Showing posts with label Stagg Jr. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stagg Jr. Show all posts

Monday, May 20, 2019

Elijah Craig Barrel Proof C918, Knob Creek Single Barrel "The Green Monstah", and Stagg Jr Batch 10 (126.4) Reviews

The state of American whiskey in 2019 is a weird place. The demand for allocated bottles has been in a fever pitch and seems to have no end in sight. Even worse, the list of whiskeys that are now considered allocated has become a sad state of affairs. A quick look the recent influx of posts on /r/whiskyporn that are treating bourbons like Weller Special Reserve and Blanton's as coveted major scores has anyone that's been around a while thinking we've hit rock bottom yet despite that sentiment the WTFs just keep coming.
But for all the silly shit that is happening in the whiskey scene, there are some bright spots, and one of those is that we are in a golden age of well aged, high proof, decently priced, not impossible to find bourbons and ryes. There are so many more good high proof options today than there were 6-7 years ago and even with the crazy demand, most of them are not that hard to come by. So with that in mind, I thought it would be fun to compare three popular options against each other, all of which I was able to find at retail just by walking into a shop, no special favors required.
bottle

Elijah Craig Barrel Proof C918

Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; Aged 12 years; 65.7% ABV; $75
Nose: Woody and sweet, just like what you should expect from a twelve year old cask strength bourbon.
Taste: Lots of lush sweet caramel up front and some rye spice bite in the backend. The ever increasing peanut note I am getting in Heaven Hill these days is there in the form of peanut butter marshmallow smores. The finish lingers for quite a while with an oak laden sweet spice punch. There is plenty of wood depth there but there are also twangs of a younger, green wood taste that I sometimes get in this product's younger brother, Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond.
Thoughts: This is good but if I am going off memory it is far from the most complex ECBP I've ever had. The touch of green wood is the biggest detractor here for me, I don't recall ever getting that in the older ones. It's probably just me but I feel like these just aren't as good as the releases from 2-3 years ago. Still a very solid high proof bourbon and if found a retail is a buy on sight for me.
Rating: B/B+

Knob Creek Single Barrel "The Green Monstah" Selected by Barrels & Brews

Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; Aged 15 years 1 month (label is incorrect); 60% ABV; $50
Nose: A remarkable balance of a ton of wood and just as much sweetness. Very, very good.
Taste: Sweet nutty flavors like peanut brittle with lots and lots of oak. It's a bit dry but there is a lot of flavor to make up for that without being bitter. The finish rides out with dark cocoa sweet vibes and touches of rye spice but again it's super oaky and yet just as sweet. Not much to say other than it's a flavor bomb.
Thoughts: I've had mixed results with these older aged Knob Creek Single Barrels but this one is a home run for me. I did a bottle split of Booker's 30th with a friend and this is easily better for me and probably the best Knob Creek Single Barrel I've had yet. The Barrels & Brews guys have been doing a hell of a job with their selections and this one is no different. 
Rating: B+

Stagg Jr Batch #10

Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; No Age Statement; 63.20% ABV; $50
Nose: A sweeter, fruitier nose than the other two which make sense given the likely age of 9ish years. Cherries, peaches, stone fruits, and woody caramel.
Taste: A balanced, classic taste of bourbon with an equal combo of fruit, sweet, and oak. Sugary salted fruit pie crust comes to mind for the sweet notes along with just enough wood depth to balance things out.
Thoughts: This is a completely different vibe than the ECBP and KCSiB which makes sense since it the youngest in the bunch. That's not necessarily a bad thing here though as it's able to showcase more dimensions that just being an oak bomb. This isn't as good as Batch 9 which I still think is the best release of Stagg Jr yet but this is a quality product that I think as time goes by is slowly but surely chipping away at ECBP as the most consistent best bang for your buck high proof bourbon. At retail, these are a buy on sight for me all day long.
Rating: B
Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Sunday, April 22, 2018

Elijah Craig Barrel Proof C917 vs Stagg Jr Batch 9 (131.9) Side By Side Reviews

Elijah Craig Barrel Proof and Stagg Jr are two of the most widely recommended, non private store pick, barrel proof bourbons on the market today. They were introduced around the same time, are about equally as obtainable, and priced similarly. While Stagg Jr got off to a bumpy start with its first two releases, since then quality has stabilized and the batches now are consistently pretty good. Elijah Craig Barrel proof on the other hand came out of the gate swinging and up to this point reigns as the best bang for your buck barrel proof bourbon on the market. Given its high age and proof, I've even gone so far as to say it's the next best thing to George T. Stagg because I find a lot of similarities between them. No runs last forever though and last year there was a batch of ECBP (A117) that while good I felt was a step down in quality. That surprised me since up to the point, every single batch had been consistently awesome. With that in mind, I've been a little more leery about assuming every release will be a knockout.
Fast forward to a couple months ago when I happened upon the latest batch of Stagg Jr. The moment I tasted it I instantly knew it was fantastic. That got me thinking - had the folks over at Buffalo Trace finally been able to put out a better non limited release barrel proof offering that Heaven Hill? Armed with a few weeks of notes and both bottles on their last leg I tasted them side by side one last time to decide a winner.
bottle

