Old Forester 1897 Bottled In Bond

My early days of bourbon drinking consisted of Elijah Craig, Four Roses single barrel, Eagle rare and if I could take it I would go for Bookers or Bakers. This was the first bottle of Old Forester I ever purchased and in hindsight I can’t say why. Maybe it was the bottled in bond statement. Maybe it was an interest in what American whiskey of the olden days tasted like. Maybe it was on sale. Maybe I lied and I bought this alongside their standard 86 proof expression. The 86 proof was gentle on my young palate whereas the 100 proof BiB brought the heat... but in a good way. With the heat came flavor, or rather flavors. They were big. And I liked them. And then I tried more bourbons neat. I learned to appreciate the singe of Bookers. I spent too much money. I drank lots more bourbon. I said I would stop buying bottles... In short, this was an excellent gateway bourbon and I don’t know that it gets enough credit. I say that, and certainly could have been blown away by a comparably priced bottle of Rare Breed, Russel’s Reserve or numerous others. But I didn’t stumble over one of those. This has a nose that punches out of the glass with vanilla sweetness. There is dark chocolate, wood burning fireplace, apricot, over-ripe banana, cherry, green apple, nutmeg... it just keeps going. There is a nice medium body and then a building head and flood of sweet vanilla, tobacco, leather, fruit and barrel char. The finish is decently long as well with a warming Kentucky hug within the chest. Somewhere along the way in by bourbon adventure I was lured by the harlot that is Buffalo trace and sought (without luck) my own bottles of Rock Hill Farms, Elmer T Lee and single barrels of Buffalo Trace and EH Taylor. What I loved about some of those I believe this bottle has in spades. The sweetness, body, fruit, barrel char and well balanced spice. Look, when this bottle is gone I won’t have to pay $300 to some shady Facebook bottle slinger or waste countless hours hunting. If this is too bold or brash for BT fans then so be it. I’ll take this over many of BT over-hyped, marked up expressions any day. Not only will you find it anywhere - you may even find it on sale.

Vanilla, banana, oak, cinnamon, sea salt.

Nose - Cherry, oak, and vanilla right away. Pretty soft nose. A little bit of burnt sugar and caramel too. Palate - Little bit of the cherry and caramel that quickly heads for the oak. Some cinnamon too. Finish - The finish lingers on the oak notes for a while but the oak gets a bit bitter (Granted this was a pour from the bottom of my bottle so I won’t hold it against it). Mouthfeel - Not much to report here. Pretty tame. Not dry. I may be being a bit harsh on this bottle since it’s been low for a while and I needed to kill it, but it didn’t wow me. I remember it tasting better before when it was full so take this review with a grain of salt. I thought it was good in the nose, fine in the palate, and then things slowly fell off from there. I do enjoy the Whiskey Row line from Old Forester but 1910 and 1920 are above this for sure. Could be better. Could be much worse. Try for yourself.

Roasty, oaky, caramelly, touch of sweet, touch of warmth. Fan!

Smooth, little bit burn early, ends quick. Leather.