Review: King of Kentucky Straight Bourbon 16 Years Old (2024)

Now in its seventh year, Brown-Forman’s King of Kentucky is once again helping to kickstart the bourbon release season (although we’ve had quite a few big releases already). Of all the bourbons fans tend to clamor for this time of year, few are quite as consistently impressive as this brand, delivering very good or, more recently, great results year in and year out. And King of Kentucky hunters will be happy to hear that output continues to increase, up a whopping 1300 bottles from the 2023 release.

As a reminder, this is a single barrel product bottled at barrel strength with minimal filtration and made from a mashbill of 79% corn, 11% rye, and 10% malted barley. For 2024, Master Distiller Chris Morris set aside two lots of barrels from the 2007 production year (63 in total from Warehouses G and J), making it once again a 16-year-old product. Morris himself noted in the press release that this year’s King of Kentucky showcases what a difference production dates and warehousing can have on a barrel of whiskey in addition to the standard variations from barrel to barrel. We received a small, representative sample from Barrel #10. Let’s dig in.

On the nose, this isn’t anywhere near as restrained as the King of Kentucky we sampled last year. It’s bursting with aroma and energy without even much time to breath in the glass, delivering big notes of Maraska cherry, dark chocolate brownies, toasty macaroons, cigar box, and furniture polish. As it opens, more seasoned oak arrives, but things are never astringent or overly woody. The palate is similarly vibrant and effusive with flavor, oily and plenty warm at this abv but still approachable. Top notes of mildly bitter baking chocolate and silky coconut cream give way to a midpalate of expressive oak notes – old fence posts, oiled teak, and sandalwood – before coalescing into dark caramel, sticky vanilla bean, and tart black cherry on an impressively long and soothing finish. As with some past releases, this whiskey can take a lot of water, so don’t be shy if you prefer a more easy-drinking bourbon. A healthy splash trades some of the burlier oak notes for more cinnamon apples and baking spice, but barely dents the impressive concentration of flavor. King of Kentucky hasn’t cracked our Top 10 Whiskeys list since 2018, but this one is definitely a contender.

130.4 proof.

A / $350

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