13th Annual BourbonGuy.com Brackets: Round 1b: 1792 vs. Yellowstone Select

And we’re back with the second of our Round 1 Competitions. These were tasted in an order only known to my wife as another bit of obfuscation to hide what was being tasted. So Round 1 of the 2026 BourbonGuy.com Brackets continues with Division 1’s Number 3 seed, Yellowstone Select taking on Number 2 seed, 1792 Bourbon.

Yellowstone Select is the flagship product of the Limestone Branch Distillery in Lebanon, KY. This is the first time that a Yellowstone release has been in the contest. Prior to the brand, coming home to Limestone Branch, it certainly would have qualified. But then it got better and was priced out of range. And now because inflation is weird, it fits again. This bottle was purchased at Total Wine in Burnsville, MN for $29.99 for a 750 mL bottle or $2.00 per pour.

Their opponent is a bourbon that I have consumed more than my fair share of as we used to get a lot of barrel pick versions of it down at my local corner liquor store. 1792 Bourbon is produced by Sazerac at their aptly named Barton 1792 Distillery in Bardstown, KY. This bottle was purchased at Total Wine in Burnsville, MN for $25.99 for a 750 mL bottle or $1.73 per pour.

All of the competitions this year were tasted blind, and we knew the winner of the competition prior to any reveal. Notes, thoughts, and conclusions were all recorded before we knew which bourbon was which. Needless to say, some of my conclusions were surprising to me. Tasting notes may be a little unusual since they were tasted side by side and will have influenced the perception of one another.

Marble Iguana (1792)

Price Per Drink (50 mL): $1.73

Details: 46.85% ABV

Nose: Dusty oak, vanilla, baking spice, and caramel.

Mouth: Oak, allspice, citrus zest, cinnamon

Finish: Warm and on the shorter side of medium length. Notes of oak, cocoa nibs, and stewed apple.

Feral Teacup (Yellowstone Select)

Price Per Drink (50 mL): $2.00

Details: 46.5% ABV

Nose: Almond, vanilla, oak, and a hint of baking spice.

Mouth: Bitter almond, oak, dried grain, and baking spice.

Finish: Slightly medicinal and of medium length. Notes of mint, dried grains, and almond.

Thoughts:

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: Feral Teacup is showing a lot more grain in the mouth. Marble Iguana is spicier and shows more fruit. Both are decent pours, but I’m getting an odd finish on Feral Teacup, probably due to the influence of tasting head-to-head in a single sitting, but that’s the name of this game. I like Marble Iguana better due to the nicer experience on the finish and the abundance of dried grain notes on Feral Teacup.

Post-Reveal Thoughts: As always, it is fun to see how the bourbons compare in a head-to-head setting. I was a bit shocked that I was as hard on Yellowstone Select as I was, considering how much I like its limited edition brethren. Though as I say over and over, this is not intended to be a normal tasting. I’ve enjoyed many a Yellowstone pour over the years without thinking of dried grains or medicinal finishes and I expect I will again in the future. However, I do really enjoy 1792, so the outcome itself doesn’t really surprise me.

Winner: 1792 is advancing to round 2.

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13th Annual BourbonGuy.com Brackets: Round 1a: Benchmark Single Barrel vs. Four Roses Small Batch

Here we go! Let’s get down to the competitions. I hope that you guys are as excited about this as I am. These were tasted in an order only known to my wife as another bit of obfuscation to hide what was being tasted. So Round 1 of the 2026 BourbonGuy.com Brackets starts with Division 2’s Number 4 seed, Four Roses Small Batch taking on Number 1 seed, Benchmark Single Barrel Bourbon.

Four Roses Small Batch, produced by the Four Roses Distillery in Lawrenceburg, KY, used to be this Four Roses Fanboy’s favorite pour from them. I really enjoyed the mellow, nuanced flavor. Of course, as I grew accustomed to higher proof bourbons, it soon felt a little…weak. I still enjoy a pour of it now and then, because it is delicious, but I don’t buy it nearly as often as I used to and that makes me just a little sad. This bottle was purchased at Total Wine in Burnsville, MN for $26.99 for a 750 mL bottle or $1.80 per pour.

