Vancouver Magazine
Now Open: The Sourdough Savants at Tall Shadow Have an East Van Bakery Now
The Best Thing I Ate All Week: Beaucoup Bakery’s Pistachio Raspberry Cake
Live Spot Prawns Are Only Here for a Month—and You Can Try Them at This Festival
5 Surprising Hipster Bottles Hiding in Plain Sight at the BCL
Succession Is Over: Now It’s Time To Watch the Greatest Show About Wine Ever Made
Our 2023 Sommelier of the Year Franco Michienzi of Elisa Steakhouse Shares His Top Wine Picks
5 Things to Do in Vancouver This Week (June 5-11)
Meet OneSpace, the East Vancouver Co-working Space That Offers On-site Childcare
What You Missed at the VMO 2022/23 Season Finale Concert
Wellness in Whistler-Your Ultimate Early Summer Retreat
Local Summer Getaway: 3 Beautiful Okanagan Farm Tours
Local Summer Getaway: Golfing at Alberta’s Crowsnest Pass
Review: Vancouver-Based Denim Brand Duer Is Making Wide-Legged Jeans You Can Hem Yourself
The Latest in Cutting-Edge Kitchen Appliances
7 Spring-y Shopping Picks, From a Lightweight Jacket to a Fresh Face Cleanser
Knob Creek 9-year-old is back in the saddle.
One of the most compelling things about getting into bourbon is just how new it all is. I didn’t mean the spirit per se—people have been drinking versions of bourbon for centuries—but the relatively nascent sector of high-end bottles. How nascent? Well, I still vividly remember when I first saw a bottle of Knob Creek appear on the shelves of my local liquor store 25+ years ago. It was unlike anything I’d seen. Small batch and bespoke was theretofore the purview of pricey single malt Scotch. If you wanted a fancy bourbon you might spend a few dollars more for a bottle of Maker’s Mark, but that was about it. But here was something in a square bottle that actually had an age statement proudly on its label: 9 years, not an insignificant amount of time to mellow out—especially in the bourbon world.
You probably know the rest. Knob Creek and a few of its Beam brethren (Booker’s, Baker’s and Basil Hayden) went on to change the esteem the drinking public held for Kentucky’s greatest export. And of the three, Knob was always the stand out—so much so that by the 2010’s they were having problems supplying their thirsty fans. That’s the problem with long-aged whiskies—any decisions you make won’t be proven right or wrong for almost a decade. And the good folks at Beam must have underestimated just how much Knob Creek people wanted…and they began to run out. It wasn’t exactly a disaster—in a pivot (well before the term was used incessantly) they, circa 2015 or so, quietly removed the 9 year age statement from the bottle, allowing them more leeway with what they used to make Knob Creek. I can’t say that quality actually suffered, but there was no doubt that the magic 9 that drew me to the bottle in the first place was nowhere to be seen.
Well, it’s back, baby. Starting this month you’ll see the return of the classic 9-year old Knob Creek, albeit in a cool, new retro-inspired bottle. We presumably can thank the good people at Beam circa 2011 for their foresight. It’s still a wonderful deal—under $50 for anything over 8 years be it Scotch, Irish or Bourbon is a steal—and it’s still at it’s trademark 100 proof, topped with the ever-present wax seal. Seems appropriate to raise a glass to resurrection.