BACKGROUND: Antique 107 and the other varietals in the W.L. Weller line were first produced by the Stitzel-Weller Distilling Company, but are made by Buffalo Trace and owned by the Sazarec Company today. The other wheated bourbons within the Weller line are Special Reserve, 12 Year, Full Proof, C.Y.P.B. (Create Your Perfect Bourbon), and William Larue Weller, which is an unfiltered, barrel proof offering in the annual Buffalo Trace Antique Collection. The line also included two discontinued varieties - the 90 proof W.L. Weller 19 Year that ended in 2002 and the 100 proof W.L. Weller Centennial, which was aged for 10 years and ceased production in 2009. William Larue Weller, the brand’s namesake, is credited with being the first distiller to use wheat rather than rye as the secondary grain in producing bourbon. Julian “Pappy” Van Winkle began his career in the bourbon industry after being hired as a salesman by W.L. Weller in 1893. Many years later, and long after Weller’s death in 1899, Van Winkle would run the Stitzel-Weller Distillery after a merger with the company his mentor built. Considered a kissing cousin of the highly-sought Pappy Van Winkle bourbons because they are both produced by Buffalo Trace and share the same wheated mash bill, all of the bottles in today’s Weller line are tightly-allocated and difficult to find in most areas of the nation. Even decades prior to its current allocated status, Weller Antique 107 was difficult to obtain according to two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Caro, whose series of biographies about Lyndon Baines Johnson personify literary greatness. In his book “Working,” Caro penned a passage detailing how a young LBJ used Weller 107 to lure the support of one influential senator. Caro wrote: “Weller 107 was a very special sour mash. So few bottles were manufactured each year - each bottle was numbered by hand - that there would be only a few for sale in any one liquor store, or, indeed, in any one city. It was the favorite beverage of a powerful southern senator, Richard Brevard Russell of Georgia, whose support was vital to the career of Lyndon Johnson and the balance sheet of Brown & Root. As soon as Russell had accepted Johnson’s annual invitation to visit the Johnson Ranch, Lyndon would call George Brown of Brown & Root, and Brown would dispatch the Brown & Root lobbyist, Posh Oltorf, in the company plane from city to city until three cases - thirty-six bottles - of 107 were assembled for Lyndon to give Russell as a gift to take back to Georgia with him.” NOSE: Antique 107 provides an intensely sweet nose which includes scents of maple syrup, honey, caramel and oak. Either citrus or cherry is present, as well, but I find it difficult to definitively discern which. PALATE: This oily bourbon coats the inside of the mouth like melted butter served with a lobster dinner. Initial flavors of cherry (I guess that answers the question about the nose) and caramel make their presence first known and are followed by the strong cinnamon taste of Big Red chewing gum and oak. FINISH: The finish lasts longer than the NBA playoffs and is dominated by cinnamon, although some barrel char finally begins to make itself known. While it finishes hotter than many bourbons of comparable proof, there is no resulting chest hug. FINAL ASSESSMENT: The Weller Antique 107 is a full-bodied combination of great flavors and ideal proof. Even without the pedigree that its perceived association with Pappy Van Winkle offers, this bottle could go toe-to-toe with any other bourbon of comparable proof on its own merits.