I feel like it's been a while since I've reviewed anything here. Part of that is, post holidays, I'm drinking a little less. It's not a New Year's Resolution or anything. Just a predilection post holiday. There's lot of drinking going on Christmas season, Thanksgiving holiday, football season in general. I try to make up for it now. Last Friday I dropped by the liquor store just to see what was on the shelves, and they had a $6.00 off coupon for the Old Forester Whisky Row whiskies, but the only one on the shelf was this, the 1870. Now, naturally, I peeled off more than one coupon, figuring I'd keep them in my wallet and keep an eye out for the other three they sell in my region. But I've only had the 1870 once, about a half-decade ago, and I like what OF puts out. Their 100 Proof Rye and Bourbon are both solid shelf stockers, and the 1920 is a great sub-$60 high proof high rye bourbon. Old Forester 86 was my go-to, too, when I first started off with bourbon, and while my return to that reinforced the idea that it doesn't really do it for me anymore, this tasting of 1870 proves a lot better. Granted, the first time I had 1870, my baseline for OF was the 86 proof, so when I tasted the 1870, not having tasted any other higher quality bourbons, it was pretty much the best thing I'd ever had. I'd secured it on clearance for something like $25, and I loved the design of the bottle, which at the time had the 1870 stamped on a slant on the label. Picking it up now was more a curiosity. Having had the 1920, my acting presumption was that I wouldn't be quite as impressed with 1870 this time, and yet, sometimes you don't want a 115 proofer, sometimes a 90 proof bourbon hits the spot. And this does hit the spot. It's not insanely complex. In fact, it's not what I'd call complex at all. On the nose, you get vanilla, oak and cherry. The palate is, guess what, the same. The finish is short and mainly baking spice. But you know what? For $39.99 SRP (with a $6.00 off coupon bringing it down to $34.99), you can do much worse. Now I'm not sure I'd buy again without the coupon, and as I've said, the other coupons I tore off I'm planning to use for the Whisky Row joints I haven't had (1897, 1910) and maybe another bottle of 1920. But I certainly don't regret this. It's not a bad Friday night, home from the snow day sledding with kids, wife in the kitchen cooking up paninis for dinner, roaring fire going kind of sipper. Sometimes, too, context is everything.