A Head-to-Head-to-Head Tasting: Very Special Old Fitzgerald 12 Year, Larceny, & Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond

Has it finally happened? Has my nose unclogged? Have my senses of smell and taste returned to me? Am I ever going to stop asking questions and get on with this?

Yes. To all of them. My wife and I have finally come close enough to kicking the cold/flu that felled us in the late December/Early January that we can breathe again. We can laugh without coughing again. And most importantly, our tastebuds and our sniffers work again.

Last year, round about September, I hit on the idea that to really know the minute differences of different bourbons, I needed to compare them to one another. Have them side by side. Smell one, smell the other, smell my hand*, and start over again. So while I was in Kentucky, the land of bourbon, I decided to start picking up a few things with an eye toward head to head tastings. Some of them were planned. Some of the stuff I lucked into. I was checking out when I'd notice a small bottle of something. Maybe it was a different proof than what already had. Maybe it was a mini of another release of something I had at home. I collected things all autumn long, buying bourbon in at least 6 different states along the way. It was fun. 

But by the time I was about to get started on the tasting fun. BLAM! Laid out by tiny little viruses. So unfair. And now we're back to the present. About to dig into a trio of wheaters from Heaven Hill. so how did I decide on these? Well, a little bit of luck and a tiny bit of planning. I've had the Very Special Old Fitzgerald 12 Year Old since a visit to Des Moines, Iowa this summer. I picked it up because it was something I knew I couldn't get here in Minnesota. Or at least I had never seen it. The Larceny was released right about the time I was going to Kentucky. I got a $10 rebate on the bottle and it was also on sale for roughly $22. Buying that was a no brainer. At that point it seemed I had a pretty nice head to head going. It wasn't a planned one, but hey, I'm not one to sneer at dumb luck. One problem, those two wheaters were both MSRP'd like premium bourbons. One of the things I had read about Old Fitzgerald was that it was a good value bourbon. So with the head to head in mind, I went ahead and picked up a bottle of Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond for ~$18 for a liter. And just like that it became a head-to-head-to-head. Three times the fun!

Here's how the wife and I did the tastings. With her out of the room, I poured each into identical Glencairn glasses. One set for me, one set for my wife. I had them on a piece of paper and in front of each I wrote a number 1-3. Then I left the room. My wife came in and moved each glass onto another prepared sheet that was labeled A, B, C. So I knew which bourbons were 1, 2 and 3 and she knew which letter corresponded to which number and neither of us knew which bourbon was in which place in front of us. A perfect double blind tasting.

So what did we think? Well, we both agreed that there were a lot more similarities between the bourbons than there were differences. In the glass all three were the same color. Though in the bottle the VSOF was a bit darker. None of these were overly complicated bourbons. All of them were sweet with a hint of spice in the mouth. So knowing that, let's dig in.

Bourbon A:

Nose: Sweet with a hint of something smoky. Once I was hit with something  sharp, almost acidic, but it was gone as soon as it appeared and never came back. I found the same thing at another time in my wife's but it was still gone so fast I couldn't place it.

Mouth: Sweet, but not overly sweet. Brown sugar with a little spice. This one was a bit thin when compared to the other two. 

Finish: Short and sweet. Not hot. Dried the mouth.

Overall: This one confused me. I smelled things that I couldn't catch before they were gone and couldn't pick out anything beyond a very gently spicy brown sugar sweetness. This is a bourbon that I could drink the heck out of though. I like it and I'd enjoy having it at my side while watching a movie or talking with friends. This was probably our favorite of the three.

Bourbon B:

Nose: Tangy and sweet play a game of cat and mouse with each other while nosing this one. One time it's a hard maple bomb, the next it's tangy, then they swap back again.

Mouth: This is a sweet one. Not as sweet as the nose, but there is a slight maple or brown sugar there amongst the alcohol. I found this one to be a bit on the thick side. Not oily, but syrupy. I guess that goes with the maple in there.

