Old Forester 100 proof new label design?

[Gillman]

My bottle of Old Forester 100 Proof, bought in Las Vegas last week, has a rectangular white label bordered in dark brown, not the diamond-shaped white and black label I was familiar with before.

The new label is closer to the one of ten years ago. My bottle is not from that era since on the shelf I took it from, there was an actual bonded Forester from that time and that design is different. A number of people on the board, I included, had expressed dissatisfaction with the diamond black label and it looks like someone listened.

(I think there may have been two diamond labels, one all black and a later one that was black and white, but that is neither here nor there).

Unless my bottle was issued between the bonded Forester white label and diamond black label eras I think it must be new (it is hard to tell the production date from the design but the bottle looks recently made).

I don't know if this change applies to Forester below 100 proof.

I like the new package.

But most important, I like what is in it. Lovely whiskey of great balance and, dare I say it (for a 100 proof whiskey) subtlety.

Gary

[Jazzhead]

I'm smiling as I read your post, because I was in Las Vegas the week before last, won a few bucks on the Eagles game and figured I'd buy one bottle of good hooch to pack on the plane back. The bottle I brought back was - Old Forester 100 proof. The OF 86 is a regular pour for me, and I'd never seen the 100 proof before. It's of course great stuff, balanced and, like you say, subtle.

Now the bottle I picked up - at Lee's on Las Vegas Blvd - was new to me as well - it was labelled "Old Forester Signature", and appears to be the new name for the 100 proof expression. The hang tag copy has a copyright of 2006. The label's not the classic white and gold, but rather a variation on the current "clear label". It's the current bottle as well, not the dimpled classic.

The hang tag has a spiel about George Garvin Brown, and his signature on the label for over a century. I found the following statement interesting: "Each batch of his 100-proof Old Forester bourbon was crafted from barrels that spanned several seasons and years. He [brown] knew that selecting barrels by taste rather than an arbitrary age profile would produce the taste his customers demanded."

[barturtle]

There was a label in between the bonded and the newer diamond. I have one that IIRC is from 03. It carries a different UPC from the label application I found (it was a quick check, I probably could have found a matching app)

Anyway the pic I'm posting is cut from the Dec 2000 application

[Gillman]

Okay thanks Timothy, mine is in fact the same as what you posted, so it seems it predates the diamond black (or current black and white) label.

I like it better than either diamond label version.

However whatever the package, I have found Old Forester 100 proof bought in recent years just great.

Gary

[Gillman]

I see now on the rear label mine states on the right border "03 1000 59 01 FP". So clearly this was from, as your data shows, 2003.

Thanks for correcting me on this. I wasn't 100% sure as the question mark in my thread question showed.

Gary

[barturtle]

A further check reveals that the diamond label was approved in Apr 2003, which explains why I bought this one and put it away about that time.

[Gillman]

Okay thanks.

The current label seems to be diamond black and white though. See www.oldforester.com

Maybe they are edging back to the square white label..

Gary

[ratcheer]

Maybe they are edging back to the square white label..

Gary

That would suit me. I prefer the classic packaging and have never, in fact, bought Old Forester since they started messing with the packaging. I don't have any serious misgivings about the product, it is just not as attractive to me.

Tim

[Gillman]

My take on this at this point is, for the standard size bottle the diamond label has been retained, the white and black version is for the 86 proof, and the black one is for the 100 proof.

I like the original design (from 10 years ago and earlier) or at least the 2003 modified rectangle version.

It is funny what a label can do, I too wouldn't buy the black label OF 100 even if I thought the whiskey was as good as I know OF can be. There is nothing wrong with the package, I just find it unappealing.

The same happens with certain beers, e.g., ones with crude or silly names, I just can't drink them. Doesn't make sense I guess, but things don't always operate logically.

I can't recall now what design the OF 100 pint bottle had that I bought on Fern Valley Road recently, I don't think it was the black diamond but maybe it was.

Anyway, I stress that the current OF 100 is (the whiskey) of the highest quality, no matter what the package.

Gary

[nor02lei]

I can’t say that I do care that much about label design except that I do want it to give as much technical information as possible.

However I get more and more fond of the Brown Forman house stile and the Forester 100 proof expression is an excellent example of it.

Leif