A knowledgeable Bourbon friend and I did a blind tasting yesterday of Stagg jr. batches 12 and 15. Both bottles had been open for about a week. As expected, both bottles delivered a beautiful, sweet, spicy pour that just dances across your palate in true to form Stagg fashion. Plenty of proof without being harsh, and the flavors are there in spades to nicely balance the kick. After sniffing, swirling, and tasting for several minutes, we both made our pick, with batch 12 slightly edging batch 15 for both of us. We agreed that the taste profiles are very similar between the two highly regarded batches, but 12 earned the nod as having more balance overall. Batch 15 has an oak note on the finish that was a bit unexpected, bordering on ‘funky’. Not bad funk like in a young bourbon, but noticeable enough get ‘chopped’ in this blind comparison. We traded sample bottles of the two batches, so it will be interesting to see how each evolves with time and air, and if batch 12 can stay on top. A 4.25 rating for Batch 15, so a 4.5 score for batch 12. As a side note, we also tasted two recent batches of George T. Stagg that my friend provided from his nice collection. I thanked him for sharing, of course, but in the end, I preferred Junior over Senior.