Finish: Finish was the best part of this one. There is that tang in the back of the throat that the nose promised, sweet spice on the sides of the tongue, and a hint of smokiness all around.  

Overall: My wife found this to be the harshest one out of the three we tasted. Said she only tasted alcohol. I agree it was the harshest one, but not overwhelmingly so. I like this one as well. Though good, this was probably our least favorite of the three. 

Bourbon C:

Nose: Right away I was hit with sweet baked apples. After a bit I got a lot of brown sugar sweetness.

Mouth: Sweetness at first on this one getting spicier as it moves back. I get a lot of corn in this one as well. 

Finish: I found this to have the most burn in the finish out of the three. Really drying the back of the throat.

Overall: This is a good bourbon. It won't blow you away analyzing it, though I found those backed apples on the nose to be interesting. But I drink a whiskey more often than I taste it and this is another one I'd enjoy drinking over conversation with friends or along side a movie or good book.

So which was which? Bourbon A was the Very Special Old Fitzgerald 12 Year Old. No Surprise here, my wife loves older Heaven hill bourbons. Bourbon B was Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond, which explains the harshness comment by my wife. And Bourbon C was Larceny.

I like all of these in their own way. Like I said, our favorite was the Very Special Old Fitzgerald, but I wouldn't turn down any of them. And in fact, before I did the tasting, I enjoyed each and every one on numerous occasions. The BiB was great in cocktails or on it's own. The VSOF made a wicked good manhattan. And Larceny is just plain tasty.

If I could only buy one moving forward, I'd pick the BiB because it is so much cheaper and almost as good. My wife, the accountant, though disagrees with me and would choose the Larceny. She like the VSOF the best, but initially had a hard time finding differences between them. So since it is a little cheaper, she'd go that route. If you're buying though? Give either of us the VSOF.

*By the way, that hand smelling thing isn't a joke, it seems to reset the ol' sniffer for some reason.

Another empty: Corner Creek Reserve

What's this? Two posts in a single week? That...well...that just doesn't happen. Does it? Well it should. And this week it does. Do you remember how earlier this week I was baking a ham? While making the ham I just so happened to empty a bottle that had been sitting on my shelf for a long time.

It was Corner Creek Reserve, or as I heard it described in a liquor store once: the "one that comes in a wine bottle." When I bought this, it was on sale. I was a bit leary (it is in a wine bottle after all), but it's hard to pass up buy one get one free bourbon. I think I paid $26 for the pair.

...time passes while Eric stares at the screen...

So here's the thing, I am finding it extremly hard to write about this BOGO bourbon because it is extremely unremarkable. It doesn't come in a pretty bottle. It's not bad, but it's certainly not good. It's just...ok. I've had it as both the first, the last and the only drink of the night. The only time I wasn't disappointed was when there was nothing to compare it to. 

So I cooked with it. But only when it was melding with other flavors, never when it was the featured flavor.

I last tasted this over a year ago. (Taste, not drink. I've had it quite often over the course of the last year or so.) But I wrote the following tasting notes over a year ago and they are weird. I'd have redone them, but I kept forgetting I had it...and when I did remember, I really didn't want to drink it. In fact, the BOGO bourbon was normally the threat I used on my wife when we couldn't decide or she said "I don't care."

Nose: Butterscotch, black pepper and wheat bread, after I while I could swear I was picking up some banana and maybe cedar wood.

Taste: butterscotch and corn sweetness with cinamon spice. I've written down choclate milk, but I'm guessing that meant a sweet lactic flavor in the back of my throat, not actual chocolate milk.

Finish: This had a thick, oily finish. Sweet and a little spicy.

I will fully admit that this is just my opinion, but this one did nothing for me. It wasn't good or bad. It was interesting, but in the way old people mean when they are too polite to say that they don't understand the weird kid in front of them. For me, this is just a meh. To be honest, I'm kinda glad it's gone. One less thing to take up shelf space.

