Rating: 12/23 I don't know how old regular Ancient Age is, but this is allegedly around 6 years old. It's a bit young for something labeled "Ancient Ancient", but we'll see how it tastes. It's also 5% higher ABV, so that could affect things too. I was surprised by how much I liked Ancient Age. It's light and overly sweet, but it's kind of fun as an easy sipper in a quirky way. I won't say that I love it, but for $10 it fills a niche that more premium bourbons don't. Seeing this upgraded version that has apparently been discontinued, I had to try it. N: I can smell the Ancient Age DNA in this. It's richer though. I get some orange and a richer, mustier grain than in Ancient Age. There's a hint of tangerine this time as well. Just a bit of a medium wood that sits mellowly in the back. It has that same light caramel popcorn ball scent too. There's a rich minerality that blends in with a little bit of chemical from the ethanol...but somehow it isn't bad? Nothing is amazing here, but it already seems like a step up from Ancient Age. P: This is richer and fuller than regular ol' Ancient Age, but it's also less sweet and playful. I haven't come to a conclusion yet, but I worry that this might be trying to walk a line between childish and mature. I'd speculate that it might have been trying to age its mashbill in an unsuitable way, but this is a Buffalo Trace mashbill, so there is plenty of evidence that it can be aged very well. The increased maturity and higher proof bring out a bit of harshness that is not present in regular Ancient Age. I really do taste the ethanol in here unfortunately, and the bitterness from both it and the wood come out more. It's sort of like it was trying to enrichen the caramel but didn't want it to turn out too sweet, so it didn't fully connect the more bitter mature flavor to the sweet light caramel. I do get a little bit of nut this time (some peanut that gives way to assertive almond) and I do like that, but the end product is less balanced than Ancient Age is. F: The bitterness kind of sticks around, unfortunately. The other flavors kind of fade, aside from a little bit of an orange oil astringency and a little bit of light caramel and corn sweetnesss. Even with the extra aging, I'm still not sure that I would identify this as a bourbon rather than some version of a Japanese whisky if I were forced to make a call. I can't say that I had really high expectations for this, though I do think that they might have been a tad higher than this. The nose is the best part of this by a substantial margin and in that element alone, this crushes Ancient Age. On the palate though, I'm not entirely sure that the extra age really helps, unfortunately. It certainly doesn't make this a worse drink and the difference in cost is small (plus you get a higher proof), so I wouldn't sweat it, but I also won't feel bad if I can never find this again. This is a weird conclusion to come to, but I kind of think that the Ancient Age is a line of "bad" bourbons. It's like watching a bad movie: there's a point at which it's so bad that it becomes fun again. Because regular Ancient Age is so much farther down, I almost like it more. Going a bit (a lot) into hyperbole here, but it's sort of like Ancient Ancient Age 10 Star is Snakes On A Plane and regular ol' Ancient Age is The Room: this one still sort of seems like it's trying to be serious, whereas regular Ancient Age has completely given up and is embracing its absurdity whole-heartedly. Also, colons: the brief fad that will be gone at the end of this paragraph. Maybe I should be marking both this and regular Ancient Age down through the floor because they are quite bad as bourbons, but they're pretty fun in this quirky way. At the end of the day, I have to conclude that since I like them they deserve a decent rating. So as for that rating, I think I'll give this a bump up to 12 (versus an 11 for the normal Ancient Age) because of its nice nose, but it isn't going higher than that. I'm not entirely convinced that this is a better bad movie than regular Ancient Age is.