Elijah Craig Barrel Proof C917

Aged 12 Years; 65.5% ABV; $60
Nose: Really hot initially, almost too hot. After a lot of air, it's woody and sweet like a vanilla custard.
Taste: A lot of oak up front, hefty dose of typical syrupy sweet wood flavors like caramel, honey, and vanilla in the middle, then a nutty oak heavy finish. There is a bit of a rye spice bite that rides the finish along with all that oak. The finish is also a touch heavy handed with dry oak and a slight bitterness.
Thoughts: It's pretty good but certainly not the best batch of this I've had. I've been picking up nutty flavors in Heaven Hill more and more lately which is no surprise since supposedly their yeast shares a family lineage with Beam. This isn't nearly as peanutty as most Beam whiskeys like Knob Creek or Bookers but it does detract from what is normally a wood sugar bomb. Beyond that, I'm finding the aggressive wood profile here just a touch overwhelming due to a slight drying bitterness. 
Rating: B / B+

Stagg Jr Batch 9 (131.9)
No Age Statement; 65.95% ABV; $50
Nose: Pretty beastly also but not as hot as the ECBP. More pronounced cherry, less oak, and more sugary sweet notes than the ECBP.
Taste: Cherries, cherries, cherries, and oak. The finish lingers with sugary cherries and other wood sugars. There is a lot of wood depth here which makes me think this is older than previous batches.
Thoughts: This is probably the batch of Stagg Jr I've ever had. It has a lot of wood presence but isn't completely dominated by oak notes. The fruity cherry notes also give it more complexity beyond just your typical bourbon sweets. Having just finally tried the 2017 release of George T. Stagg last night, this is right up there in terms of quality. I hate to give Buffalo Trace anymore hype than they already receive but this is a hell of a bourbon.
Rating: A-

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Stagg Jr. 132.2, 129.7, and 132.5 Reviews

For the July edition of the monthly community review, the /r/bourbon community choose Stagg Jr. I’ve covered that product a few times before but the TLDR; is it’s a younger version of George T. Stagg that is aged “nearly a decade“, runs about $55, and is considerably more attainable than its older namesake. While the first batch from a few years ago started off as nearly undrinkable pepper spray, batch two was a little better with batch 3 finally landing a home run. With the rocky start I think there is still a bit of stigma around the product so I thought it would be fun to run through all of the new batches to see if they hold up.
bottle picture

Stagg Jr. #4 (132.2)

No Age Statement; 66.1% ABV; $55
Nose: Smells like 8-9 years in oak. Lots of your typical vanillas and caramels and a little rye spice bite. The heat is well tamed for 130+ proof though it’s worth noting this bottle has been opened for quite a while now.
Taste: Loads of wood sugar and all the intensity you’d expect from 132 proof. The sweet flavors aren’t as dark as what you find in the older Stagg but they aren’t light either - it’s more like milk chocolate than dark fudge. There are the beginnings of some older wood funk in there but it’s nowhere near bitter. Some slight rye spice bite comes in towards the finish and dark pit fruit like cherries underlie the taste from start to finish. This is what condensed cherry Coke would taste like at 130 proof.
Thoughts: A great middle aged barrel proof bourbon. Not quite up to the level of Elijah Craig Barrel Proof, but pretty much on par with the 3rd Stagg Jr. batch.
Rating: B+ / B
bottle picture

Stagg Jr. #5 (129.7)

No Age Statement; 64.85% ABV; $55
Nose: Pretty much just like the previous batch. Smells like a barrel proof ~8 year old low rye bourbon. Heaps of wood sweets with a dash of rye kick. For nearly 130 proof, it surprisingly doesn’t burn your nose off.
Taste: Again lots of syrupy wood sugar, cherries, and more pepper than the previous batch. Other than that last bit, it’s more or less like batch 4.
Thoughts: Of the most recent batches, this slightly spicier the other two. It’s more like cherry Dr. Pepper than cherry Coke. It seems to have slightly less age and depth to it and combined with the more prevalent spice, makes it my least favorite of the three. Having said that, it’s still a really great barrel proof bourbon and I buy it again at retail.
Rating: B / B+
bottle picture