An Empty: Parker's Heritage Collection, Barrel Finished

So yes, I realize that this isn't an empty bottle in this photo. But, I guarantee you this, by the time I finish this blog post it will be sitting in two glasses, ready to be enjoyed by my wife and I. So I call it close enough. 

I bought this bottle on a whim. At the time I liked to dole out my monthly whiskey money over the course of a couple weeks. And over the course of a couple of bottles. But I thought to myself: "20 bourbons is a lot, I've got enough bottles on hand. I'm going to buy myself something nice"

Apparently I thought that way for approximately a month since I'm sitting somewhere north of 45 right now. But to be fair, a lot of them are "nice."

And this was the one I picked up. I distinctly remember buying this bottle because I remember the nod the clerk behind the counter gave me as he looked at the bottle. Was it admiration? Awe? Lust? Wonder...that anyone would pay $80 for a bourbon (yes, sometimes the stores I frequent are more of the beer-run variety). In any case, I took it to mean I had something special on my hands.

After bringing it home, I realized...it was ok. Not blow your socks off good, but fine. My wife didn't like it. She just gave me a look that said: "Really? $80? Gone just like that, huh?" Needless to say, as we revisited it, we've both changed our opinions of this one. This is one damn fine whiskey.

Color: This one is a deep reddish amber.

Nose: Carmel apples, cola and baking spice.

Taste: Initially sweet, think toffee or honey. There's more spice, this is a hot one.

Finish: I found that this had a sweet finish that faded to a mouth puckering dryness as time went on.

So, yes. I love this whiskey. I bought it on an excited whim and was initially disappointed. I don't know if I just wasn't feeling it that day. It was my first "finished bourbon' maybe my palette just wasn't ready for it. As I spent more time with it, I grew to love it more and more. And since my local stores are out of it, I will miss it. But there's always a new one to try so I won't miss it for too long.

Border Small Batch: Release Party

Last week I received word that one of the few local distilleries in the area was going to be having a release party for their bourbon. Needless to say, I had to be there. I mean, I've driven 4 hours to 14 hours on multiple occasions just to sample bourbon. What kind of whiskey geek would I be if I couldn't drive an hour and a half to go to something as momentous as a release party?

A pretty crappy one, that's what kind.

Full sized barrels used

The still is used to make vodka, gin and whiskey

I'd invited a buddy to ride along, convinced my wife that visiting a distillery was a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon and borrowed some money from September's Whiskey Fund. (Seriously. All of my summer whiskey money has been allocated to the Kentucky trip in two weeks.) 

We got to 45th Parallel distillery about 12:30 or so. It isn't much to look at. It's a simple, steel building built in a rural industrial area. While the distillery does tours, they aren't relying on a tourism trade to keep the lights on (might I add a wish that you go help them make it a bigger part of their business though, it's a nice place). Aside from produce whiskey, gin and vodka, they also do a fair amount of contract distilling. The friend of mine who rode along came with because they make an Aquavit for one of his other friends and I've heard rumors that they distill the white whiskey for Death's Door as well (turns out that isn't a true rumor, but I didn't know that at the time). I'd been on a tour here back in February—had a nice chat with the owner. (As a possible measure of how many or few tours they do, one of the employees picked me out of the crowd as I was standing in line and came up with an "I remember you!" and thanked me for coming back for this.)

Don't judge the smile lines!

My sample of Border

There were three reasons I was excited to come back for the release of the bourbon. One is that I like seeing local craft distillers. The other is that I remembered from the last time I'd been there that he was aging in full size barrels. Also I had actually liked the Death's Door...for what it was. If that rumor had been true, then I'd have been very happy to taste an aged product by the same distiller. Once again, it wasn't but I didn't know that then.

So we got there at 12:30. They already had a line that went all the way through the distillery. Luckily, the samples start near the back of the line. I got mine. My initial thoughts were not great. It tasted a bit funky. But I liked it enough to buy a bottle and give it a thorough review. Standing in the heat, drinking it out of a small plastic cup was not the ideal situation for tasting. And I knew it. I'd need to spend some time with this to be sure.  

