Seeing as I have both a bottle of Eagle Rare 10 open as well as a bottle of Russell’s Reserve 10, I was going to do one of those face-off reviews, but I decided against it. I’ve made my feelings on Eagle Rare clear in my own review (3.75) as well as in previous comments. If you don’t care to go looking, let me recap: I always buy a bottle or two of Eagle Rare if I see it in my area because it goes for the SRP of $29.99. At that price and at that age, I think it’s one of the best deals in bourbon. I also—and you might find this a contradictory statement—think it’s one of the most overrated bourbons out there. The community score here hovers above 4.0 and people seem to be willing to pay $70-$100 based on scarcity rather than quality. At anything over $40, I’ll pass. If we’re to get metaphorical, Eagle Rare to me is Sandra Bullock in 1994 right after Speed came out. Everyone is losing their minds over the hot new ingenue, and I’m sitting in the back row with my hand raised, saying, “Um, I don’t get it.” Don’t get me wrong, if Sandra Bullock lived in your neighborhood, she’d be that beautiful woman who lives in your neighborhood, but I never really considered her movie star beautiful. To put it another way, I have no problem watching her if she’s in a film I want to see; but you couldn’t pay me to sit down and watch The Blind Side. I know, I know, shouldn’t be comparing actresses with bourbon. You can give me shit about that if you want. I’m still not watching The Blind Side. Look, Eagle Rare is a good one. Great? No. And frankly, I like Knob Creek 9 just as much, and that’s more widely available. Hell, I liked Knob without the age statement better than I like Eagle Rare, but both are five dollars more than Eagle Rare, and let’s face it, I’m also pulled in by the allure of Rare’s scarcity. I can get Knob all the time. But if I find Eagle on the shelf, it’s my birthday. Gotta get it, right? It took me a long while to get to Russell’s Reserve 10. Part of that is it’s a little more expensive than Knob 9. Part of it is its ubiquity. It was always around. But with recent supply chain issues, RR 10 got scarce in my area, not Eagle Rare scarce mind you, but scarce enough that I figured when it went on sale for $36.99, it was time to pull the trigger, given that RR 10 has a good reputation in its own right. And honestly, if I can find another age statement bourbon below $50 that I enjoy, I consider it a win. And now that I’ve tasted it, well, here’s another bourbon that I enjoy more than Eagle, which is my whipping boy less because of what’s in the glass and more because of the hype and marketing that surrounds Eagle. And at 10 years, both it serves as a good comparison. General thoughts on Eagle is that it’s sweeter, fruitier, shading toward the berry/port wine end of the bourbon sweetness spectrum. Now while I enjoy this, I tend to prefer what we have in the glass with RR 10, which is an oakier bourbon. The nose has less of the fruity sweetness of Eagle and more of the vanilla, caramel, nuttiness that I favor in a bourbon. There’s also this unique tang on the nose that reminds me a bit of spicy brown mustard that I’m not sure I’ve ever encountered in another bourbon. I’m not going to say it’s world’s better than Eagle, just that I prefer this nose to that one. Oh, and another note, Eagle takes a while to reach its peak flavor. I’ve gone through three bottles at this point in my life, and they all tend to improve with a quarter of the bottle gone and the remaining liquid aerated while RR 10 is solid out of the neck. On the palate, oak, vanilla and spice become prominent. The finish is long, but the caramel becomes prominent again mixed with the spices, and it tastes a bit like the spices you’d add to a pumpkin or apple pie prior to mixing in the pumpkin or apple with a touch of oak tannins coming in at the very tail end. My conclusion here, given the buildup, might be disappointing, but my overall score for Eagle Rare and Russell’s Reserve are equal. I prefer one, yes, but I think that ultimately, if I’m trying to be somewhat objective, they’re punching at equal weights. If they were both equally available I’d likely but the RR 10 over Eagle Rare, but given the Eagle Rare’s rarity (plus the fact its SRP is $10 cheaper), I’d still have to opt for that one when I see it on the shelf. But if price and availability weren’t factors, I’d choose the Russell’s Reserve, and given Russell’s Reserve’s availability, I’m a lot more likely to pick this up more frequently. I’d love to try the Single Barrel but unfortunately, it’s not frequently available in my neck of the woods.