Stagg Jr. #6 (132.5)

No Age Statement; 66.25% ABV; $55 (thanks to /u/mfpark for the bottle split)
Nose: Softer, sweeter, and more fruity/cherry forward than the other two batches. Even though it lends to the sweet side there are still some minty menthol spice notes. It definitely smells like it has some age as there is a little old wood funk though I would have guessed it was a bit lower than 134 proof.
Taste: Pretty spot on with the nose making it the most unique of all the batches I’ve tried before. The sweet chocolate and fruity cherry notes are very forward and when combined with a slight peppery rye punch it makes for a really intense sweet and spicy combo.
Thoughts: Of the three most recent batches, this is the sweetest of the bunch. If the other two batches are like barrel proof cherry soda, this is more like a liquid barrel proof chocolate covered cherry. I had to pick a favorite amongst the three, this would be it.
Rating: B+

Overall I feel like Buffalo Trace has really dialed these in and it’s really living up to its namesake now. Truth be told, it’s really splitting hairs to judge these side by side as the profile and quality is solid. If not rating them side by side I probably would have just said they were all B+ and called it a day. I feel the same way now about this product as I do Elijah Craig Barrel Proof in that there’s no reason to really review it anymore because it’s very consistent.
Value: I don’t factor price into my ratings. At retail price, every batch of this from batch 3 onward is a great deal. In this price category I would reach for Elijah Craig Barrel Proof first but in the absence of that, this is a great alternative to the bottle of George T. Stagg you’ll likely never see.

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Stagg Jr #4 (132.2) Ruby Port Finished Review

This is a sample that I was sent by a fellow redditor /u/Looney_Bin as part of a group review for /r/bourbon. The creator of this oddity started with a bottle of the fourth release of Stagg Jr (132.2) which he then aged in a small whiskey barrel that had previously held port, port finished another whiskey, then held port again.
While George T. Stagg is probably my favorite bourbon released every year, Stagg Jr has been a mixed bag. Batch one was more or less pepper spray and batch two wasn’t much better. Things really seemed to have turned around starting with batch three though as I felt it was the first in the lineup to be worthy of carrying the Stagg name. Having tasted batch three side by side with batch four, I find them nearly the same so hopefully that’s a sign that Buffalo Trace has really dialed in the brand.
barrel
The barrel used for port finishing
bottle
Regular batch 4 on the left, port finished on the right.
Color: I don’t usually remark on color but the port finish version is noticeably darker with some nice dark red undertones.
Nose: Very fruity and woodier than the non finished version. Lots of oak, lots of cherry, and some other sweet/funky fruit flavors I can’t quite pin down.
Taste: Like the nose, it’s very woody - even more so than the standard bottle. Not only is the port influence of the finishing coming through but a sharp green woodiness of the small barrel is evident as well. In addition to the extra dose of wood, there are more dark fruits and cherry over the standard version. The finish is where I find it deviates the least from the standard - it’s mostly lots of spice driven angry heat and dark fudgy sweets that are the calling card of the Stagg line for me.
Thoughts: This experiment turned out a wash as I prefer the standard product. The port notes added some nice fruity complexity and softened the edges up a bit but the small barrel imparted too many harsh young wood notes. This comes back to what I’ve heard about these small home barrel kits not really being that great for aging whiskey very gracefully and I could only imagine how bad aging white dog in one of these would be. I think it’s safe to say these are best left to aging cocktails.

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Stagg Jr Batch 3 (132.1) Review

