It is easy to get caught up in the negative side of any story. I mean, after two solid years of drought, 75% of my yard is currently flooded. I could be super unhappy with that. But, since we were able to get our garden in before all the rain, we shouldn’t have to water it for a while. And since our garden doesn’t like city water, it’s good that we won’t need to use it as soon as usual.
Or take tonight’s whiskey. I bought this 700 mL bottle of Jack Daniel’s Bonded Rye for $34.99 back in March. However, Jack Daniel’s Bonded Rye recently replaced Jack Daniel’s Straight Rye, which I reviewed back in November 2017 for $29.99 for a 750 mL bottle. That’s an additional five bucks for 50 milliliters less whiskey. And sure, I could be mad if I focused just on that. However, the proof went up along with the price. And honestly, if you look a little deeper and do the math, the price increase is slightly less than the difference in inflation since that time.*
So, I guess what I’m saying is that we got a higher-proof whiskey for the same effective price, which if you focused only on the negative items, you might have missed. Now, while I wander around the house singing a song from Monty Python’s The Life of Brian, let’s let the press release from Jack Daniel’s have a word.
Jack Daniel’s Bonded Rye has a grain bill of 70% rye, 18% corn, and 12% malted barley and is charcoal mellowed before aging in new, handmade American white oak barrels. It opens with notes of dried fruit followed by lingering hints of toffee, imparting a bold, complex, and balanced taste with a rye spice finish.
Alright, I’m back. Let’s see what the BourbonGuy household thought of this one, shall we?
Jack Daniel’s Bonded Rye
Purchase Info: $34.99 for a 700 mL bottle at South Lyndale Liquors, Minneapolis, MN
Mouth: Zesty spices of cinnamon candy and clove, vanilla, citrus zest, cocoa, and oak.
Finish: Medium length and warmth with notes of oak, almond, baking spices, and just a touch of banana.
Thoughts: This is decent. Like its predecessor, it's not a world-beater by any means, but it's solid. It drinks well neat and works well in a cocktail. The oak is more prominent than I’d have thought for a product from Jack Daniel’s core lineup. It is sweeter than I usually like my rye, but it seems to work in this case. If you loved Jack Daniel’s Straight Rye, this is more full-flavored and isn’t as soft as that. If you really like Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Rye, this has a higher proof, but it reminds me of that. However, Single Barrel is over $50, so personally, I’d buy the Bonded Rye more often for that reason.
Now I need to figure out how to get Always Look on the Bright Side of Life out of my head…
*$29.99/750 = 3.999 cents per milliliter. $0.03999 x 700 = $27.99. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, $27.99 in November 2017 had the same buying power as $35.44 in March 2024—or slightly more than the $34.99 that I paid for the new bottle. Basically it’s a wash.
If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.
Kentucky’s Wilderness Trail Distillery has grown over the last decade from a small barrel-a-day distillery to become one of the nation’s largest Bourbon distilleries. Dr.… Read More
Kentucky’s Wilderness Trail Distillery has grown over the last decade from a small barrel-a-day distillery to become one of the nation’s largest Bourbon distilleries. Dr. Pat Heist and Shane Baker founded Wilderness Trail as an offshoot of Ferm Solutions, their consulting business that works with distillers and brewers around the world. This week on WhiskyCast In-Depth, we’ll talk with Pat Heist about the origin of Wilderness Trail — in a rock band, of all places, and the circumstances that led to their decision to sell the distillery to Campari in late 2022. In the news, Laphroaig is planning a major expansion, while whisky auction prices have yet to recover from recent declines.
Barry MacAffer is leaving Laphroaig Distillery and his native Islay for a new adventure: building a malt whisky distillery in South Korea. This week on… Read More
Barry MacAffer is leaving Laphroaig Distillery and his native Islay for a new adventure: building a malt whisky distillery in South Korea. This week on WhiskyCast In-Depth, Barry tells us why he’s making the move now and what he’ll miss most about Islay. In the news, the threat of tariffs hangs over the whisky industry again as the U.S. Presidential election heats up, another new distillery is in the works for Scotland, and Rosebank Distillery opens its doors to visitors for the first time.
Welcome back, folks! We are now at the end of the 2024 contest. Eight whiskeys entered the arena. Four have fallen by the wayside. There have been some delicious treats, with not a single stinker in the bunch. Let’s see how it all ends and see if we’ve learned anything along the way. First, we have the Round Two matchups.
