Ancient Age (80 Proof)

Corn, vanilla, toffee

Rating: 11/23 I hear a lot of praise here and there for both this and Early Times (which weirdly both have names that mean pretty much the same thing). I got Early Times, didn't like it, and then it grew on me. It still isn't good whiskey, but I was intrigued, so I grabbed a bottle of this as well. Let's see how it is. N: It has a lighter nose than Early times does, with a bit more spices and cereal, but less oil and fruit. There's this lightly malty creaminess to the nose as well. Being faint and light, the result is thoroughly uninspiring. There isn't any problem with alcohol presence though. P: I get some caramel here, but it's generally a pretty light palate. There's a lightness to the caramel that makes me think a bit of just sugar and it comes with a faint cereal note that blends nicely into the mild, smooth creaminess. There's some vanilla in with the creaminess and a light, faintly fruity tartness rounding out the palate along side a nice dash of spices. The mouthfeel is moderate, which works well enough. This isn't awful by any means, but this is one of those ones that is more of an introductory bourbon or the type of thing that you throw in a mass-produced cocktail for a party. It actually reminds me a bit of a scotch, strangely enough with this soft creaminess. The light flavors aren't really anything I particularly like and it's hotter than Early Times despite being more lightly flavored, but it still doesn't have much alcohol presence despite its mild flavor, so that's quite nice. F: The creaminess lingers. This is possibly the best part of the experience because the creaminess just lingers on and on. The tartness stays at first, but it quickly drops out. There's some vanilla and a light general sweetness from the caramel lingering as well. This is a different experience than Early Times, but both fill the niche of a $10 mild bourbon that is friendly for new drinkers and easy enough to just drink if you really don't want to analyze your beverage. I'm pretty on the fence between them, but I'm currently leaning a hair toward Ancient Age. Ancient Age does better if I haven't had anything to drink right before it. Early Times, on the other hand, benefits from its full oiliness if it has to compete with a more robust bourbon, such as Wild Turkey 101, preceding it. I'm thinking 9 to 11 on this. A 10 to 11 seems most appropriate since I like it a little bit better than Early Times. I think the gap is large enough that I need to go with 11.

Begin disclosures: 1 - I am a bit of a Buffalo Trace fanboy. I do not own a giant bronze Buffalo, retailing at around $400 at buffalotracegiftshop.com, but as you might’ve guessed, I’ve considered it. 2 - Once one enters the “BT fanboy refreshers tent” and drinks the Kool-aid, one discovers sub-genres of fandom. Inside the BT tent, I am 100% a BT mash bill #2 fanboy. Elmer T Lee, Rock Hill Farms, Blanton’s, Hancock’s, and (you guessed it) Ancient Age. The other 4 on that list range from “I like this” to “this is one of my all time favorites.” Although this is NAS, word on the street is that this juice is aged around 3 years. This makes sense on a few levels, so I buy it. 3 - I am firmly on team “cost should factor into a rating”. A whiskey can be objectively better than another and still receive a lower score because most of us aren’t that asshole who posts Facebook videos where he mixes Pappy with Surge. Value matters. 4 - No stores near me carry this, which is absurd given some of the obscure stuff they do carry. I paid $15.99 + tax + $10 shipping to get this 1 liter from an online liquor store out of CA. I do not regret this decision. End disclosures. Nose is bitter and sour. I get almonds, walnuts, and lemon. I can understand why one might say cherry, but I’d stick with lemon personally. A bit of yeast and cedar, but those notes aren’t as intense as they are in Jack, Beam, or Woodinville, to name a few. Body has orange, maple syrup, caramel, and powdered sugar. That orange to powdered sugar has a sweet tarts vibe that I am really enjoying. It’s juicy, sweet, and delicious. I could see how one might say apple on the body, but I’d stick with orange. Finish is yeast, pepper, and banana. This is the first place where it really becomes obvious to me that this is necessarily younger juice. Could do without the finish, but that’s okay. I’ll just drink it faster. I mean, it’s like $0.50/oz, so why not? This whiskey is simple, young, and tasty. It’s on my shortlist for best whiskey under $20, and it’s my current favorite whiskey in an Old Fashioned. You can mix this with no regrets, but you can also drink this neat. I can see the connections to the other whiskeys in mash bill #2, and perhaps a good bit of my enjoyment here comes from the fact that this is a study piece for me. In particular, I can see the relationship to Blanton’s gold (the nuttiness and sweet tarts bit) and Hancock’s (the juicy and fruity bit). I know that I’m biased towards this whiskey, but if you’re a fan of BT mash bill #2, I don’t know how you could avoid appreciating this on some level. This shouldn’t be anyone’s favorite whiskey, but it deserves better than the community rating here, especially when the world is flooded with craft distilleries making inferior juice at 4 times the cost. Would recommend to any friend who’s into mash bill #2, BT in general, lower cost bourbons, or good mixers for an Old Fashioned.