Their opponent is a bourbon that I don’t think I’ve ever had before, though it’s Bottled-in-Bond cousin was in the competition last year. Benchmark Single Barrel was produced by Buffalo Trace at their Frankfort, KY distillery. This bottle was purchased at Viking Liquor Barrel in Prior Lake, MN, for $23.99 for a 750 mL bottle or $1.60 per pour.

All of the competitions this year were tasted blind, and we knew the winner of the competition prior to any reveal. Notes, thoughts, and conclusions were all recorded before we knew which bourbon was which. Needless to say, some of my conclusions were surprising to me. Tasting notes may be a little unusual since they were tasted side by side and will have influenced the perception of one another.

Wobbly Parachute (Benchmark Single Barrel)

Price Per Drink (50 mL): $1.60

Details: 47.5% ABV

Nose: Strong toffee note initially followed by cinnamon candies and brown sugar after a bit.

Mouth: Cinnamon, toffee, vanilla, and oak

Finish: Warm and on the longer side of medium length. Lingering notes of vanilla, cinnamon, and oak.

Drowsy Lantern (Four Roses Small Batch)

Price Per Drink (50 mL): $1.80

Details: 45% ABV

Nose: Cinnamon, mint, and caramel rolls.

Mouth: Cinnamon gum, mint, smoke, and caramel.

Finish: Medium in length and warmth. Notes of oak, baking spice, and mint.

Thoughts:

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: Wobbly Parachute is much sweeter. Drowsy Lantern feels dry by comparison. Wobbly Parachute has a thicker mouthfeel. Drowsy Lantern seems a little more complex and nuanced. Wobbly Parachute is a more pleasant pour when directly comparing them head to head.

Post-Reveal Thoughts: I’m a bit surprised by this one. Not because of an upset or anything—I mean, usually, proof beats price in these matchups, and that happened again. It’s just that I tend to personally like Four Roses’s bourbon more than Buffalo Trace’s. But hey, that’s why these are done blind, right?

Winner: Benchmark Single Barrel is advancing to round 2.

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If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

13th Annual BourbonGuy.com Brackets: The “inflation is Weird” edition.

You know what time it is! The NCAA basketball and hockey tournaments are getting started here soon, which means everyone is in bracket mode. It really is a wonderful time of year. Up here in the northernmost state in the contiguous U.S., the snow is still trying to fall—we got over a foot at my house this weekend. Though, thankfully, the end is in sight. Gardeners have started their seeds, there are days when the windows can be opened, and, of course, there are brackets to be filled out—and busted.

No, not those silly basketball or hockey brackets. We’re talking bourbon brackets. And let me tell you, this really is my favorite time of year. In fact, I enjoy it so much that next year, when I may decide to hang up the ol’ keyboard, I already know what my last series of posts will be: brackets. But don’t worry—that’ll be 2027 at the earliest, since I want to make it to 15 years of publishing before I make a decision.

I’m calling this round the “The Inflation Is Weird” edition. Mostly because I had to raise the price requirements yet again. As I mentioned last year, it was getting really hard to find enough entrants that haven’t been here over and over for under $25. Well, this year, I decided to take actual inflation numbers into account.

As an aside, inflation is super weird to me. Based on things that I don’t even want to try to understand, things just cost more than they used to. And if it’s a little bit, that’s somehow a good thing, but if it’s a lot (or, oddly, if it goes down), then that’s really bad. And it doesn’t hit everything the same, which my pattern-seeking mind finds overwhelming. And then the president always gets blamed for it, which is also weird since the last president to try directly setting price controls was Nixon. And while it had a bit of short-term success, Smart People™ seem to agree that it was a seriously bad idea. Probably why no one has tried it since. It’s just all-around weird, and I am glad that (under normal circumstances) people much smarter than I am are in charge of handling it.

So, like I said before I got sidetracked, I started this site in 2012. So I went to my favorite inflation calculator—the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Inflation Calculator—to look at what the original bracket upper limit of $20 would be in 2026 money. I was a bit shocked to find out that it was almost $29. So I rounded up and made the upper limit $30 just to keep things nice and easy.