Division 2: Whiskey A (Buffalo Trace) vs. Whiskey B (George Dickel Bourbon)
Pre-Reveal Thoughts: The noses are pretty similar. “A” is more vibrant, “B” is nuttier. In the mouth, “A” is very nicely balanced with a nice sweetness. “B” is spicier, also with a nice flavor.
Winner: “B” (George Dickel Bourbon) moves on to the Championship Round based on the nice spiciness.
Division 1: Whiskey A (Old Forester 100 Proof) vs. Whiskey B (Old Grand-Dad 114 Proof)
Pre-Reveal Thoughts: The nose on “B” has more caramel and nuttiness. The nose on “A” is more muted with a faint medicinal note. “B” is very spicy on the month. “A” has notes of red fruit and marzipan.
Winner: “B” is spicier, but that spiciness overwhelms the other notes. “A” is more well-rounded, which I prefer. “A” (Old Forester 100 proof) moves on to the Championship Round
Championship Round: Whiskey A (George Dickel Bourbon) vs. Whiskey B (Old Forester 100 Proof)
Pre-Reveal Thoughts: The nose on “A” shows more caramel and vanilla versus the fruit notes on “B.” The mouth on “A” is showing spice, caramel, and oak. “B” shows more fruit. It’s close, but I think “A” pulls ahead based on the oak and spice.
Winner: “A” (George Dickel Bourbon)
Congrats to George Dickel 8-Year-Old Bourbon, the 2024 BourbonGuy.com Bracket Champion!
Lessons Learned:
This was an interesting contest for me. I like contests where I know I won’t need to brace myself before taking the first sip in a tasting. Every one of the bourbons was good. I don’t think I’d say there is anything in here that would warrant a “meh/neutral” rating if it were being tasted alone. That might be a first.
So, what did I learn about each of these?
Ok, right off the bat, I expected a little blowback on George Dickel Bourbon even being in the contest. I got it last year when I included their Bottled-in-Bond Whiskey, and I honestly expected the same this year. I am personally shocked that Dickel won the contest. I honestly expected Old Forester 100 proof to win based on what I thought my personal preferences were. That said, upon reflection, I’m not shocked that the only age-stated bourbon in the batch won the whole thing. It’s hard to beat time in a barrel for making good whiskey. Add in the fact that it was less than $25 and less than 100 proof, and the whole thing just makes me happy. I love an underdog story.
Moving over to the other Championship contender, as stated above, Old Forester 100 Proof would have been my favorite to win the contest at the outset. Not only does it sit in my favorite proof point, but it was also the most expensive of the bunch. Not that price always correlates to quality (that’s one of the reasons we run this contest each year), but it certainly correlates to how much a company thinks people would be willing to pay for something. And that has at least a passing relationship with how good something is, especially with a product that has been on the market for a long time like this. That said, it came in second and won its division. It’s a good bourbon and one that is often on my shelf.
Newcomer Wheel Horse Bourbon handled itself admirably. It didn’t quite have the gusto to knock off a competitor with lots of age on it, but it should hold its head up high. It lost to the eventual champion this year. That’s nothing to sneeze at. It’s good whiskey and a good value. It may have advanced if it had had a different matchup in the first round. I think I’ll be doing a full review of this one in the near future if I don’t drink it all first.
Elijah Craig is a great bourbon. It is more delicate than other bourbons in this list, having neither the age nor the proof of other contestants. Because of that, it doesn’t surprise me that it lost in the first round. But with no comparisons, I'm a happy camper if this is in my glass.
When I think of Buffalo Trace, the old chant from high school sports of “O-Ver-Rate-Ed clap clap clapclapclap.” That isn’t to say that it is a stinker or even a “meh” bourbon. No, it is very good. But when I get comments from people saying that it goes for $50 in their neck of the woods, it’s hard to take it seriously these days. Especially when contrasted with other comparable products. Sazerac won the PR lottery when they got the contract to have Pappy chosen from among their stocks oh-so-many years ago.
I’m just going to copy and paste what I said last year about Old Tub, as nothing has changed in my assessment: “Old Tub reminded me that Jim Beam makes good whiskey. It just needs some proof. Go below 100° proof, and it gets way too nutty for many folks, including me, when the mood isn’t right.”
I didn’t learn much from Old Grand-Dad 114 that I didn’t already know. I knew it was a great bourbon that didn’t cost much, and nothing about that has changed. The proof adds a nice spice to what might otherwise be a lackluster bourbon that would be too grain-forward for my personal tastes. That’s why I like Bonded and 114 so much better than the 80 proof.
