Lost Age Statements

[LCWoody]

Still have 2 of them also. They are good.

[Conquistador]

Still have 2 of them also. They are good.

Do you have 2 of everything?:bigeyes: Your not building Woody's Ark for bourbon, are ya? I hope there isn't a great flood coming!

[LCWoody]

Im like the last boyscout, "be prepared for anything......... And have plenty of bourbon" that's my motto.

I just happened to be in my bourbon closet today.

[Enoch]

I attempted to list all of the recent lost age statements (last ten years or so). Let me know if I missed any.

http://recenteats.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-bourbon-fountain-of-youth-dropped.html

1792 Ridgemont Reserve 8 yo

Basil Haden 8 yo

Benchmark 8 yo (now 3 years old)

Evan Williams Black 7 yo

Evan Williams 1783 10 yo

Jefferson's Reserve 15 yo

Johnny Drum Green 8 yo

Johnny Drum Black 12 yo

Johnny Drum Private Stock 15 yo

Noah's Mill 15 yo

Old Charter 8 yo

Old Fitzgerald 1849 8 yo

Old Overholt 4 yo (now 3 years old)

Old Weller Antique 7 yo

Rowan's Creek 12 yo

Sam Houston 10 yo

Very Old Barton 6 yo

Weller Special Reserve 7 yo

After reading your article one has to ask if holding a 7 year, 10 month barrel 2 more months is going to be that detrimental to their flavor profile? (Per their response) didn't they say something similar with the Wellers?

analogy: When I was a minister at Walnut Street Baptist Church in Louisville the pastor decided to hang microphones from the ceiling over the choir loft. Everyone complained that they were to low. He raised them way up and then dropped them 6 inches every week until they were back where they were at the beginning and no one noticed.

Take an AS bourbon and drop the AS but keep the bourbon the same. Then slowly roll back the age and hopefully no one notices unless you compare it to an old AS bottle (which a lot of people here can do). I still like WSR but it is different from my older bottles.

ps: I know I'm stating the obvious but jmt.

Edited February 8, 2014 by Enoch

[squire]

Obvious perhaps but bears repeating. I have long maintained that we sometimes make a bit too much of age because I don't believe a premium spirit (think Bushmills Black Bush) has to have one and age statements, especially extra long ones, are more of a marketing crutch.

Yet there is only one reason to remove an established age statement which is to introduce younger whisky into the mix.

[Flyfish]

Obvious perhaps but bears repeating. I have long maintained that we sometimes make a bit too much of age because I don't believe a premium spirit (think Bushmills Black Bush) has to have one and age statements, especially extra long ones, are more of a marketing crutch.

Yet there is only one reason to remove an established age statement which is to introduce younger whisky into the mix.

I have been lamenting the loss of age-stated VOB and the demise of AAA 10YO. And even WT12 that has been gone for quite a while. At the same time, I have been enjoying some BT that never was age stated and, even more, some ETL. I may have become a victim of the tyranny of age statements. This and other threads on this site reminded me of all the factors that go into making a great bourbon from mash bill to entry proof to location in the rick house to things so esoteric as where the barrels staves were cut from the tree. I am well on my way to concluding that I should not get all bent out of shape by an age statement. If ETL were the only bourbon I had to drink for the rest of my life, I would be OK with that. Coke and Pepsi drinkers do not demand that there be 40 or 60 or 80 other iterations of cola for them to choose from. The cola drinkers I know tend to insist on one or the other so they self limit their options. Where are the bourbon drinkers out there who insist that they drink absolutely nothing but 4R SB and if they can't get it ice water will do?

The bottom line with bourbon: If it tastes good, it is good. Even if it has no age statement.

[LCWoody]

Blend away the not-so-good barrels.

[squire]

Well said, both of you.