One thing I noticed while doing the research is that while it feels like the bourbon market has gotten more expensive, and in many ways it has, the reality is a bit more nuanced. I went back through every whiskey featured in this series over the last 13 years, and most of the true bottom-shelf brands have disappeared from shelves, at least near me. And the ones that remain haven’t increased in price as quickly as inflation. In terms of purchasing power, many have effectively gotten cheaper. That’s how bottles like Maker’s 46, Four Roses Small Batch, and Woodford Reserve ended up in this year’s competition when they were far out of range for those original Bottom-Shelf Brackets. Of course with newer, higher-priced labels hitting the shelves, the category as a whole feels more expensive when you’re standing in the bourbon aisle, even though individual bourbons are effectively cheaper now. Like I said— inflation is weird.

Let’s get into the actual contest, though.

The Selection Rules

This year’s selection process was simple:

• It had to be bourbon.

• The bottle size had to be at least 750 mL.

• It had to cost under $30.

That’s it!

For seeding, I usually start by sorting by proof first, followed by stated age (if applicable), and then use price as the final tiebreaker. But this year, every entrant had a different proof, so we just went down the line, with the highest proof being the number one seed and the lowest proof being the lowest seed. The idea being that, often with inexpensive bourbons, proof will beat age in a head-to-head competition—or so it has played out over the previous 12 editions. To avoid stacking the deck against the second division, I alternated which division received the higher seed. So Division 1 got the overall number one, but Division 2 got the higher-proof of the number two seeds. Here’s what that got us:

Division 1

• Seed 1: Early Times Bottled-in-Bond

  • The only 100 proof bottle in this competition. It is also the least expensive per 50 mL pour. The brand is currently owned by Sazerac, though the distillery of distillation on the label is still the old Brown-Forman DSP-KY-354. Barton 1792 (DSP-KY-12) is also listed as a production site, likely for bottling.

  • Purchased at Viking Liquor Barrel (Prior Lake, MN) for $23.99 for a one-liter bottle.

  • Nonsense name: Velvet Turnip

• Seed 2: 1792

  • Flagship product of Sazerac’s Barton 1792 distillery in Bardstown, KY, bottled at 93.7 proof.

  • Purchased at Total Wine (Burnsville, MN) for $25.99 for a 750 mL bottle.

  • Nonsense name: Marble Iguana

• Seed 3: Yellowstone Select

  • The base entry for the historic Yellowstone bourbon brand, bottled at 93 proof.

  • Purchased at Total Wine (Burnsville, MN) for $29.99 for a 750 mL bottle.

  • Nonsense name: Feral Teacup

• Seed 4: Redemption Bourbon

  • Sourced MGP bourbon bottled at 88 proof and age-stated at 2 years old. This was the lowest proof and, as such, the lowest seed in the contest.

  • Purchased at Total Wine (Burnsville, MN) for $21.99 for a 750 mL bottle.

  • Nonsense name: Gilded Thunder

Division 2

• Seed 1: Benchmark Single Barrel

  • A product of the Buffalo Trace Distillery, bottled at 95 proof.

  • Purchased at Viking Liquor Barrel (Prior Lake, MN) for $23.99 for a 750 mL bottle.

  • Nonsense name: Wobbly Parachute

• Seed 2: Maker’s Mark 46

  • The only wheated bourbon, bottled at 94 proof.

  • Purchased at Viking Liquor Barrel (Prior Lake, MN) for $29.97 for a 750 mL bottle.

  • Nonsense name: Crooked Meteor

• Seed 3: Woodford Reserve

  • A product of Brown-Forman, bottled at 90.4 proof.

  • Purchased at Total Wine (Burnsville, MN) for $29.99 for a 750 mL bottle.

  • Nonsense name: Jittery Compass

• Seed 4: Four Roses Small Batch

  • One of four core products in the Four Roses lineup. It was long my favorite of the bunch before its lower proof made their single barrel offering my go-to from them. It is bottled at 90 proof.

  • Purchased at Total Wine (Burnsville, MN) for $26.99 for a 750 mL bottle.

  • Nonsense name: Drowsy Lantern

Keeping It Blind: The Setup

Of course, that list doesn’t eliminate inherent bias, does it? So, as usual, we took a few extra steps to keep the tasting blind—while still keeping track of what advanced.

Here’s how we set it up (it’s an oh-so-simple process):

1. I seeded the whiskey in the bracket as listed above.

2. I poured 200 mL bottles of each bourbon and labeled them with their nonsense names.

3. I made a separate bracket using only the nonsense names and handed it, along with the bottles, to my wife.

From there, she takes over.

