Jim Beam’s Knob Creek line of whiskeys is hitting a major milestone this holiday season: it’s finally going to have a bottle old enough to drink itself. Knob Creek 21 is the first 21-year-old whiskey from Jim Beam, and the oldest Knob Creek ever bottled to date.
Knob Creek 21 Year Bourbon isn’t exactly a surprise release. For the last several years, we’ve seen the steady progression of new age-stated Knob Creeks. After 9-year permanently returned to the portfolio, it was followed by 12-Year, 15-Year, 18-Year — you get the picture. It’s a sign of how far we’ve come since the disappearance of age statements a decade ago.
Knob Creek supply has been steadily growing, and father-and-son master distillers Fred and Freddie Noe have been religiously exercising the restraint to let some barrels continue to age more and more. But while they’ve officially bottled a 21-year-old product, Freddie Noe says 21 wasn’t necessarily the target — in fact, they didn’t have a target.
“When we first laid this batch to rest, we weren’t chasing any specific age statement, said Freddie Noe, eighth generation master distiller, in a statement shared by the brand. “After I tasted the whiskey, I knew we had something special. After decades in the rackhouse, the liquid developed a richness and balance we knew Knob Creek fans and whiskey enthusiasts would want to try.”
The future can be hard to visualize. The barrels in this whiskey, by the way, would have been filled during the first George W. Bush presidency, and if there was a radio on at any stage of the process, they probably heard some absolute bangers that year. I suspect some of them would have been eagerly awaiting the release of Revenge of the Sith, and one of them would probably be very excited to know there would be nine additional Fast and Furious films.
Knob Creek 21 is bottled at a respectable 100 proof. Tasting notes describe notes of oak, caramelized sugar, and a hint of smoke on the nose, with “deep caramel and char” alongside “hints of fruit and toasted oak.” The finish is balanced with toffee and charred wood. That’s not to say that there’s a lot of it. In fact, there’s so little 21-year-old Knob Creek that they’ve been able to hand select individual barrels (for something like Jim Beam White label, a random sampling of barrels from a lot is typically tested for flavor profile, rather than every individual barrel).
There’s no word on how much supply will be hitting shelves for 2025, but there’s probably good to be a good deal more attention for this extra-matured age statement. As for the comparison with other famous 20-something-year-old bourbons, that’s going to be up to personal tastes (as in, you should taste them side by side, personally). Knob Creek’s rye-influenced recipe is obviously going to have a significantly different flavor profile than something like a wheated bourbon, but maybe that’s what you’ve really wanted all this time.
For $250 per bottle, it’s one of the more expensive releases from the Jim Beam family of whiskeys, but it’s also the oldest ever, so you’d expect them to put a larger tag on it. Truthfully, though, this is bargain pricing when compared to a dozen other distilleries’ limited releases with half the age.
G. Clay Whittaker is a Maxim contributor covering lifestyle, whiskey, cannabis and travel. His work has also appeared in Bon Appetit, Men’s Journal, Cigar Aficionado, Playboy and Esquire. Subscribe to his newsletter Drinks & Stuff for bourbon reviews and trends, perspectives on drinks, and stuff.
