Hello again, friends! It is currently a hot one here in Minnesota’s Twin Cities metro area, and I am hiding indoors trying to convince the pups that they really do not want to go out and run around outside. It’s a hard sell. Having two pups in the house under a year old, they’ve barely seen summer yet, much less the extreme heat warning that we have been under for the beginning part of the week. Luckily, one of those pups is my own new puppy, and she takes her job of entertaining the guests very seriously, even indoors.
So what is a person to do after a long day of puppy wrangling? Well, enjoy a nice bourbon. That’s what. And lately, the one I’ve been enjoying is a relatively new product from Heaven Hill. Old Fitzgerald 7-Year-Old Bottled-in-Bond was announced just over a year ago now, but this is the first time I’ve been able to get my hands on it after Heaven Hill stopped sending us samples at some point last year.
Fun fact: I don’t really follow "bourbon news" all that much. Sure, I learn about things from press releases. But most of the things I discover, I find by walking through the liquor store and then looking up whatever bottle I happened to find online. Just like you guys. In fact, many of you are more up on the latest happenings than I am. And since Heaven Hill has never sent out press releases, even with their samples, I miss most of their announcements. Especially now. Luckily, they do send them to PR Newswire, so if I find a new bottle on the shelf, I can learn a little about it. I’ve never claimed to be a journalist; I’m just a bourbon fan who decided to start writing about it. And now I get sneak peeks at things because I was too stubborn to give up my writing habit.
So what is this newish bourbon that I’ve been enjoying? Well, Old Fitzgerald is an old brand with a deep history. Names like Pappy Van Winkle and Stitzel-Weller show up in it. For the last few decades, it has been owned and produced by Heaven Hill. Sometimes as a bottom-shelf bourbon, sometimes as a Super-High-End, Ultra-Premium bourbon in a fancy glass decanter. But no matter the price point, it has usually ranged from pretty good to really damn good. This release is no exception. It is made from a mash bill of 68% corn, 20% wheat, and 12% malted barley. Being bottled-in-bond, it is the product of one distilling season. In my bottle’s case, that season was Fall 2018. It was aged in new charred American oak barrels with a Level 3 char for seven years. The suggested retail price is $59.99 for a 700 mL bottle. I ended up paying $10 more than that.
So let’s dig in, shall we?
Old Fitzgerald 7-Year-Old Bottled-in-Bond
Purchase Info: $69.99 for a 700 mL bottle at Savage City Liquor, Savage, MN
Price per Drink (50 mL): $5.00
Details: 50% ABV. Distilled in the Fall 2018 distilling season. Mash bill of 68% corn, 20% wheat, and 12% malted barley. 7 years old.
Nose: Nutty with notes of caramel, vanilla, mint, leather, oak, and a hint of anise.
Mouth: Vanilla, honey, allspice, cinnamon, oak, and nuttiness.
Finish: Medium in warmth and length. Notes of anise, honey, oak, and cinnamon.
Thoughts: Very tasty. My wife, and tasting partner, has deemed it "oh my God!" good. She's a big wheated bourbon fan and has enjoyed most of the Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond bourbons that we've covered. This is no exception. She's already stated that if we see it again, we will be buying another one. For me, I find it to be very good, though I'm not a huge fan of the strong anise note on the finish. But I'm not a fan of anise/licorice flavors in general. That said, even for me, that is a minor issue, as it plays really nicely with the rest of the notes. I really like it.
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