By the time we made it through the line we'd seen the fermenting tanks, the bottling set-up, the still, and had picked up a bottle and a t-shirt to commemorate the occasion. I had fun.

Ok, I hear you. All that is well and good. But is it actually any good? 

Border Small Batch Straight Bourbon Whiskey

Bottle: This is an attractive wax, sealed bottle with a painted-on label and an embossed leather neck tag. No age statement.

ABV: 45.6%

Color: Dark Amber, the color of a good amber ale.

Nose: Honeyed Apple that moves to brown sugar sweetness and back again. It really reminded me of Woodford Reserve.

Taste: A spicy cayenne entry and an oily mouthfeel. A sweet graininess as it moves back through the mouth. Hints of cinnamon red hot on the sides of the tongue.

Finish: high corn flavor on the finish, followed by more spice

This is a spicy bourbon. I'm not sure I've had one spicier. And like a spicy meal, adding water only increases it. I was fully prepared to not like this. Like I said the small sample had a bit of a funk to it. In hindsight, I chalk it up to the fact that it was hot, I was using a small plastic shot glass and...well, let's just say the air had just a bit of the farm freshness to it. (If you've been around a dairy farm, you'll know what I mean, if not...lucky you.) But in the end, I like it. 45th Parallel did a good job on it. If you're in Western Wisconsin, stop by the distillery and pick up a bottle. 

Two Empties and reviews of them.

People who know me well know that I am a geek. Not just with bourbon. No, not just with whiskey. No, not just in the computer sense. No...

Will you let me finish? Goodness. 

Ahem. Thank you.

I am a geek because I love knowing how things work. I have this immense curiosity that leads me to want to explore variables. It's one of the reasons I was good at that whole sciencey thing when I was studying astrophysics at the University of Minnesota. You know, before I got even more curious and dropped out to explore a bit more of life.

For the longest time, as a geek, I could use up all my curiosity in the pursuit of technology. Computers, the internet, learning to build web sites, learning to build computers, following the evolution of communities and socialization. But after a while I realized that I wasn't curious about that stuff anymore. I had followed it from toddler stages all the way to young adulthood and I had a pretty good idea of the person it was going to be. I was still it's friend, I liked it's company, but I just wasn't curious anymore.

I've baked practically since I was old enough to read the recipes. I loved the way that you could put all these pieces together, pop it into the oven and have something so different come out. Once I became interested in sprits, I found that while cooking was interesting, it was flavor that I was really curious about.

Flavor is amazing. Flavor curiosity is the reason I have 34-odd flavor infused vodkas in a small dark refrigerator in my office. Curiosity is the only reason that anyone would infuse vodka with black pepper. (Which, by the way, starts out sweet...then a nuclear bomb goes off in your mouth.)

Curiosity about flavor variables is also one of the reasons I love whiskey. From relatively minuscule number of ingredients an almost infinite number of flavor combinations are made. But, while the actual food-style ingredients are important, the process-ingredients are just as much so. The container, the temperature and the time. These are all things that cooks have known for a long time. A dark pan in an oven that runs hot burns baked goods, sometimes before they can even finish baking. The flavor is much different than that of a baked good in a glass pan baked at an even temperature for given time frame. In whiskey speak: a new barrel in a hot warehouse provides a much different flavor profile than a used barrel in a cool one. (That's not an exact analogy, but it's the best I can come up with right now.)

Variables. There are so may variables in whiskey. But the problem with most whiskies is that you get to taste all the different variable at once. Maybe you'll get one or two that have the same "recipe" but they were stored in different places for different times in. To top it off the people choosing the barrels were looking for different flavor profiles when they chose the barrels to go into the whiskies. Too many variables. 

Which is why this particular set of empties was so cool. It was the same juice. Aged for supposedly the same time. One batch in a new barrel, one in a used barrel. You really got to taste exactly what the effect of each variable was. This experiment was expensive. It ran about $100. But if there is one thing that I will consistently spend money on, it's my curiosity.

