Old Forester Birthday Bourbon 2018

Tasted this 2 ways: - Full Proof straight out of the bottle - Lower Proof with a few drops of H20 ...Full Proof... On the nose: Sweet Cherry, almond, and vanilla - almost like an alcoholic cherry cordial candy. Alcohol comes through at 110 proof but isn’t overwhelming. First taste: Charred oak, alcohol and deep complexities that hit you VERY fast. Bitter chocolate, deep cherry, thick slice and smoke come along once the alcohol has burned off a bit. Finish: Wow...this just lingers in your mouth and finishes incredibly complex. Like an earl grey tea with honey and smoke...maybe even a little lemon. Cherry and malt round things out. ...A few drops of water... On the nose: More almond, vanilla and sweet oak. Less cherry. Taste: Beautifully opens up at a lower Proof and the flavors unfold slower. Baking spices, cherry, toasted oak, bread, and sweet malt. Finish: Still amazed at how long this lingers. At a lower Proof, it definitely finishes sweeter and more on the toasty malt side with a deep cherry coating of your entire mouth.

Look: Nice amber color, alcohol legs, lacing the whole shabang Nose: bananas, before I even get into the glass, I get bananas. Then a perfumey rye but also slightly rubbing alcohol. At one point it smelled like original old spice. Some more sweetness with swirling. The alcohol smell gives more of a fruit and nut combo. Palate: what a strange initial flavor, I’m not even sure what that is. Like a mix of banana nuts and dark fruits. As the whiskey sits on the tongue I get more if that perfume rye like flavors popping up and some oak. Then some more banana. Finish: Banana flavors with oak, medium bitterness and lingering flavor. Slight heat, nothing crazy. Overall: I can’t say I’m crazy over this whiskey, definitely more unique with the fruity aspects I’m getting and some nuttiness, but it just doesn’t sit right with me. With water: a little more spice on the nose with the bananas and alcohol dissipating, slight maple (maybe the power of suggestion). Palate is similar but less potent, the bitterness and alcohol presence gets sanded down giving that maple flavor. Worth trying, probably not a bottle purchase for the price it commands though.

Nose: incredibly complex with strong almost floral vanilla leading the pack and other sweets like cotton candy, Carmel, and cherry Palate: silky smooth and sweet with butterscotch and peach with a hint of strawberry Finish: long and light almost floral fruit with just a small hint of heat and tartness