Review: Knob Creek Bourbon Blender’s Edition 01

The latest addition to James B. Beam’s increasingly vast Knob Creek portfolio is dubbed Blender’s Edition — specifically Blender’s Edition 01, the first in a series with no clear terminus. The concept is right there in the name: This is a whiskey designed to celebrate art and craft of blending, though how subsequent releases may vary on this front isn’t clear. Blender’s Edition is bottled at 10 years of age — a timeline which I presume will remain unchanged.

Here’s what we do know: Blender’s Edition 01 was designed to by “eighth generation master distiller Freddie Noe and his trusted team of expert blenders carefully hand-selected barrels to highlight the sweeter side of the Knob Creek flavor profile.”

Let’s try it.

Knob Creek Bourbon Blender’s Edition 01 Review

The whiskey’s nose doesn’t overly connote sweetness but rather rye-driven spice, offering an overture of clove and cinnamon and chased by a surprisingly vibrant anise note. Elements of dark chocolate and well-toasted coconut swirl around in the glass, with a slightly smoky note of smoldering pipe tobacco rounding things out. If the goal here is to evoke sweetness, the nose is certainly cagey about it — but that’s fine, it is hard to smell sugar sometimes.

OK, palate time: It’s a racy whiskey at the start, again with anise prominent alongside a bold cinnamon character. I wouldn’t call it anything close to a sugar bomb, and maybe not even the sweetest expression of Knob Creek I’ve tasted, but there is at least some sweetness evident in the mix. What develops runs more to peanut butter, coconut, and milk chocolate — all of which would create a rather candylike experience were the finish not so drying and oak-forward.

All told, it’s decidedly approachable, though not a game-changer — at least not with this first edition.

106 proof.

B+ / $45 [BUY IT NOW FROM FROOTBAT]

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