Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond Arts & Crafts Review Series Part 5/7

Here is the followup to a huge side by side tasting I did involving twenty years of Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond. The TL;DR version is after trying some amazing Henry McKennas distilled in the mid 80s that run circles around the current product, I thought it would be fun to run through the years since then to see how the profile has changed. The grand side by side turned into a bit of a disaster though as there were just too many samples involved. In an attempt to salvage some sense of usefulness, I'm running through what vintages I have remaining in a more typical review style. On deck we have:

• Barrel No. 0083, Barreled on 12/05/86
• Barrel No. 0208, Barreled on 05/01/92
• Barrel No. 0232, Barreled on 04/19/93
• Barrel No. 0324, Barreled on 05/09/95
• Barrel No. 0328, Barreled on 05/20/96
• Barrel No. 0842, Barreled on 10/24/01
• Barrel No. 1024, Barreled on 05/30/02

(Left) Aged 10 Years; 50.0% ABV; Barrel No. 328, Barreled on 05/20/96

(Right) Aged 10 Years; 50.0% ABV; Barrel No. 3035, Barreled on 03/14/06

Nose: Intense for 100 proof but very little heat. Rich balance of oak, sweet, and baking spice. I'm also getting a lot of the old bourbon "dusty" notes that are typical in whiskey from long ago. Side by side the current product smells lighter, younger, and fruitier.

Taste: It drinks like straight up old dusty bourbon syrup. The notes are pure classic bourbon with all the flavors kicked into overdrive without any excess heat. The viscosity is thick for the proof. Again like the nose it's a fantastic balance of sweet and wood with some light spice.

Thoughts: This one came out on top in the giant side by side and all you have to do is look at the color here to know why. Tasting this side by side with a bottle of current McKenna made that one taste like a hot young mess. This is truly wonderful stuff and it's driving me crazy to know why this is so incredibly better than any 10 year old bourbon Heaven Hill puts out today.

Rating: A- / A

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.