ionz149.com

So before turkey day I went and picked up two bottles. I wanted a nice bottle but there weren’t many options so I opted for two decent bottles.

One was a Weller 7 year old. It’s good and much different than the stellar 12 year old. Somewhat floral on the nose and packs a nice balance of sweetness and light oak on the palate. It’s a great anytime bourbon because it’s just so damn good and the price of $16.99 it’s damn near impossible to find a better bottle.

The second bottle was an Old Grand Dad 114 proof. Upon first sip (after having a few wellers) it tasted pretty gross. It had a sweet Italian sausage thing going on. I really thought it was pretty foul. I put it all the way in the back of the milk barn.

I gave it a few days and hit it after a hard day of work and it was much better. It still had a little of that sweetness and was a bit musty. I also picked up some fruityness. It really tastes like basement to me but in a good way.

I found it goes great with lemonade. The two just mix into each other and you end up with a sweet treat.

With or without lemonade it is a good sipping bourbon (just not as cheap or as good as the Weller).

More wheat? Yes please! I love wheat, seriously I eat cream of wheat on the weekends. Delicious!

I made a goal to buy a new bottle once a week. The catch is it can’t be from the old Buffalo Trace distillery. I love the stuff but at any given time 85% of my bottles are from BT. It’s good bourbon.

Which brings us to the Very Special Old Fitzgerald, a 12 year old wheater. It’s a nice change. It was a lonely bottle at bevmo so I gave it a chance. It was a bit on the pricey side for a bottle with no cork (again doesn’t matter, it’s good stuff) at $36.

I’ve only sipped on it a few nights now so I’m still feeling it out taste wise. It is definetly sweeter than most the wheaters I sip on. Ha ha I can’t really say more, it is good though and I will buy one for the bunker next time I see one.

Note: I could not pour two glasses and keep the bottle totally full like they did in the photo. Perhaps it was a magic bottle of VSOF.

W.L.Weller is the greatest! I resisted it… I am a doushe. I totally discriminated because it has a twist top (doh!) It’s really good and very nice to the wallet at $23 a bottle. I always thought for that cheap and no cork it must taste like ass. Now I’m thinking a cork maybe totally a cosmetic thing. Because this stuff is smooth and it’s 12 years old! The Van Winkle 12 year old is usually $50 (not anymore though because I now know that bevmo does price matching.)

There are a few other bottles they make that I will soon be making permanent fixtures in my milk dungeon. It’s made with wheat (instead of rye?) and it taste similar to the Van Winkle stuffs (also wheaters… except for the rye, because obviously it’s a rye.) A lot of people say great things about the Weller stuff but I slept. I’m excited.

Go get some now and be impressed.

Okay so I just sat with the two again. Only this time I had one ounce servings of each side by side, two times. The ER17 was noticeably darker than the ER10. Again I really didn’t notice any major differences between the two. There were however enough subtle differences to make the two stand apart from each other a bit.

So really I am no major spirits writer, bourbon just tastes good. As does wine, I just happen to like bourbon a little bit more. I think the majority of spirits writers/reviewers/whatever have these overtly fantastic descriptions of tastes and it always leaves me a bit confused. Like I don’t often taste hints of citrus but have read it in descriptions of bourbons I drink regularly. It could be that I identify what that person identified as citrus differently.

I was talking to this guy at BevMo last Wednesday and he was telling me that reviewing a drink should take three words, two words if it’s really good. Which makes sense to me too. I mean surely we all have different tastes and what I enjoy occasionally my friend may not enjoy ever (Willet.)

With that being said I think that there’s nothing too complicated about this comparison. The ER17 is better. But to say it correctly; the ER10 is better (than the average cheapo bottle) and ER17 is best (as far as Eagle Rare goes.) I found the ER17 to be more of everything I enjoy in the ER10. Sweeter (chocolate covered cherry?), darker, more oak flavor and it is noticeably smoother. It’s good enough to drink straight and it’s 90 proof. I can’t seem to find a proof statement on the ER10, but I think it’s also 90 proof.

The next morning I went over to the empty glasses and took a sniff. They both had some pleasant scent left in the glass but I could tell which one was the ER17 because it smelled almost like cotton candy The smell took after the sweet cherry flavor I was tasting.

I’d say if you’re just starting out or don’t see any sense in dishing out sixty something dollars for a bottle to go with ER10. If you’ve had a few bottles or are a purveyor of the finest milks you may want to try the ER17. Will the difference wow you? Maybe. It didn’t wow me all that much but I can appreciate it for what it is. Now to get my hands on some of the other bottles from this years Antique Collection.

Just got back from my local BevMo and swooped a bottle, this bottle is from the 2008 Buffalo Trace Antique Collection. Nasal passages detecting a mustiness and hints of tobacco… old as balls, bitter tobacco. It’s really dark colored too.

I’m currently sipping about an ounce in my sniffy glass straight. It’s been sitting for a few minutes. The smell hasn’t died down so I’m going to give it a cap full of water. Okay, two caps of water. I think it’s good to go.

Wow. Well my first instinct was “shit, I like the 10 year old better.” I gave it a few sippers and realized it’s a completely different taste. I need to try some with a little ice.

Once I poured me a glass with some ice it turned a nice gold color. It’s really good because it so different. At first it smells and tastes like regular old Buffalo Trace with earthy/leathery notes, but it’s got that sweetness that regular ER10 packs.

Even then, it’s a different kind of sweet. A bolder, thicker sweet along the lines of cherries and vanilla. I usually find the ER10 to be on the cinnamon side of the sweet, kind of a side effect rather than one of two major taste elements.

Either way it is a nice change from the Eagle Rare I’ve come to know and love. I will probably enjoy the bottle more as I have few pours. Some bottles take a little time to appreciate.

Edit: I got a bottle of the ER10 and they in fact do taste very similar. I think last time I was drinking the ER10 I was in a festive mood and had a few drinks. The 17 year old is good though.

I swooped up a Maker’s Mark Rock the Vote edition bottle. It’s solely for the purpose of getting lit on election night. When Barack Obama is announced president I will peel off three layers of wax and get my Maker’s Mark on. I won’t even get into the other option. I can promise it will require a visit to the ER.