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I’ve never had the pleasure of tasting this specialty bottling of Old Forester so when I saw it at BevMo last week I had to swoop it up. They also had a 75th Anniversary Prohibition Repeal box set with a smaller bottle of what I assume is “commemorative” whiskey and a sweet Old Forester sniffy glass.

Again I find myself totally impressed by what is in my glass. This particular bottling was distilled in 1997 and bottled in 2009. So it is double digits in age, always a good thing. At 97 proof it is exceptionally smooth with a splash of cold water. Initial prognosis was vanilla, cranberries, bacon. It has a nice dark complexion and looks great in the glass. Sweet flavors left the glass smelling like some sort of bourbon infused cotton candy the next morning (typical of most older bourbons).

I really like it and will be drinking it only on special occasions… maybe birthdays (durpa durp). Over time I have found that if I drink the fancy bottles like they are every day pours I am sad that they are gone so fast. So I’ve been trying to make anything over $45 last a while.

After many months I broke down and decided to splurge on a nice bottle to make up for my b-day, my ten year anniversary with Xty and June’s lamenting of my father. I felt I deserved a nice bottle, it’s been a while… what the hell?

I went ahead and got the 12 year old Lot B Van Winkle since I really wanted the 23 year old

I also purchased the Lot B because it was the first bourbon I ever drank neat. It was the first bourbon that I had that was just pure sipping satisfaction. It was sweet but robust and very old for its age. Albeit it is the Van Winkle way of making bourbon. All bottles in the Van Winkle line up taste rather mature to me. Perhaps it is because it sleeps in the barrel for so long.

For the money it is probably the best bourbon you can buy in the $50.00 range. There are a few other bourbons that can kind of give it a run but at the end the Lot B always wins in my book. I love the wheat and if I were a baller it would be my “regular” pour.

Lots of love for this and you should always go Van Winkle if the option is available. It’s great bourbon for the sake of bourbon, how it should be.

Man there is nothing I hate more than when I buy a cheap lower shelf liquor that turns out to be better than most most mid shelf and dare I say… even some top shelfers! I got this tasty treat for $18.99 and the regular Old Forester is $13.99! I chose the Signature bottle because I figured the 100+ proof would give me more bang for my buck (terrible way to look at things I know but times is hard).

It was like me and this bourbon have known each other all along. It is delicious! At first sip I thought it had a copper flavor thing going but it went away. Now all I taste is good bourbon juice. It’s more on the heavy mellow side with hints of vanilla and is very easy down the hatch. I like it with a splash of water.

I am most interested in trying some of the Old Forester specialty bottles, I am sure they must be great. Just remember that it is what’s on the inside of the bottle that counts.

I’ve recently been drinking Wild Turkey 101 and the reliable Weller 90. They are good earthy whiskeys, even though they are different flavors the two share similarities as far as sweetness and oakyness go.

This week while at my local BevMo I decided to pick up a bottle that A) I had never seen before and B) was less than $30.00. Alas we have Wathen’s Kentucky Bourbon a nice change from my recent regular pours.

I found it to be pleasantly fruity with hints of citrus after the initial alchohol whiffs (it is 94 proof) but even at 94 proof it was enjoyable served neat. It offered a chewy, buttery floral flavor with hints of some nutty vanilla sweets. A bit of water really brings out the best of this whiskey. The next morning my glass smelt of sweet cotton candy. It’s quite a treat.

Ahh the old savage turkey juice, I know, i know long time no whiskey. I have been drinking Weller 90 for the past 6 bottles. Oddly enough over the course of the past year I have only enjoyed one bottling of the Wild Turkey, Russel’s Reserve. It was okay but I never got around to trying any other bottles. My dad and his friends used to take this stuff down with cokes back in the day so when I need to break a twenty bill last night and picked up a small bottle of WT101. It was good and reminded me of the Russel’s Reserve but it tasted more oaky and a little less corny. I actually enjoyed it a bit more than the RR.

I bought a small 200 ml bottle and I decided it’s good enough to drink right out of the bottle (never done that before) it’s a nice change from the Weller. Either way it’s good whiskey, I always sort of shunned it as it’s not too rare and you can pick it up at any convenient/drug store. But now I’ll be sure to get a bottle when ever I see some on sale (cuz I’m a cheap fuxxer these days ~ Alas the old lady is getting ever so close to landing a paying gig) one of my favorite parts of drinking bourbon is the little stories the write up for the labels. They all say great things like hand-crafted and age old tradition. I found the Wild Turkey story to be extra awesome:

“The famous name on this bottle comes from a group of wild turkey hunters, one of whom brought a special 101 proof barrel-aged bourbon on their annual hunting trip. In the later years they always requested ‘that Wild Turkey bourbon‘ and to this day it is still hand-crafted in the same slow traditional way.”

This bourbon is much like that story. It is short and sweet (not too sweet) but gets right to the point (drunk) with that 101 punch. Enjoy neat.