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For the last few nights, I've been giving my "G" bottle of VWFRR another chance after the initial opening a few months back. I am growing more fond of it each evening. Maybe I am finally developing a bit of a taste for rye. Now, if I can just find that bottle of Rittenhouse BIB that I cracked open at the same time.....it should be even better as well.
My bottle is I2087. I am mightily impressed with it.
I have been putting away several of the "I" bottles over the last few weeks. It is always in short supply wherever I go because so little is released each year. Like everything else, I am sure next year's "J" release will see a price increase. I sure wish I had put away some of it when I found it regularly under $30 just a few short years ago.
I just bought No. 1053 in Japan today. No letters whatsoever.
Letters or no, it is an amazing drink.
As I posted in another thread (and confirmed by Julian), the bottles in Japan w/o a letter prefix are from the original bottling when the whiskey was actually 13yo. The lettered ones are older whiskey.
Randy
I have revisited this brand yesterday and today after a long absence. It is a series H and it do strike me as being quit a bit better than the G bottle I had last, despite the fact that I know its from the same steel tank. This one is very spicy in the nose and taste and there is some real nice, a bit sour fruit under it. It’s also very, very sweet and chewy for a straight rye in general. Almost impossible to find any kind of overage signs. Maybe its my daily shape or sometimes bad taste memory that play a trick on me, but at the moment it actually feels that this particular bottle is one of the best van Winkle ryes I ever had.
Leif
I tasted a new frankfort A bottle and next to the 07 Saz I much prefer the VW. I don't know how much the proof difference effects things but the VW is very spicy and thick. An aggressive Rye but no indication of major woodiness despite it age. For the same price of Saz 18, i'd much rather have the VW. You won't go wrong picking up a new frankfort A series.
Cudos once again to Van Winkle.....always good bourbon....and rye too!
Greg
It's true, I had a bottle bought in Europe recently with no letter or number in the top rectangle but was Frankfort and appeared fresh stock - yet it is not woody at all. I wonder if it was mingled further when (apparently - I'm not sure) the lettering system has started again from nought. I saw a new-looking Frankfort A in New York recently...
I actually prefer this new bottling - whatever its composition - to the earlier fruit-forward, cherryish bottlings of VWFRR 13, certainly they seem smoother and well-integrated. Julian does it again, you have to hand it to him.
Gary
I bought a bottle of A stock in Seattle today at the state run liquor store. I thought finding an old "A" was not likely...looks like it is a new "A" bottling?
Yeah, it seems so. I kinda hoping Julian will pop in and give us the skinny on this.Quote:
Originally Posted by felthove