• She doesn’t know what’s in each bottle (thanks to the nonsense names).

• She pours and keeps track of the winners.

• All I have to do is taste, write, and pick my favorite. It’s a pretty slick system.

The empty bracket is below, and as usual, there were plenty of surprises along the way. But that’s for the future. In the meantime, who you got? Let us know down in the comments!

Fun fact, using that same BLS Inflation Calculator, I checked on the state of the Federal Excise Tax on distilled spirits. If you want to make a bourbon producer mad, mention that if the excise tax, which was last adjusted in 1991 to $13.50 per proof gallon, had kept up with inflation, it would currently be at $32.78. In fact the opposite happened and we are currently in a tiered system where the first so many proof gallons are severely discounted. This was what funded much of the Federal Government prior to the income tax so it is fun to look at. Though I am seriously not advocating for higher bourbon prices…

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If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Yellowstone Recollection Bourbon

I’d like to thank Yellowstone Bourbon and their PR partners for providing this sample with no strings attached.

Yellowstone bourbon is one of those brands that is near and dear to my heart. First off, Stephen Beam is a great guy. I’ve had the opportunity to hang out with him and a few other distillers for an “off-the-record” talk and enjoyed every minute of it (though with the amount of alcohol we had that night, I’m not quite sure I remember any of it…). I love the family connection that Stephen Beam has with the brand through multiple family lines. I love that he, along with his partners at Luxco, brought the brand back from where it had been languishing on the bottom shelf for many years. I love that they love the history of the brand and maintain a connection to the national park that originally inspired the name by supporting various organizations that protect the park and its ecosystem.

And when I was offered a sample of what used to be a Limestone Branch Distillery-exclusive bottle, I jumped at the chance. Especially when I knew that I wouldn’t be getting to Lebanon, Kentucky any time soon. So what is this newly more broadly available product, and why should you care about it?

Well first off, just look at it. I don’t usually spend a lot of time talking about the bottle a bourbon comes in, but as both a history nerd and a guy with a degree in graphic design, I really like this one. The bottle was inspired by the bar-back bottles the brand would have used in the late 1800s. And with the painted and embossed front, it succeeds in evoking exactly that. But if you’re more interested in what’s inside the bottle, you’ll have reason for excitement there as well. Eight years old and 110 proof? Yes, please. And at a suggested retail price of just under $70, it comes in at a fairly reasonable price. Before we see how it tastes, let’s let the producer speak for themselves:

Non-chill filtered and bottled at 110 proof, Yellowstone Recollection Bourbon is crafted by seventh-generation Master Distiller Stephen Beam and aged eight years to deliver a bold yet balanced liquid. Drawing from the brand’s earliest visual identity, the bourbon is presented in an ornate decanter that pays homage to Yellowstone’s once hand-painted bottles. Featuring the iconic Yellowstone Lower Falls and classic embossing, the design reflects the brand’s roots as the “Greatest American Whiskey” named for the national park, while celebrating the dedication to craftsmanship that has sustained the distillery for centuries.

“When I brought Yellowstone to Limestone Branch in 2015, it wasn’t just about reviving a name, it was about honoring the people who gave this bourbon its meaning, ” said Stephen Beam, Master Distiller at Limestone Branch Distillery. “Our bottles have always drawn inspiration from the spirit and natural beauty of Yellowstone National Park, and when you hold this bottle, I hope it captures the sense of history, craftsmanship, and awe that makes both the park and this bourbon so special. ”

Ok, now for the fun part. Let’s dig in.

Yellowstone Recollection Bourbon

Purchase Info: This sample was provided by the producer at no cost for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $69.99 for a 700 mL bottle.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $5.00

Details: 8 years old. 55% ABV.

Nose: Leather, oak, vanilla, allspice, mint, and caramel.

Mouth: Spicy and hot. Notes of cinnamon red hots, cocoa, mint, caramel, vanilla, leather, and oak.

Finish: Long and warm with notes of oak, mint, chocolate, and cinnamon.

Thoughts: This one is really delicious. It really showcases the age, with lots of oak derived notes throughout. Leather, cocoa, and oak. There is a nice warm spiciness in the mouth and finish. Water tames the heat some, but still leaves it vibrant. What’s inside the bottle really is just as fun as the outside. I like it a lot.

