George T. Stagg Bourbon (Fall 2017)

PRICE: $100-150 retail. You won’t find it at this price unless you’re a bourbon hunter and know what you’re doing. Secondary pricing is $500-800, although this is decreasing because this year’s yield was humongous (almost 40,000 bottles). INFO: 15 year old Kentucky Bourbon distilled and bottled by Buffalo Trace. The mashbill is 75% corn, 10% rye, and 15% malted barley. This 2017 edition is bottled at 64.6% ABV NOSE: 82/100. Secretive, and deceptively subdued on the nose. Disappointingly, no amount of water seems to really release it. It opens with time. Order this one with your dinner, finish your dinner, and it might be ready to smell by then. Cherries, oak, and brown sugar. Really, I expected more. PALATE: 88/100. If George Foreman were a bourbon… this does not float like a butterfly, nor sting like a bee; this throws one-ton haymakers like a bear. Cherries and raisins. Tongue-numbing alcoholic bite with wood and rye spices. Resinous syrupy mouthfeel. This is a powerful, but straightforward bourbon with classic, concentrated bourbon flavors. Water softens things up, but not add any complexity. FINISH: 91/100. Very nice. Dries the throat and warms the chest. Cigars and tannins. A leathery oakiness. The 15 years of age shines through. OVERALL: I definitely prefer Buffalo Trace’s wheated bourbons: WLW and Pappy. This is a sharp, almost overwhelming dram that forces you to take in slowly. It commands your attention by brute force, but not necessarily elegance or complexity. MARK: 87/100 VALUE FOR MONEY: Over twice the number of GTS bottles were released this year compared to last year. Hopefully, this overwhelms the unscrupulous buyers who try to mark up the price 5-10 times, and you can actually find some bottles at retail. It’s worth it at retail; I wouldn’t pay more.

Typical Stagg that never disappoints. With 38,000 bottles we should all be swimming in this.