The_Rev
Old Ezra 7 Year 101 Proof Bourbon
Bourbon — Kentucky, USA
Reviewed
May 5, 2017 (edited November 12, 2019)
I paid a whopping $21 for this. My expectations matched the price - "hey, if it's alright, then great; if not, it'll probably make a decent mixer." I'll be doing my mixing with something else, let's just say. Bourbon, or at least budget-conscious bourbon, usually has a certain predictability to it. Caramel, vanilla, a little spice, a little bit of a rough-edged, young spirit energy and burn, not particularly complex. This ain't that stuff. No, Old Ezra's been aged long enough to have rounded off those rough edges - even at 101 proof, this is a smooth mamma-jamma with minimal burn...only a little tease of heat at the very end. That absence of burn makes it easier to enjoy the nose (vanilla, caramel, chocolate fudge, peanut butter, cinnamon...reminded me of those Turtles candies), and the palate. This...it's a unique flavor. A local creamery makes a killer chocolate peanut butter ice cream (with a BIG ribbon of real peanut butter in it..it's exquisite), and that's what this reminds me of. A sweet, creamy vanilla base, with milk chocolate, peanut butter, cinnamon honey, and a little hint of caramel. Amazingly, it's not overly sweet despite all of this. I'm really impressed, but you shouldn't go out and buy it. I, rather selfishly, want the price point on this to stay nice and low...I just saw Larceny selling for $40 a bottle, so we know what happens when too many people start talking. If this were at a higher price point, I'd call it a 4 star bourbon, but for $25 or less? That merits an extra star just for value.
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Lucky me has a local store unloading this bottle for 10$, will probably go back and buy out since the Luxco version MAY,, I repeat MAY be a large step down from the old HH house juice.
Being more of prog-rocker myself I'd rather go with Emerson Lake and Palmer. But as my tastes in music are like my tastes in whiskey, I would add the Bangles as well.
Perhaps a little bit of both if we're being honest (and if we remove the bonus star for Old Ezra for value, we're looking at 4 vs realistically 3.5 stars for flavor), but truthfully, I think I'd still take this over Angel's Envy. I just didn't get enough bourbon past the port finish; maybe that's somewhat expectation related, but it didn't excite my palate much even while I'd still say it was pretty good. For what it's worth, I'd also take the Rolling Stones over the Beatles in a desert island kind of scenario, so I've been accused of questionable taste ;-)
You gave this 5 stars and Angels Envy only 3. Is that due to expectations, or in a side by side tasting you'd go with Old Ezra?
And, I must issue a retraction - Larceny is still selling for $20-ish here. I saw the price for the 1.5L bottle, didn't see the price for the 750mL, and jumped to hasty conclusions. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
Hmm...I like the way you think!
Don't be greedy now. Just buy a case and sip on the low price version for a while