Finally, Ezra Brooks 99 is right there with the other bourbons in this group. It was great as a 90° proof. And with that great base, the proof bump makes it an absolute winner. Sure, the price is higher than the now-discontinued 90, but I think the quality went up more. If I’m not buying for content, this is one that I pick up a lot.
Ok, so we have one further contest to take a look at before we put the brackets to bed this year. I retired Wild Turkey 101 from the yearly bracket contest a few years ago. It won every time it appeared until I paired it against other, more expensive, 100-ish proof bourbons during the pandemic. It is literally the GOAT when it comes to inexpensive bourbon. One of the guys I talk to at a local liquor store describes more expensive bourbons using Wild Turkey 101 as the measuring stick. “Is this worth four bottles of Wild Turkey 101?” And I love that. So, I decided to bring it out of retirement to see how this year’s winner stacked up against the old bird. (You may notice it hiding in the back of the photo above.)
Emeritus Round: Whiskey A (George Dickel Bourbon) vs. Whiskey B (Wild Turkey 101)
Pre-Reveal Thoughts: “A” has a lot of oak on both the nose and mouth, along with toffee on the mouth. “B” shows nice cinnamon on the nose and mouth along with some caramel on the mouth. Both have a nice spice.
Winner: Very close, but I'm leaning toward “B” (Wild Turkey) in the Emeritus Contest.
Now that we are done, it’s time to turn the page to the future. Next week, we will look at the samples that have been stacking up while the contest was going on. As much fun as this was, it’s fun to try new bourbons, too.
Once again, congrats to George Dickel 8-Year-Old Bourbon on their 2024 Championship!
If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.
Hello again, my friends! Let’s continue with the brackets, shall we?
If you’ve been following along, you know that these were tasted in an order only known to my wife, which was another bit of obfuscation to hide what was being tasted. So Round 1 of the 2024 BourbonGuy.com Brackets continues with Division 1’s Number 1 seed, Old Forester 100 proof, taking on Number 4 seed Elijah Craig.
Old Forester 100 proof, one time known as Old Forester Signature, is probably my favorite Brown-Forman bourbon from a Quality-to-Price perspective. It is delicious, relatively inexpensive (at least when compared to its Whiskey Row brothers), and has enough proof to keep you interested. Did I mention that it is delicious? I was thrilled to include this one in the brackets this year. It is the number one overall seed due to the fact that it is at the high end of this contest’s price parameters and it’s proof. I bought this bottle at South Lyndale Liquors in Minneapolis, MN. It costs $27.99 for a 750 mL bottle or $1.87 per pour.
Their opponent is another bourbon that I buy quite often. In this case, it is because Heaven Hill’s flagship bourbon, Elijah Craig, is often on sale in the low $ 20 range near me. I’m a big fan of bottles that taste good but cost relatively little. Hence, the contest theme. This particular bottle was not on sale but was still priced well. It costs $24.96 for a 750 mL bottle or $1.66 per pour.
All of the competitions this year were tasted blind and we knew the winner of the competition prior to any reveal. Notes, thoughts, and conclusions were all from before we knew what was what. Needless to say, some of my conclusions were surprising to me. Tasting notes may be a little unusual since they were being tasted at the same time and probably influenced the perceptions of one another.
Whiskey A (Elijah Craig)
Price Per Drink (50 mL): $1.66
Details: 47% ABV.
Nose: Brown sugar, mint, cola, and baking spice.
Mouth: Caramel, cola, cinnamon, and oak.
Finish: Warm and on the shorter side of medium. Notes of brown sugar, mint, and oak.
Whiskey B (Old Forester 100 proof)
Price Per Drink (50 mL): $1.87
Details: 50% ABV.
Nose: Caramel, citrus zest, mint, and almond.
Mouth: Sweet and spicy with notes of caramel, cedar, mint, almond, and cinnamon.
Finish: Warm and of medium length—notes of toffee, chalk, mint, and cinnamon.
Thoughts:
Pre-Reveal Thoughts: We had a hard time with this one. Relatively, “A” is the more delicate of the two, which wouldn't matter if one of these was bad. I’ve chosen the more delicate bourbon in previous year’s contests because it happened to be the better one. But both of these were very good. So I'm left with which one made more of an impression. And in this case, that is the robust flavor of “B.”
Post-Reveal Thoughts: There are no surprises here. The proof won out. If this contest had happened ten years ago, it would have been a different story. Old Forester had fallen on hard times and, frankly, wasn’t very good. And Elijah Craig was a 12-year-old powerhouse of a bourbon. But these days, Old Forester 100 is delicious, and Elijah Craig, though delicious, is much more approachable than it once was.
