Christmas Goodies

Over the past few weeks I was home visiting relatives for the holidays.  My mom and father-in-law are very amendable to whisky (although, there is a certain component of their interest to humor me).  They both prefer bourbon and Irish but shy away from scotch, Japanese, and other whiskies - hence my Christmas was bourbon heavy with a bit of Jameson!

Knob Creek - The 375 of Knob Creek was easily my favorite stocking-stuffer this year!  Nothing flashy about this bourbon, just a solid bourbon.  At 50% the alcohol is noticable, but not nearly as much as it's Rye cousin (see below).  Adding a little water or ice brings out some sweetness but I still prefer the bolder Hirsch High-Rye 8 Yr. 

J.P. Wiser’s 15 Yr - What stood out with this Whisky was a strong maple scent and flavor on top of a solid Canadian Whisky.  It was almost like there was a real drop of maple syrup in my dram.  This unique maple essence gives the Wiser’s the edge over Maker’s Mark but a sharp bite of ethonal pulls it below the Knob Creek. Wished I could’ve explored this one more, but my step-Dad only brought back a small shot bottle which we split.  

Maker’s Mark and Jack Daniel’s - My hometown doesn’t have much to offer in the way of bars, but these two are the finest of the local Applebee’s.  Ended up having a pour of each but It wasn’t much of a tasting as I was really focusing on the conversation with friends they are what I remembered. Both were smooth, rather sweet, and easy drinking. I’m giving a slight edge here to the Maker’s Mark because I prefer it’s sweetness to the mapley Jack Daniel’s.  Both get the edge over Knob Creek Rye for their drinkability. 

Knob Creek Rye - I remembered this being a better whisky, as the ranking of 79 showed.  But this bottle I found to be rather two dimensional - there was only alcohol and oak on the nose, on the palate, and afterwards.  Adding some water cooled both and brought out some sweetness, but unfortunately there still wasn’t much there.  It did make an excellent hot toddy though!

Jameson - You know, I don’t really know what happened between me and Irish Whisky.  We used to be on good terms but then it started to rub me the wrong way. I’ll take the blame and give Irish Whisky the “it not you it’s me” line. When I first opened the bottle of Jameson, I really liked it’s smooth honey sweetness.  But my second dram wasn’t pleasurable as there was some medicinal characteristic that didn’t suit me (which I seem to be finding with all Irish Whisky recently).  But, it certainly beats Kessler's.  

In conclusion, here the small table of these whiskies and their current over all ranking.

Rank	Name	R	SOS Rank	Change
93	Hirsch High-Rye Bourbon 8 Yr	0.5863	197	16
123	Wiser's 15 YR	0.4968	235	NR
147	Knob Creek	0.4422	179	13
193	Maker's Mark	0.2844	137	5
200	Knob Creek Rye	0.2627	220	-121
215	Jameson	0.2034	104	-9
227	Kessler's	0.1162	136	-11
235	Jack Daniel's	0.0760	198	2

The Hirsch and Knob Creek moved up significantly due to their solid showings in this ranking while Knob Creek Rye moved down for the same reason.  Knob Creek ranks below the Wiser's due to previous lower showings by Knob Creek pulling it down.  I can't believe Kessler's is still ranked over Jack Daniel's (and a few others).  OK... I can... looking back at my rankings, I initially preferred Kessler's over Highland Earl, which has bolstered it while it has been dropping while Highland Earl has been rising.  See the full rankings by clicking on the link to the full rankings at the top of the page.