.  Though I rarely partake, gin is still my white spirit of choice, and Hendrick's, with their lovely rosepetaled iteration, have a winner.  But I fell hard for the amber elixir, and it's nice to see that the whiskey that I considered top-notch before I knew a damn thing is still pleasing to me now.  Knob is big, and hot, and not for everyone- I might call it the Laphroaig of bourbon, for that reason.  That's almost certainly also why I like it so well.

Knob Creek 9-Year (Hollywood Barrel)

nose:  Tropical and green, like the freshly-torn outer flesh of a ripe coconut; 1980s-era elementary school textbook;  potpourri of dried rose and lavender, salty red-hots

palate:  Hits the tongue like a molten yellow gummi bear and immediately gives the lie to the notion that whiskey need ever be flavored.  The midpalate is lush with crushed peppermint leaves, caramel apple, and sweet, sophisticated maraschino cherries, with a long finish, warm as woodstove, of candied orange peel, savory herbs (bay leaf, thyme), cinnamon, white pepper, and cedarwood.