Wednesday 10 May 2017

Birthday Bourbons: Elijah Craig 12, Fighting Cock 6 & Knob Creek Rye Reviews

Hey everyone,

It was my birthday yesterday and it also happened to be my exam for my General Certificate in Distilling. I think it went well, I’ll have to wait for the results though. Anyway, afterwards we wandered around Bristol looking for Banksy street art and then settled into a little bar called The Woods that had a pretty good whisky selection.

I’ve been saying I need to try more Bourbon and took the opportunity to taste some of their American stuff.

Knob Creek Rye 50%
Colour: Bronze
Body: Medium
Nose: Crushed mint and rustic oak. Caramel, vanilla ice cream, slight fruit, coffee, worn leather.
Taste: Sweet arrival with honey and some orange, tingling spice and soft coffee then oak and spice kick up and recede again, leaving soft spice.
Finish: Medium length. Crushed mint, vanilla and a late burst of white pepper.
In some ways this is very interesting, but it doesn’t quite come into balance.
68/100

Elijah Craig 12 47%
Colour: Bronze
Body: Medium
Nose: Immediate dark chocolate and coffee bean. Dry oakiness, a little floral, natural caramel, toffee, vanilla pod, fresh cotton (never had that before), rustic with old wooden furniture and a slight musty note.
Taste: Quite soft at first, builds up with restrained but powerful oak and spice then lovely dark chocolate and espresso comes through.
Finish: Medium/Long length. Sucking espresso through oak, slightly sappy with slightly harsh ginger.
Good stuff, the chocolate and coffee notes are nice but I prefer Eagle Rare 10 and 4 Roses Single Barrel I think.
71/100
 
Fighting Cock 6 51.5%
Colour: Bronze
Body: Medium
Nose: Straight away it's sweeter than the EC12. Young fruit, honey, column still spirit, oak. A weird sour note after a minute.
Taste: Soft, then spicy, chilli, jalapeƱo, not too hot though, slightly creamy, honey, sappy oak comes in into the finish. Not too complex but enough.
Finish: Short/Medium length. Honey sweetness and oaky spice.
Absolutely fine and a great great price for a higher strength, but not complex.
66/100

Thanks for reading!
American Whiskey Review #13-#15
Whisky Network Review #396-#398

American Average: 71.3
Network Average: 74.5
Best Score: 92
Worst Score: 44
0-49 Terrible
50-59 Bad
60-64 Just About OK
65-69 Ok to Good
70-74 Good
75-79 Very Good
80-84 Excellent
85-89 Superb
90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

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