After nearly a year of being a regional exclusive confined to the New York Metro, Los Angeles, and New Orleans markets, the Eli Manning 2025 Bold Pick has finally made its way to the hinterlands of Alexandria, Louisiana. When I spotted a bottle at Hokus Pokus last week, I didn’t hesitate—last week Flaviar sent me an email this was available, and I was definitely interested. Glad I didn’t have to pay shipping to get this. This release generated considerable discussion within the bourbon community for reasons that only became clear after I opened my own bottle.
For those unfamiliar with the backstory: Knob Creek and NFL legend Eli Manning partnered to create a “Bold Pick” bourbon that would leverage Manning’s involvement in barrel selection at the James B. Beam Distilling Co. in Clermont, Kentucky. The 2025 release, bottled at 120 proof, became something of a Rorschach test for bourbon enthusiasts—some praised it lavishly, others found it disappointing compared to standard Knob Creek single barrel selections. After tasting this bottle, I understand exactly why the internet was divided. A 2026 has now been released nationwide consisting of multiple barrels at varying proof points; I will certainly be looking for one.
The Bottle and Presentation
The packaging is straightforward—a standard Knob Creek single barrel select bottle with an Eli Manning label. My bottle carried the release information indicating a 9-year-plus aging period. Hokus Pokus priced this at the same level as their own store pick releases, which given the provenance and the year-long scarcity that preceded wider distribution, felt entirely fair. For context, standard Knob Creek Single Barrel at 120 proof typically runs $40-50, while premium store picks command $60-75. At $69.99 MSRP and available through retailers like Hokus Pokus and online through Flaviar.com, this release represents a solid proposition for Knob Creek enthusiasts willing to hunt for it. Although, I will discuss below, this is a very different release as far as flavor profile.
The Pour
Pouring this bourbon into a copita reveals immediately that this is serious liquid. On the swirl, I noticed a thick film with oily droplets—the telltale sign of full-bodied, well-aged bourbon. The color is a deep copper with distinct hints of mahogany, a visual confirmation of the nine-plus years this bourbon spent in barrel.
The Nose
This is where I expected the “bold” to announce itself immediately. Instead, what I encountered was something quite traditional: the classic Knob Creek Single Barrel profile with lots of caramel and vanilla layered over deep oak. It’s a nose that’s immediately recognizable to anyone who’s spent time with Knob Creek’s single barrel program. There’s no aggressive alcohol burn, no overwhelming oak assault—just a well-balanced, pleasant nose that invites you to dive deeper. After a few moments of air, the caramel becomes more pronounced, almost creamy in character.
The Palate
Here’s where this bourbon begins to reveal why it generates such divided opinions. The vanilla and oak that announced themselves on the nose certainly persist on the palate, but they’re not the main event. Instead, there’s a subtle cherry note that emerges—not the artificial “cherry altoid” flavor you sometimes get in bourbon, but something more nuanced. But then comes the real surprise: spearmint and bright fruits, followed by distinct notes of juicy fruit gum.
Let me pause here, because this is the crucial moment in understanding this bourbon’s distinctive character. Juicy fruit gum notes in bourbon are unusual—they’re typically associated with Four Roses products where the yeast produces isoamyl acetate, an ester that creates banana, pear, and artificial fruit flavors, which were used in the making of Juicy Fruit gum and Tropical Fruit Life Savers. That flavor profile is decidedly not what you expect from Jim Beam’s Knob Creek, a bourbon known for vanilla-forward, oak-centric characteristics. I have always liked this fruity flavor profile, from my childhood of gum and candies to my adulthood of bourbon in my glass.
This is not an oak monster. It’s genuinely focused on subtle, nuanced flavors that seem to have come from somewhere else entirely—barrel selection considerations I can’t quite identify, but that have produced something genuinely different from the standard Knob Creek single barrel fare. Apparently Eli Manning has good taste. This is also a far cry from the Tennessee whiskey that Peyton Manning endorsed that was ok but was very overpriced. While a celebrity picked this bourbon, the price and the flavor profile alone justify the purchase.
The Finish
On the finish, those juicy fruit gum notes encounter baking spice—cinnamon particularly shines through—along with some clove. There’s a hint of drying oak that really lingers, gradually fading over a minute or more. The finish is long, complex, and doesn’t devolve into a simple oak-and-spice fade the way some high-proof Knob Creeks do. Instead, it feels like a conversation between the fruit-forward notes and the barrel-derived spice.
The Verdict
Tasting this bourbon made the internet division I’d read about suddenly click into focus. Some bourbon enthusiasts approach “bold” as meaning “more oak,” “higher proof,” or “more aggressive.” They open a bottle labeled as Eli Manning’s Bold Pick and expect a barrel-forward expression that dominates the palate. This is not that bourbon.
Instead, what Knob Creek and Freddie Noe selected here appears to be a barrel that developed in unusual fashion—one where the bourbon’s natural vanilla character took a backseat to something approaching the fruit-forward complexity more commonly associated with Four Roses. Whether this was deliberate barrel selection or a happy accident of aging conditions in a particular warehouse location, I don’t know. But what resulted is genuinely interesting.
The “bold” in this case refers not to aggressive flavors but to a willingness to select and bottle something that departed from Knob Creek’s established single barrel template. That’s bold in a way I actually appreciate—it’s bold in the sense of “different,” not just “louder.”
Having now tasted this bottle and reflected on the broader bourbon discourse around it, I think the interesting flavor profile—the one that’s more subtle and nuanced than the typical oak-forward Knob Creek single barrel—explains the divided reception far better than any technical analysis I could offer. Some folks wanted more of what Knob Creek is known for; they got something that stretched in a different direction.
I want to emphasize something important: this is one of the most interesting Knob Creek Single Barrel Select picks I have ever had. And that’s not faint praise. I’ve tasted dozens of Knob Creek single barrel selections over the years and have personally helped pick a few, ranging from regional store picks to the cask strength selections Hokus Pokus has offered. This bottle stands apart because it tastes genuinely different—like someone said, “What if we selected a Knob Creek barrel that tasted more like Four Roses?” and actually succeeded in bottling that experiment.
At this point, given that the 2025 Bold Pick now has wider distribution beyond its original three-market limitation, I’d recommend picking one up if you can find it. The secondary market hasn’t inflated prices dramatically—you should be able to find bottles at or near MSRP. Flaviar.com has it listed, and clearly Hokus Pokus has received allocations of this release. Given that the 2026 release came out this month, these bottles are “leftovers” of the most delicious kind.
This is not a bourbon for everyone. If you’re a dyed-in-the-wool Knob Creek devotee expecting the familiar oak-forward profile that made the brand great, you might find yourself puzzled by the fruity candy notes. But if you’re a bourbon enthusiast interested in single barrel diversity, in releases that push slightly outside genre expectations, or in how barrel selection can create genuinely different expressions from a single producer—this is absolutely worth seeking out.
The Eli Manning Bold Pick is proof that even well-established bourbon brands can surprise you when they’re willing to be bold in the right way.