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If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

High West Cask Strength Bourbon

I’d like to thank High West and their team of PR Professionals for providing this sample with no strings attached.

Hello friends! It’s been quite the month here in the BourbonGuy household, but we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, so let’s dig right in on the latest thing that the Whiskey Fairy has brought me.

Tonight’s whiskey is a new release from High West Distillery. A blend of straight bourbon whiskeys bottled at cask strength, this release was cleverly named Cask Strength. It looks to have been officially released on January 12th. It is listed as “Bottled by High West Distillery,” but as usual with whiskey that High West has sourced, they are as transparent as can be about what is actually in the bottle. Here is the breakdown of the mash bills:

• 60% Corn, 40% Malted Barley, sourced from a Kentucky distillery

• 60% Corn, 40% Rye, sourced from a Kentucky distillery

• 75% Corn, 21% Rye, 4% Malted Barley, sourced from a Indiana distillery

• 78% Corn, 10% Rye, 12% Malted Barley, sourced from a Kentucky distillery

• 84% Corn, 8% Rye, 8% Malted Barley, sourced from a Tennessee distillery

The product was bottled at 117 proof and will be available as a limited release nationwide at a suggested retail price of $69.99. Here is what Distilling Director Isaac Winter has to say about the release:

"This was a really fun blend to put together. Building on our high-rye blending philosophy, this Cask Strength expression uses our Bourye blending approach to precisely balance rye-driven spice with malted barley richness, resulting in layered complexity and a bold, lasting presence that keeps you coming back.”

Let’s dig in, shall we?

High West Cask Strength Bourbon

Purchase Info: This product was provided at no charge for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $69.99 for a 750 mL bottle.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $4.67

Details: Batch 25K14. A blend of seven straight bourbons from Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee. 58.5% ABV. Non-age stated.

Nose: Cinnamon, clove, caramel, almond, and oak.

Mouth: Drying in the mouth. Black tea, cinnamon and clove, stone fruits, almond, and oak.

Finish: Long and very warm. Notes of oak, almond, chocolate, and cinnamon.

Thoughts: I’m not the biggest fan of this one neat. It’s drier than I’d prefer, very hot, and the alcohol notes are a bit too prominent for me. However, add just the tiniest splash of water or ice and it goes from hot and dry to velvety. It becomes sweeter as the caramel and stone fruit notes start to show. The baking spice notes become more generic, but the oak steps forward a bit. All in all, this is a pour that benefits from a little water—which is how I usually enjoy my bourbon anyway. It’s also delicious in both a sour-style cocktail (I did a Gold Rush) and a spirits-forward cocktail (I did a Boulevardier). I really like it.

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Before we finish, I want to apologize for ghosting everyone last week. Between both of my dogs being on hospice care, the assault on my adopted home state of Minnesota by the federal government (it’s been worse than what even the local news has reported), and a long-overdue discussion that led to a Festivus-style airing of grievances—one that nearly had me cutting ties with both of my parents over the holidays—I’m in the middle of quite the mental breakdown. Possibly my biggest in about 15 years.

I’m OK. I’m not a danger to myself or anything like that. But it was all a bit too much for me to try to be witty and creative for most of the month of January. I’m getting the help I need, but if you or someone you love is experiencing a mental health crisis, help is available.

U.S.: Call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — free, confidential support available 24/7. You can also visit 988lifeline.org for chat support and additional resources.

Outside the U.S.: Visit findahelpline.com to find local crisis hotlines by country.

Old Pepper Bottled in Bond Bourbon

Well folks, I’m in a bit of a mental health crisis right now, so I won’t have any witty anecdotes or observations on this one (some might say they’re never witty). Let’s jump right into the review.

Last week I asked that you stay tuned if you wanted to find out more about the bourbon version of Old Pepper Bottled in Bond. Well, today’s the day. Like the rye, I picked up this bottle of Old Pepper Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon at The Party Source in Bellevue, KY back in May. Only a couple more times that you’ll need to read that, as I finally reach the end of what I had stashed in my overflow closet.

Does that mean another road trip? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We still need to make it out of winter first.

Old Pepper is made by the James E. Pepper Distilling Company in Lexington, KY. I am a big fan of their Bonded Rye, but before we jump into whether I liked the bourbon, let’s look at what the distillery has to say about it.