Now, since I said there would be a review, here are some tasting notes:

Woodford Reserve Master's Collection New Cask Rye:

Color: dark amber to golden brown

Nose: Initially I found Apple Jolly Ranchers, but after a little while it began to take on more of a earthy caramel scent

Taste: A sweet woodiness mixed with the grassy flavors of rye

Finish: Not much burn, a grainy funk that lasts a decent amount of time.

Woodford Reserve Master's Collection Aged Cask Rye:

Color: a light straw color

Nose: Honey, apples, sweet clover

Taste: Grassy and sweet, very grain forward

Finish: Short and sweet, low burn

And just because I was curious, for a while I took to mixing them 50-50: strong spearmint on the nose. Not generic mint, wintergreen or peppermint. Spearmint. Grassy grain on the tongue. Long warm finish with more grassy notes.

Overall I liked this whiskey. I didn't care for the price. $100 is a lot for this, but the experience and the satiated curiosity were worth it, even if the whiskey was not. Based on this, if Woodford released a permanent rye in the price range of their original bourbon, I'd give it the occasional look.

Another Empty? Old Grand-Dad, Bonded

Another Empty? Yes. I needed to make room on my shelf. I have a few bottles that have been around too long (too long = becoming the oldest bottle on the shelf with the least in it). The Rip Van Winkle was the first. This time around I emptied my bottle of Old Grand Dad, Bottled in Bond. I have a unique opportunity here to do something that I haven't seen done before. I wrote a review of this when I first got it. I'm going to post that here. Then I will add my current feelings about this bourbon, which have changed drastically.

It was last September. Yes. I've had this bottle a long time. 

Old Grand Dad Bottled in Bond 100 Proof has an oily, thick mouthfeel with a sweet almost sugery taste that clings with you almost until the next drink. The finish is nice and long. It’s spicy turning sweet as it goes. 

This is better with an above average splash of water than it is with just the few ice cubes I normally put in a drink as the high proof almost feels like it burns your mouth. Odd since I’ve had higher proof ones that doesn’t act this way.

Overall, I will finish the bottle. As of now, it was an interesting experiment, but I probably won’t buy again I can find a lot more that I like better for the same price. Of course, that opinion might change after a few more drinks. I’ll update if it does.

So now an update from today. My opinion of this has changed. I didn't like it originally. I tried to find any way to use this that didn't involve drinking it. I cooked with it when I knew it wasn't going to be a main flavor component. I used it in experiments. Anything to not drink it. But then something odd happened. Sometime in the last 3-4 months this bourbon grew on me.

I like it. I will buy it again, though I'm thinking next time I do, it will be the 114 proof version instead. I still add a bit more water than usual to this in order to tame and soften the rough edges on it. But as far as I'm concerned this is one to come back to. The only downside? This bottle is butt-ugly (orange, gold and green) and really draws attention to itself on the shelf. Just not in a good way.

An empty and a short review: Old Rip Van Winkle 10 year

This is my first empty since posting the stash online. Kind of momentous in a way.

I tend to get all nostalgic when a bottle is emptied. When I have something in my possession for long enough, I become sentimental about it. I once had a pen for 4 years. Nothing special, just a bic clicker with the University of Minnesota logo screen printed on it. I almost cried when I lost it. Ok, not really. But I did feel this momentary pang of loss. Whiskey is much the same way. Though I've never had one last a year much less, the four of that lovely, lovely pen...sigh...ahem. Err. Sorry.

I try not to have multiple bottles of the same thing on the shelf. So when something is gone, there is a very real chance that it is gone for the foreseeable future. Add to that, the fact that this whiskey was just a bit special to me and you have something else that I felt just a bit of a pang over. At least until I drank it and realized I'd kept it just a bit too long. (You can do that, in case you didn't know, so drink up.) 