Winner:Old Forester 100 is advancing to round 2.
If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.
Welcome back, my friends, to my favorite posts of the year. It’s bracket time!
Historically, this has been a series where we take a look at the cheapest of the cheapest bourbons, pit them against each other, and decide which you should pick up and which you should leave down on that bottom shelf. The 2022 edition broke me; I dumped out about 7 liters of bourbon, so last year, I tossed out all pricing requirements and did a series of Bonded Bourbons. This year, I’m reinstating the price requirements, but I’ve decided to keep them a bit “relaxed.” My goal was to find readily available bourbons all at about the same price point, in this case, the $20 to $30 price range.
Here is how we set everything up. And it is an oh-so-simple process. I seed the whiskey in the bracket, in this case, by price. Then, I pour 200 mL bottles of each contestant whiskey and label them with a nonsense name. Finally, I make a separate bracket with the nonsense names and give that and the 200 mL bottles to my wife. After that, she takes care of everything. She has no idea what is in each bottle due to the nonsense name. She pours and keeps track of the winners while we do our tastings. And all I need to do is taste and write. It’s a pretty slick system.
So, who are the participants, and how did they get chosen?
Well, every year, I try to put in limitations that will force me to choose a new set of participants. Well, mostly new, anyway. We still have four this year that were in previous editions. Because the “bottom-shelf” ones have gotten so much worse than they used to be due to inflation and strategic price increases, this year, I limited myself to only bourbons priced between $20 and $30 for a 750 mL bottle. This allowed me to get some names that are familiar to the general public but that might be overlooked due to the general public’s idea that “more expensive equals better whiskey.” A while back, I also asked what you guys wanted to see included as part of a giveaway. I included as many of those as I could. Some weren’t available in my market. Others were quite expensive. Some had just been in so many contests that I looked for fresh faces. But I included what I could.
The contestants were seeded by price. If there was more than one at the same price, the tie was broken by proof.
Division 1, Seed 1: Old Forester 100: This was purchased at South Lyndale Liquors in Minneapolis, MN, for $27.99 or $0.037 per milliliter.
Division 2, Seed 1: Buffalo Trace: This was purchased at Total Wine in Burnsville, MN, for $27.99 or $0.037 per milliliter.
Division 1, Seed 2: Old Grand-Dad 114: A reader suggested Old Grand-Dad Bonded, but since I saw this fit the price constraints, I upgraded. This was purchased at Total Wine in Burnsville, MN, for $26.99 or $0.036 per milliliter.
Division 2, Seed 2: Wheel Horse Bourbon: This was a reader suggestion. It was purchased at Top Ten Liquors in Chanhassan, MN, for $25.96 or $0.035 per milliliter.
Division 1, Seed 3: Ezra Brooks 99: This was purchased at South Lyndale Liquors in Minneapolis, MN, for $24.99 or $0.033 per milliliter.
Division 2, Seed 3: George Dickel Bourbon: This was purchased at France 44 in Minneapolis, MN, for $24.99 or $0.033 per milliliter.
Division 1, Seed 4: Elijah Craig: This was purchased at Top Ten Liquors in Chanhassen, MN, for $24.96 or $0.033 per milliliter.
Division 2, Seed 4: Old Tub: This was a reader suggestion. It was purchased at France 44 in Minneapolis, MN, for $21.99 or $0.029 per milliliter.
I’m going to tell you right now, that there were some real surprises here. I was honestly shocked at the winner. But that is for the future. In the mean time, who you got? Let us know down in the comments.
If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.
Chivas Brothers recently introduced two new Longmorn single malts. The 18 and 22-year-old malts represent a long-term commitment to the brand, with all future Longmorns… Read More
Chivas Brothers recently introduced two new Longmorn single malts. The 18 and 22-year-old malts represent a long-term commitment to the brand, with all future Longmorns to be at least 18 years old. Chivas Brothers blending manager Kevin Balmforth was instrumental in creating both whiskies, and he’ll join us to discuss them and his day-to-day life in the blending lab on this week’s WhiskyCast In-Depth.
In the news, MGP is suing over two rickhouse projects that have been blocked by local officials in Kentucky, while a new website has been set up to help investors protect themselves from fraudulent cask investment schemes.
Well, they did it. The sonnuva guns actually did it. Not a week after I mentioned in a comment on an older Old Forester post that Old Forester only has one mash bill, they went ahead and released a whiskey with a different mash bill. This is what I get for acting all high and mighty and like I know something: I get new 10-year-old bourbon…
Wait.
Ok, so that’s a good thing…I might need to act like I know everything more often.