George T. Stagg is a name that needs no introduction in the bourbon world. With its brutal proofs in the 130 - 140 range and respectable age around 15 years it has a bold unmistakable profile that makes it consistently one of the best and most sought-after bottles of bourbon every year. With the current bourbon craze for all things limited though it’s next to impossible to buy a bottle at retail. Given that, much of the bourbon world was thrilled two years ago when Buffalo Trace announced they would be releasing a younger and hopefully more obtainable version dubbed Stagg Jr.
The red carpet rollout stopped there though as bad reviews starting rolling in and I myself personally hated it. Things could only go up from there and while it did improve slightly with the second release most still felt both releases were an embarrassment to the Stagg name.
So right around the time most had sworn off the Stagg Jr line, reports starting coming in that the third release was nothing like the first two. Had Buffalo Trace been listening to the torrent of bad reviews and finally managed to dial things in? Will this finally be the Stagg Jr release all of us had been waiting for? Let’s find out.
bottle
66.05% ABV; No Age Statement; $50
Notes: The nose is rich and woody with lots of sweet dark fruits. It smells pretty tame considering the high proof so right off the bat it’s very reminiscent of its namesake. The taste has a rich, full, and thick texture. It’s not quite as chewy as George T. Stagg but a great mouthfeel nonetheless. All the flavors that you want in a middle aged cask strength bourbon are there - hefty dose of wood, vanilla, caramel, and even some dark sweets that are more typical of an older bourbon. It also has some of those deep dark fudge notes you’ll find in George T. Stagg. The heat is very well tempered - it lacks the hot fiery peppery spray blast I found in the first two releases. All in all, it’s wonderful and tastes like a younger George T. Stagg.
Thoughts: My rundown of the batches goes something like this:
  • Batch 1: Hot sloppy mess, like drinking warm pepper spray, avoid.
  • Batch 2: Drinkable, not as much of a mess, still lots of the hot pepper in the finish. The end of the bottle was better than the beginning.
  • Batch 3: Very, very good. It can stand toe to toe and maybe even beat other $50 - $75 barrel proof bourbons like Elijah Craig Barrel Proof or Colonel Taylor Barrel Proof.
As far as I am concerned this is the really the first Stagg Jr. It’s a tremendous improvement over the first two batches and finally a bourbon worthy of its name. At $50, it’s a remarkable value and I would buy it again over and over for that price. Word on the street is that Batch 4 is very close in proof so let’s hope Buffalo Trace has finally dialed this one in.
Rating: B+

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Stagg Jr #2 (128.7) Review

The first release of Stagg Jr was my most disappointing bottle of 2013. To be fair, I had a lot of emotional baggage tied up in it and only went for one after I had such a hard time getting a George T. Stagg. I rated the first release pretty low. That score might be harsh but I stand by my dislike of that release mostly do to the infernal pepper assault I get in the nose, palate, and finish. I was intrigued by rumblings that the second release was quite a bit better. I’m a sucker for anything with the Stagg label and I felt like I need to give it another chance so when I was offered a bottle today I grabbed it.
64.35% ABV; No Age Statement; $55

Nose: Lots of heat even after sitting for 30 minutes but nothing like the fireball of the first release. Buttered popcorn, lots of wood sugar sweetness - caramel, maple syrup. The heat is less pepper heat and more like hot corn.
Taste: I sampled the 1st release prior to this review and the first thing I noticed was that there is not nearly as much upfront heavy sweetness as the first release. The lower proof really shows but there is still plenty of depth and loads of sweet wood sugars noted in the nose. - salted caramel, corn bread pudding. The salt and pepper I noted in the first release are still there in a big way. Again like the nose though the pepper isn’t quite as engulfing. It’s rather unique but still a bit harsh.
Finish: Moderately long but not as long as the first release. Still harsh oak, salty, and peppery but again nowhere near as offensive as the first release.
Notes: I consider it a victory that I didn’t have to stop and add water halfway through this one like last time. It’s an improvement over the first release for sure.
Rating: C

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Stagg Jr #1 (134.4) Review

I’m a huge fan of George T. Stagg. Previous vintages are some of my favorite bourbons of all time. Given that, I was delighted when I heard about the forthcoming release of Stagg Jr. 

67.2% ABV; No Age Statement; $55

I usually do all my reviews neat with no water. My attempt at doing that with this one the heat was so overpowering I couldn't nose anything. The taste was nothing but pure pepper and engulfing flames of burn. It is without question the angriest bourbon I’ve ever tasted. At that point I had to stop the review and start over after adding water (which is not something I usually do).

Nose: Cherries are much more pronounced now. Candy corn. Slight honey. Still a little hot but not bad.
Taste: Pepper is still there in a big way. Lots of salt. Honey from the nose comes in stronger. Salted caramel. The heat that remains is more angry sharp heat than just warm and comforting. I love high rye bourbons but the spice flavor here is so peppery and unlike any other rye spice I’ve encountered.
Finish: Salt and Pepper from the taste still predominate. The pepper just won’t go away. A more traditional minty wintergreen rye flavor begins to finally creep in. Barrel char stops in to say hello. There is a decent deep chocolate cocoa that fades in after the pepper notes subside but you have to really dig for it. The finish is moderate in length.
Notes: I like to think I’m an barrel proof elitist. I can usually thoroughly enjoy a good barrel proof bourbon at strength without ever need to cut it with water. I just couldn’t do that here. I had to add more water to this than I ever have with any other bourbon and this is coming from a guy who will fawn over 142 proof GTS neat. Overall, the aggressive pepper assault, sharp stabbing heat, and requirement for water really put this one way down on my list. If I had to sum it up in a sentence it would be “put it back in the barrel, it’s not done yet.”
Rating: D