What bourbon did you purchase this spring season of 2025?

[PaulO]

On 5/8/2025 at 11:32 PM, MSB said:

Agree. I would have bought box set for that price. ( I have never had a chance to buy a BB, sadly) 

The BB is 10-12 years old and bottled at 90 something proof, changes by release.  It seems a drier profile compared to other versions of OF.  I get tannin like strong tea, dry wood like cedar cigar box.  At low 90 something proof, and not much sweetness, it can feel sort of thin.  It's ok, but not my favorite in the OF line up.  

[JT3NSB]

On 5/8/2025 at 12:29 PM, fosmith said:

Wow!  20 yo Dickel and nearly cask strength for $75 is unbelievable in today's market, and the whiskey is insanely good, even at lower proofs.  I've had some 17 and 18 yr ones that were outstanding.  What's the proof on your bottle?   I had a bottle at 84.x proof that had amazing concentration of flavor.  

 

What I heard (from someone who got it directly from Dickel) is that these barrels come from the lower floors of the rickhouse and lose proof as they age.  They have a range of target proofs for these so, at bottling, they proof them down by 1-1.5% or so in order to simplify the bottling and labeling process.  So, my most recent bottle of 15yr, bottled at 96.2 proof, probably came out of the barrel at around 97 proof.  That small amount of water is not going to impact the flavor to any significant degree.  

This one is 84.4.   I’m a dumbass. I went in there without my reading glasses.    It was the lowest proof 15 year I’ve ever seen.   But I was already down the road before I realized the age.   I certainly would’ve purchase more.  I like these occasionally…

[rzelinka]

On 5/8/2025 at 9:44 PM, Clueby said:

Went to a bourbon club dinner/lottery tonight that was Old Forester sponsored/centric. I was the 2nd overall pick and had to settle for 1924 as there was only ONE bottle of Birthday. Also picked up a store pick barrel proof. The food was really good and had good company and conversation.

Exceptional offerings by old forester 

[steven s]

2 wsr at 33$

1 ER at 45$

 

seeing these everywhere now, again, but at these new prices, and these prices were far better than i saw elsewhere

[Kepler]

15 hours ago, PaulO said:

The BB is 10-12 years old and bottled at 90 something proof, changes by release.  It seems a drier profile compared to other versions of OF.  I get tannin like strong tea, dry wood like cedar cigar box.  At low 90 something proof, and not much sweetness, it can feel sort of thin.  It's ok, but not my favorite in the OF line up.  

 

The more recent Birthday bourbons are higher proof.  I have at least a couple that are over 100 proof.  That bump up in proof helps them.  But I get your point.

[Kepler]

16 hours ago, Skinsfan1311 said:

Yup and, after the initial pour, it's very good but not much better, (if it all), than the standard offering.  I guess that I can to do a blind SBS, but I already know that it's not worth the extra $$.  

I don't regret the purchase, but will not be replacing these...

 

That's a fair take.  The new WT8 is definitely meant to be simply an "up-sell" item.  I do expect quality of the NAS 101 to go down due to less older aged stock in the blend though.  I assume we've already seen the best of $19.99 Wild Turkey, ... for a good while anyway.

 

 

Edited 27 minutes ago by Kepler