Funny story about this one. I saw this sitting on the shelf when I was wandering through Total Wine, looking for a non-alcoholic beverage I could enjoy during Dry January. (Yes, just because I wasn't drinking alcohol for the month doesn’t mean I wasn't buying it.) So I picked up a bottle and stuck it into the closet. Well, the next week, my wife went to a different Total Wine. There was a sign informing customers that they were out of an entire list of Buffalo Trace products (we are pretty heavily allocated here, even for the standard Buffalo Trace). At the bottom, there was a handwritten addition to the list: Old Forester 1924. Of course, the Minnesota Whiskey Snobs™ were out in full force.
Now, this might happen everywhere, but in my almost 20 years of living in Minnesota, I’ve found that there is a particular brand of uppity snob that lives in the Twin Cities Metro. They are usually well-off professionals, often lawyers or upper management at a small company. I’ve had one or two of them for bosses over the years. They are the kind of people that like to get people looking at them. They think it is because others are jealous, but in reality, most people are ashamed for them. They loudly proclaim in stores things like “Oh honey, look! They are out of (some expensive thing)! Good thing we have one at home. Ha Ha Ha!”
So my wife was in Total Wine when this exact thing happened in front of that sign. Only in this case, the lady kept looking at my wife like she thought she would get a reaction. Now, I’d have walked past and whispered, “It’s good, I have two.” It would have been a lie, but sometimes, that’s what it takes to shut people up. But my wife is classier than I am. She just ignored the lady and picked up a box of Maker’s Mark 101 proof, which is pretty close to my favorite bourbon at the moment.
So, what is this new release that was causing the signs and the snobs to come out? Well, it is the latest release in Old Forester’s Whiskey Row Series. In this case, it commemorates a year when Old Forester was putting out whiskey that wasn’t entirely their own distillate. See, during Prohibition, a lot of distilleries closed. The list of those that survived is remarkably similar to the list of distilleries that were still in business in 2008. Well, the folks that still had licenses to sell bourbon medicinally bought up all the stocks of those that couldn't. And since those stocks were all that there was for the foreseeable future, folks didn’t worry too much about maintaining a consistent flavor profile. They just wanted whiskey that they could bottle and sell.
Old Forester was one of those surviving distilleries. And they were buying all the whiskey they could. This meant their mash bill wasn’t what it would have been pre-Prohibition. To commemorate this occurrence 100 years later, they have released Old Forester 1924, a bourbon that once again has a different mash bill from the rest of the Old Forester products. In this case, the mash bill is 79% corn, 11% rye, and 10% malted barley rather than their traditional 72% corn, 18% rye, and 10% malted barley.
Ok, now that I’ve given anecdotes and a brief rundown of the product, let’s get to the important part. How does it taste?
Old Forester 1924
Purchase Info: $119.99 for a 750 ml bottle at Total Wine in Burnsville, MN
Nose: Nutmeg, allspice, caramel, vanilla, and oak.
Mouth: Oak, toasted nuts, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and caramel.
Finish: Long and warm. Notes of cinnamon, oak, vanilla, and spearmint.
Thoughts: Wow! This is delicious! Spicy on the tongue with a rich mouthfeel. I wouldn't have noticed the change in mashbill on this one if I hadn't read about it. This really isn't too surprising since by ten years in the barrel, you'll be getting a lot more barrel influence taking over. This gets a heart. I might just be in love.
If you want to support the work going on here at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com.
Diageo is staking a claim in the growing American Single Malt category with the new Bulleit American Single Malt. This whiskey’s release earlier this month… Read More
Diageo is staking a claim in the growing American Single Malt category with the new Bulleit American Single Malt. This whiskey’s release earlier this month has spawned a lot of questions, and Bulleit master blender Andrew Mackay joins us this week with some answers. In the news, Scotch Whisky exports plummeted in 2023, and major drinks companies are blaming economic headwinds in the U.S. for lagging sales. We’ll have the details, along with the story of a British distiller facing extradition to his native Poland after two decades on the run.
Garrard County Distilling Company is the latest distillery to come on line in Kentucky, and it’s starting out with big ambitions. The producer of All… Read More
Garrard County Distilling Company is the latest distillery to come on line in Kentucky, and it’s starting out with big ambitions. The producer of All Nations Whiskey has two massive Vendome stills and a pair of rickhouses with plans for 22 more over the next six years. We’ll talk with distillery founder Ray Franklin on this week’s WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, Diageo reports more disappointing sales numbers, while Old Forester names an heir apparent for longtime Master Distiller Chris Morris.