So why was this whiskey special? Not because it was particularly good. It is good, very good, but will never be a go-to-gotta-have-it-on-the-shelf sort of bottle. I liked it, I just never really found myself going to it all that often. It was special because I found this the on my first trip to one of my favorite liquor stores. While that probably doesn't mean much to folks who just make a stop off for a case of beer, it is a special occasion in the life of a whiskey drinker. It means you found a place where people don't stop and give you funny looks for standing next to the "hard-likker" or even funnier looks when they see you holding one that has a price tag above $25. A good liquor store is a place where you can get recommendations and even some conversation in while you are there. So I found this bottle when I found that place. And that made me think kindly of it.

But now it's gone. Things have been shuffled around so you would have never known it was there. It only lives now in my memory and in these tasting notes from very shortly after I opened it...due to that whole keeping it too long thing. So forgive their brevity, I'd assumed I'd go back and fluff them out some more later.

Buckwheat honey and brown sugar on the nose. Later a hint of fruitiness appears. Mouth is sweet with a hint of mintiness, very low burn. The finish lasts a decent length of time.

I like this whiskey, I don't love it. I thought I loved it at first, but found myself consistently choosing others over it. And that's not how you define love. Still, it's very good and I suggest you try it if you run across it and haven't yet.

New Stash Addition and Review: Bulleit Rye

Can I tell you a little something about this week? This week, I moved my daughter into her first place that wasn't a dorm room. She's decided not to go back to college and wants to start her own life. Which, I can respect. I did something similar after my first year of college. Took me three years, but I finally went back. And I ended up on path I would have never even thought of if I had stayed in school and not taken the break. 

So, I'm moving her out of our house. She's about half packed. (Hopefully she'll be back for the other half soon.) I'm carrying her boxes along with her boyfriend who is just the tiniest bit closer to my age than hers. Just past the halfway point, in fact. And, of course, fatherly disapproval is in full effect. So we're moving things, I'm trying to be nice (and mostly succeeding) when he asks me if I'd seen the last MadMen. I love that show, so the question gets me talking. We have a little chat, nothing worth hugging it out over, but things are going good. When we get home, I tell my wife to let our kid know that the ban on her boyfriend coming over has been lifted. Not because I'm all of a sudden going to be friends with this "old man" (28) dating my daughter (20), but because I felt I needed to revisit my feelings regarding him. To keep the kid happy. And maybe to keep her visiting more often.

Which brings me to the new addition to my stash. Bulleit Rye is another thing I felt like I needed to revisit to see where my feelings currently were at. Unlike the kid's boyfriend, my initial feelings for this whiskey were very positive. But not unlike the kid's boyfriend, my first impressions were made at a time when I didn't know a lot about what I was judging. I'd just started my whiskey journey when I first tried Bulleit Bourbon. The Rye came out very shortly after that and I tried it as soon as I could get my hands on a bottle. I fell in love. It was the first rye, I'd had and I loved it. The flavors were so different from all the bourbons I'd been drinking. It was exciting and strange. I tasted more than just vanilla or carmel. There was something else. Something that overpowered all of that. And it excited me.

Fast forward a bit. I've tried other ryes now. I like them all, but most seem like they could almost be bourbons. My guess is a few percentage points the right way on either corn or rye on the mashbill and a lot of them would be bourbons. They are sweet and just not as exciting as that first rye was. So a revisit was in order. And let me tell you, my memory wasn't fooling me. I still love this rye. 

Nose: Clean, almost antiseptic. Cherry and pipe tobacco.

Taste: Initially just more cherry and tobacco, but after citrus, mint and some cinnamon candies come out to play after a bit.

Finish: This sticks with you a while. The flavor is there for long after the warmth fades.

Rating: For the price of this whiskey, there is no reason for it to not always be on your shelf. It works great in cocktails and I love to drink it neat. Inexpensive, tasty and versatile.  Love this one.

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Hello from the Future! I just wanted to let you know that I have revisited this review. Come see how I liked Bulleit Rye in 2018!