Old Forester 1910 Review

I'm not the biggest fan of Brown-Forman whiskeys. Out of about ten vintages of Birthday Bourbon I've tried, I've yet to have one that didn't make me want to gag from bitter varnish notes. As for their non limited edition releases, I find a common banana note in most all of them that just doesn't sit well with me. Granted, Old Forester 1920 from the Whiskey Row series is pretty good - it's easily their best product and the only one that I've ever bought more than once. Here today we have 1920's followup and what is supposedly the last product in the series. The schtick here is it's a bourbon that was rebarreled and then aged in fresh, lightly toasted, heavily charred barrels. Rebarreling can be a slippery slope, as my recent experience with Knob Creek's Twice Barreled Rye didn't turn out so well. I'm not exactly optimistic but I am hopeful Old Forester has a better showing coming on the heels of something as good as 1920. 

Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; No Age Statement; 46.5% ABV; $60

Color: I don't usually remark on color but this stuff is noticeably dark. It has the deep brown of bourbons in the 12-15 year old category.

Nose: Smells like a rather mature bourbon. That familiar Forman banana note is definitely here - it smells like banana creme brûlée. 

Taste: A lot more of the same from the nose. It drinks like a very mature bourbon with a lot of wood notes yet still has a lot of sweetness to prevent it from being overly bitter. The banana notes are fairly heavy handed. Again, this tastes like some sort of banana caramel dessert. If you take the wheated aspect out of the picture, in a lot of ways the profile here reminds me of Weller 12.

Thoughts: This is pretty good. I don't really have any major faults with it other than being a little boring and the banana notes being a bit pervasive. Unlike in other Forman whiskies where that banana note is younger / more green, the maturity of the profile here actually makes it kind of nice. This still isn't as good as 1920 but I do think this is my second favorite Forman product.

Rating: B- / B

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating

Woodford Reserve Batch Proof Review

I'm not the biggest fan of Woodford Reserve or even many of parent company Brown Forman's products either. Old Forester 1920 is the only one that comes to mind that I've enjoyed enough to buy more than once. I was in Kentucky a few months ago though and decided to knock out the last major distillery tour I had yet to do which was Woodford. I'd always heard the grounds are nice and they are but despite their best efforts to make you believe otherwise it's actually a potemkin distillery in that most all of the Woodford you drink is actually made in their Louisville distillery. The tour was actually really good, the guide didn't mess up any of the basic bourbon facts which sadly is the norm these days on distillery tours. On my way out I happened to notice the Batch Proof product in the gift shop. Normally I'd say I dislike Woodford special releases even more so than the regular product but I was in vacation mode and feeling loose with my wallet so I decided to take a chance in hopes of proof being the missing ingredient that would make me enjoy a Woodford product.

No Age Statement; 62.9% ABV; $130

Nose: Hefty blast of the typical vanilla caramel notes you'd expect from a high proof bourbon. There are some grainy corn and fruity mash notes that indicate it's not very old but they play well with all the ethanol umpf and sweet bourbon notes. It's as hot as it should be for 125 proof but not overly so. I guess we'll call that a win as I was worried it would blow my face off.

Taste: Ooof, there's the heat blast I was worried about. It's a big bold bruiser on the heat front taste-wise. Up front there are some of the caramel / fruity banana / corn new mash notes you'd expect from a slightly younger bourbon but on the mid and back end it's almost all wood. The finish is a lot of dry oak, almost with a lingering sawdust flavor. There are some nice darker sweet notes like cocoa that are there as well which are nice but it's hard to overlook the dry oakiness.

Thoughts: I probably have no idea what I am talking about but given the amount of oak influence here from what I expect is not a very old product, I'm guessing this was aged in the upper floors of a warehouse where it sweat its ass off. It's almost like it was aged too rapidly and the wood influence took over too quickly. All in all, I'd rate my enjoyment of it a little better than the standard product just because the added proof gives it some excitement but it's got some hot tannic tendencies that prevent me from loving it. For my money, Stagg Jr and Elijah Craig Barrel Proof are two products that cost 1/2 as much as this but offer more balance and nuance at the equivalent proof.

Rating: C+

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Old Forester 1920 Review

In general, Brown-Forman whiskies don't do much for me. Woodford Reserve is very meh and their special editions are the epitome of shelf turdz. Jack Daniels tastes like overly ripe bananas. Old Forester Signature 100 is decent enough as a budget pour but the Birthday Bourbon series is a bitter acetone bomb to me. Because of that, I've steered clear of the Old Forester Whiskey Row series up to this point. Recently though there was some chatter on social media that the latest 1920 release was really good, perhaps better than Birthday Bourbon. Those statements and the proof convinced me it was worth taking a chance on it.

No Age Statement; 57.5% ABV; $60

Nose: Rye spice, bubble yum gum, molasses, leather, and a decent amount of oak. Smells like a classic, rye based, moderately aged bourbon. With 30 minutes of airtime it's not that hot considering the high-ish proof. 

Taste: Mostly the same notes from the nose. There's a nice upfront sweetness, a good amount of oak depth in the middle, and a spicy finish. The sweets have touches of youth to them with some fruity banana bubble gum. That fruitiness carries through to the finish which when combined with the spice ends up something like warm cherry Dr. Pepper. I'm guessing this averages about 7-8 years old with some slightly younger and a bit of older whiskey in the mix. 

Thoughts: I went into this with low expectations but it really surprised me. This is without a doubt my favorite Brown-Forman bourbon ever. Granted, that's a low bar but there's a lot to like here. It's a tasty balance of sweet and spicy, the proof is respectable, it's not overly young, and it should be relatively easy to find. At this price point it's not something you would buy as an everyday sipper nor is it really bunker quality but it's worth buying at least once for something different. 