Unique blends of distinct mash bills, consisting of Corn, Rye, Malted Barley & Malted Rye; Aged in new toasted & charred barrels made from Kentucky Oak, air seasoned a minimum of 18-24 months; Water source from the historic distillery well. Distilled and bottled at the historic James E. Pepper Distillery (DSP-KY-5) in Lexington, Kentucky. Aged a minimum of 4 years and bottled at 100 proof. Distilling season listed on signature strip label.

Let’s dig in.

Old Pepper Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon

Purchase Info: $54.99 for a 750 mL bottle at The Party Source, Bellevue, KY

Price per Drink (50 mL): $3.67

Details: 50% ABV. DSP-KY-5. Batch S2020

Nose: Oak, brown sugar, vanilla, and mint.

Mouth: Brown sugar, oak, vanilla, cinnamon, and a touch of mint.

Finish: Warm and on the longer end of medium length. Lingering notes of cinnamon, mint, and oak.

Thoughts: Very solid bourbon. I’ve had no qualms pouring this whenever I’m reaching for a bourbon. I do prefer the rye, though. And honestly, if I were in the store choosing between this and other bottles in the same price range, I’d probably end up with a Knob Creek Single Barrel or Four Roses Single Barrel instead. But since those are two of my favorite $50–$60 pours, that probably isn’t surprising. If those were out of stock, however, this would make a perfectly decent backup. All in all, I like it. It has nice spice and oak with enough sweetness to back them up. It’s a good bourbon.

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If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond, Fall 2025

I’d like to thank Heaven Hill and their entire PR team for providing this sample with no strings attached.

Merry Christmas my friends! I hope that the season is treating you better than it is the whiskey companies. Jim Beam isn’t the first, and sadly, based on things I’ve been noticing behind the scenes for the last year or so, I’m not sure they will be the last to make tough decisions in the near future. Maybe not as drastic as multi-national coporations pausing some operations, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see different product positioning, increased ad buys, and sadly the closure of even more small distilleries as companies try to combat falling demand. I mean, their senator already got the national “soft legalization” of THC repealed earlier this fall. Was it because the competition was hurting bourbon companies in the younger market? That wasn’t the stated reason, but the rumors behind the scenes are that it didn’t help the matter.

My opinion as to the main item that jump-started the “bourbon boom” a couple of decades ago was the low price of the product compared to its high quality. There were other factors to be sure, but at the end of the day if that wasn’t there, the rest may not have followed. These days, while there are still low-priced offerings, they’ve gotten comparatively worse over the last decade and a half as companies started diverting their best barrels from standard products to the single barrel and “ultra-premium” releases that they can charge much more for. So if consumers—especially younger consumers who could become customers for life—are spending their money on fewer of the “better,” higher-cost bottles, they necessarily can’t also buy large volumes of the low-cost bottles that are the bread and butter of most big distilleries. Toss in an uncertain economy and the current state of international politics, and that’s a recipe for hard decisions.

But that’s not why we’re here, is it? We’re here to discuss the latest release from Heaven Hill. One that, sadly, is more known for the fancy bottle it comes in than for the juice inside. And to be fair, it is a beautiful bottle. Even my wife, the accountant, wants one more for the bottle than for the bourbon—and she’s been the silent tasting partner for all of the last 13 years of posts. Even the press release dedicates about two-thirds of its text to the bottle rather than the whiskey. I get it: they aren’t just sending this to geeks like us, but also to lifestyle publications and the like. They’re relying on whiskey fans like you and me to tell people whether the juice is actually worth drinking. So before I get into my thoughts, let’s let the company have their say:

Bottled in an ornate decanter, the fall edition bares (sic) a black label, consistent across each of the brand's fall releases. This edition's tax strip, which has always been a signature of transparency on bottled-in-bond products, will disclose when the liquid was produced and bottled. The Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond Decanter Series Fall 2025 edition will be available in the 750ml size on an allocated basis. It meets the strict requirements of a bottled-in-bond: the product of a single distillery from a single distilling season, aged a minimum of four years, and bottled at 100 proof or 50% alcohol by volume. The edition is available at a suggested retail price of $159.99.

Ok, now that they’ve had a chance to speak, let’s dig in, shall we?

Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond — Fall 2025

Purchase Info: This sample bottle was sent at no charge for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $159.99 for a 750 mL bottle.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $10.67

Details: 50% ABV. 11 years old.

Nose: Caramel, vanilla, cherry, nutmeg, oak.

Mouth: Warm and spicy with notes of cinnamon, oak, vanilla, caramel, nutmeg, and a hint of cherry.

Finish: Medium in length and warmth. Notes of caramel, cinnamon, nutmeg, and then cherry after the others fade a bit.

Thoughts: Another solid release from Heaven Hill. It’s very cinnamon-forward, which I like. For me, the oak is almost too much, though my wife claims I’m imagining that part. That said, she likes more oak than I do, so take that how you will. The cherry notes are a nice complement to the cinnamon. I like it.

Would I like it enough to spend $160 on it if it weren’t in a pretty bottle? Absolutely not. This is a solid “good, not great” release. That said, I also know my wife covets the bottle—mostly because she already owns one of the antique decanters the current bottles are based on. So if I saw one, it would likely come home with me for that reason, not for the bourbon inside. Which, as I said, is solid, but not amazing.

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Bourbon Revisited: Willett’s Old Bardstown Bottled in Bond

It has been three thousand, three hundred, and forty-five days since I last covered Old Bardstown Bottled in Bond by Willett Distilling. That’s just over nine years. I originally covered it back in 2016—I had gotten a tip that they would be releasing it at the distillery gift shop the next morning, and I grabbed two when I stopped in. The first bottle is what I reviewed originally, and the second got shoved into the back of the closet so that if I ever revisited it, I’d have something to compare the new one to.

That bottle sat in my office closet for almost nine years before I got on a step stool and realized it was still back there. Luckily for me, I had a trip through Kentucky coming up, and I decided to look and see if I could find a current release to compare to it. I did, and so here we are—taking a look at a 2025 version of Old Bardstown Bottled in Bond with a 2016 chaser. So what did I say about it oh so many years ago? Well, first and foremost, I said I liked it. Here’s the quote:

Twenty. Two. Dollars. For. A. Craft. Distilled. Bourbon! And it’s good! OK, to be fair, this is no world beater, but at $22, it doesn’t have to be. What it needs to be is solid, tasty, and work well either neat or in a cocktail. This does that. It’s a nice addition to the ranks of tasty, inexpensive bottled-in-bond bourbons. If you visit Kentucky, make sure this is in your bag when you leave.

So let’s see how 2025 stacks up.

Willett’s Old Bardstown Bottled in Bond

Purchase Info: $19.99 for a 750 mL bottle at The Party Source, Bellevue, KY

Price per Drink (50 mL): $1.33

Details: 50% ABV. Bottled in Bond (the product of one single distilling season).

Nose: Caramel, vanilla, cinnamon red hot candies, and almond.

Mouth: Follows the nose with notes of cinnamon red hots, vanilla, caramel, and oak.

Finish: Warm and on the longer side of medium. Lingering notes of cinnamon red hots and oak.

Thoughts: Quite tasty. This is a cinnamon bomb but also has a lot of classic bourbon notes. I'm digging this one. Very happy I decided to grab it back in May. I like it a lot. Now let's see how it has changed since the day-one release I've had stashed in my closet since the day of its initial release.

Comparison to 2016: Before I even purchased the bottle, I noticed that the price has remained amazingly steady over the last nine years—$20 in a large store now and $22 at the distillery gift shop then. Love that. Once I got the new one home, I also noticed that the new version has a shorter bottle and a different color closure. Then, when I got them into a glass, I couldn't help but notice the difference in color between 2016 and 2025. 2016 is much darker in the glass. On the nose, the 2025 is much sweeter. The perfect description of 2016 is spiced gum drops. By comparison, 2025 is super caramel/toffee forward. In the mouth, these are nothing alike—2016 seems more like it was trying to be interesting rather than good. Not that 2016 isn't good, but it has an unusual set of baking spice notes. Lots of clove and allspice, while 2025 is more of a classic vanilla/caramel bourbon flavor profile with a ton of cinnamon. At the end of the day, I appreciate the 2016 version, but I like the 2025 version. And weirdly, if you mix them equally, it turns into a “third” unrelated whiskey that is quite oak-forward. Fun experiment.

All in all, this stays a “like” rating.

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