Rating: B

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Barrel Proof Review

As I mentioned in my previous review of Old No. 7, regular Jack Daniels holds a lot of nostalgia for me as it was the first bourbon whiskey I ever regularly consumed. These days I can barely drink the standard version but I knew when this product was announced that nostalgic curiosity would get the better of me. I wasn’t so caught up that I lost my mind enough to buy a whole bottle though so fellow redditor /u/dannyg483 and I split a bottle. Spoiler alert: in hindsight, that was a smart play.

No Age Statement; 64.45% ABV; $65

Nose: After about 45 minutes of airtime in a Canadian glencairn, the nose is actually alright. Lots of brown sugar banana taffy, a decent amount of oak, typical caramel wood sugar sweets, and corn grain. The grainy new-make flavors make me guess this is pretty young and even with all the airtime it’s still breathes really hot. No surprises here - it smells just like what you would expect from a 135 proof Jack Daniels.

Taste: The front of the palate starts off unruly hot and the heat gets even worse as it goes. Underneath all that heat is a repeat of the nose with brown sugar, banana taffy, and smoky char being at the forefront. It’s stupid hot, so much so that I resorted to adding a little water which I rarely do. When I got this down to around 110 proof, the front and mid-palate where actually pretty pleasant with more sweetness and softer smoky char notes coming through. Unfortunately even when cut down, the finish was still a wretched mess that tasted something like charcoal chocolate covered bananas dipped in lava.

Thoughts: I commend Brown Forman for trying to do something different but this a miserable failure. My opinion, it’s just not an old enough to be ready for barrel proof. If this were about twice the age it might actually be really good. Granted, this is a single barrel product so this could very well just be a bad barrel but you have to question the quality control that let such a hot mess out into the wild. This bottle is getting regulated to old fashioned duty as I don’t think I can drink another glass on its own.

Rating: F

Value: As always, I don’t factor cost into my ratings but his bottle is a serious pass regardless of price. There are much older and much better barrel proof whiskeys available such as Stagg Jr and Elijah Craig Barrel Proof in this price range.

Old Forester Signature Review

Outside of their limited edition Birthday Bourbon, I don’t have a lot of experience with Old Forester products. Given that the Birthday Bourbon is supposed to be the flagship of the line and I don’t particularly care for it, I’ve never really felt much need to explore the rest of their products. However, in an effort to cover all of the major distilleries in our community reviews over on /r/bourbon, Old Forester Signature was chosen as the representative of the brand for our next group review so I was obligated to give it a shot. While this isn’t supposed to be a particularly hard to find Bourbon, I actually had some difficulty in sourcing a bottle. I had to call at least a dozen stores that had other items such as the 86 proof Old Forester and newer 1870 releases before I was able to track down a bottle of this. I suspect it’s just not a popular product here so most of my local stores don’t carry it. As best I can tell there isn’t much interesting backstory behind this bottle, it’s just plain old no frills Bourbon which is kind of welcoming.

No Age Statement; 50% ABV; $23

Nose: The nose is mostly oak and caramel/vanilla wood sugars with a little banana taffy which is an indicator of slight youngness to me.

Taste: The upfront taste is like the nose with more wood and some burnt caramel. The sweet taffy is still present initially but soon fades behind darker, more complex oak notes. The mid palate starts to bring on some acidic citrus zip that eventually leads to a spicy rye finish. Along with the spice at the end there are some nice dark chocolate and green apple flavors.

Thoughts: I expected to hate this given my opinion of Birthday Bourbon but I was pleasantly surprised. This reminds me a lot of Heaven Hill’s 6 year Bottled in Bond that I reviewed a while back. I think they share a lot of similarities as they are both a mid-level rye Bourbons and I would guess the Signature is a blend of aged whiskey that averages out to about the same 6 year age or a little less. There isn’t really anything standout here but there’s also nothing to complain about. It’s just a standard, classic Bourbon at a nice proof and even better it comes at an affordable price. Outside of Bottled in Bond Bourbons that are hard to find in a lot of markets, I can’t think of many bottles that are better than this one at this price point.

Rating: B-

Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 Review

Here's a review I didn't necessarily decide to do on my own but was part of my participation in one of /r/bourbon's regular community reviews.

40.0% ABV; $13.50 (375ml)

I haven’t drank Jack Daniels in 3 years and 11 months. I know that because I remember exactly where I was the last time I had it. I spent two weeks in Belfast in 2010. By the end of the two weeks I was deeply sick of Irish Whiskey and Guinness and the handful of other options that are consistently available there. I went into a bar and asked for the most ‘MURICAN think I could think of - a Jack n’ coke. They handed me a shot of Jack Daniels and a glass bottle of coca cola. Hah! I cut my teeth on this stuff in my 20’s, mainly mixed with coke. I somewhat cringed when I saw it as the community review but I figured I would suck it up since we have a history. Confession bear: I didn’t go to any of my regular stores to buy this, I didn’t want the shame.

Nose: Smokey charred oak. Sour fruits, old overly ripe bananas. Woody was always my biggest impression of Jack before I had a lot of whiskey experience and I think it still holds true today.

Taste: Decent mouthful. Fair amount of sweetness in the form of banana cream and a little caramel. It’s very easy but then again it’s only 80 proof.

Finish: Depressingly short, no doubt handicapped by the abysmally low 80 proof. There is a little harsh heat the lingers and some sweetness but the predominance is bitter char.

Notes: Charred wood and bananas are the two most notable things I get out of this one but unfortunately neither of those really excite me. The proof is much lower than I like and overall there is nothing interesting that would have me asking for it again. My biggest problem now is figuring out what to do with the rest of the bottle - I should have bought a smaller one.

Rating: D