13th Annual BourbonGuy.com Brackets: Round 1c: Maker’s 46 vs Woodford Reserve

Good afternoon friends! We are back yet again with the third 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 2’s Number 3 seed, Woodford Reserve taking on Number 2 seed, Maker’s 46.

Maker’s 46 was the second wide-release, permanent product in the history of Maker’s Mark. The first being…Maker’s Mark. It came after much experimentation under the direction Bill Samuels Jr., son of founder Bill Samuels Sr. The “46” is said to be the winning trial number in the original experiments. Maker’s 46 takes the original wheated Maker’s Mark and “finishes” with the addition of French Oak staves toward the end of the aging process for a sweeter and spicier product. Maker’s 46 is produced at the Maker’s Mark Distillery in Loretto, KY. This bottle was purchased at Viking Liquor Barrel in Prior Lake, MN for $29.97 for a 750 mL bottle or $2.00 per pour.

Their opponent is Woodford Reserve, a product of the Brown Forman Company of Louisville, KY, partially produced at their aptly named showpiece Woodford Reserve Distillery in Versailles, KY. That distillery always felt like one you should dress up for. Fancy place. This bottle was purchased at Total Wine in Burnsville, MN for $29.99 for a 750 mL bottle or $2.00 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.

Crooked Meteor (Maker’s 46)

Price Per Drink (50 mL): $2.00

Details: 47% ABV

Nose: Caramel, vanilla, nutmeg, and a hint of cherry.

Mouth: Spicy and sweet. Nutmeg, cherry, cocoa, vanilla, black tea, and oak.

Finish: Medium in warmth and length. Notes of sweet cherry, vanilla, cocoa, and nutmeg.

Jittery Compass (Woodford Reserve)

Price Per Drink (50 mL): $2.00

Details: 45.2% ABV

Nose: Banana, cherry, vanilla, cinnamon, and a touch of caramel.

Mouth: Cherry, caramel, vanilla, nutmeg, and ginger

Finish: Medium in both length and warmth. Notes of vanilla, ginger, caramel, and nutmeg.

Thoughts:

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: This is a tough one! They are both really good. Crooked Meteor is spicy and sweet. Jittery Compass has nice fruit notes and also has tasty baking spices. Crooked Meteor  has a more complex mouth and that's carrying it today.

Post-Reveal Thoughts: I love tastings where I need to have both tasting ounces almost gone before I am forced to make a decision. That usually means that they are both good and I am enjoying the tasting. And this one was one of those. Both were good and I was starting to think I was going to need to steal some of my wife’s in order to find a winner. It was that close. But in the end, the more complex Maker’s 46 won out by just a touch.

Winner: Maker’s 46 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.

Woodford Reserve Batch Proof, 2024

My friends! Today, I come to you with a product that has been sitting in my Whiskey Closet since September 2024. After driving for about 10 hours that day, I picked it up in Bangor, ME. I know it was a liquor store we stopped at between a visit to a dispensary and the BBQ place where we were having supper. It had been a rough day in the car to wrap up a long drive—one that ultimately took us from Minnesota to our vacation destination in Maine. All I wanted at that point was to collapse on the hotel bed and watch my Green Bay Packers play in Brazil.

Because it had been a very long drive over the course of three days, I promptly lost the receipt. And then promptly forgot almost everything about where I bought it. I have a vague recollection that the shelf tag listed it around $125, but that’s about it. I do remember being extremely happy to pick this guy up as a vacation souvenir. I mean, it had always been good in the past, so I didn’t figure I had much to worry about.

So what is it? Well, it’s the Batch Proof version of Woodford Reserve, silly. I mean, it’s right there in the name. As far as I can tell, this particular batch came out in early 2024—the press release listing one with this proof has a February 2024 date on it. Beyond that, there’s not much more to say. I just finally stumbled upon it in the closet and decided to bring it out.

Let’s see how it tastes.

Woodford Reserve Master's Collection: Batch Proof, 2024

Purchase Info: This was purchased in September in Bangor, ME, for somewhere around $125. I’ve lost the receipt and can’t remember the store—or most of the details—other than it was in Bangor. The suggested retail price is $149.99 for a 700 mL bottle.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $10.71 (at MSRP)

Details: 60. 6% ABV

Nose: Maple syrup, almond, caramel, vanilla, and oak.

Mouth: Caramel, cherry, baking spice, cocoa, and oak.

Finish: Hot and long with notes of cinnamon, cocoa, cherry, honey, and oak.

Thoughts: This is a hot one! Hot in the mouth, hot on the finish. Luckily, it takes a splash of water well. The mouthfeel is thick and rich. It’s sweet, spicy, and full of nice fruit and oak notes. What’s not to like? I mean… the price, but that’s everything these days. Oh—and the fact that they dropped the bottle size down to 700 mL from 750 mL since the last time I got my hands on one. Not a huge fan of folks doing a sneaky price increase like that. That said, I like the bourbon a lot! It’s really, really tasty.

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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.

12th Annual BourbonGuy.com Brackets: Round 1: Old Forester 86 proof vs Jeppson’s Bourbon 100 proof

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 2025 BourbonGuy.com Brackets starts with Division 2’s Number 4 seed, Old Forester, taking on Number 1 seed, Jeppson’s 100 Proof Bourbon.

Old Forester, the country’s first bottled bourbon, is a product of Brown-Forman in Louisville, KY. It shares a corporate umbrella with Woodford Reserve and Jack Daniel’s. This 86-proof version is their entry-level Old Forester. It was purchased at Viking Liquor Barrel (Prior Lake, MN) for $22.49 per bottle or $1.66 per pour.

Their opponent is a bourbon that I’ve never had before. In fact, I didn’t even know it existed before going shopping for this competition. Jeppson’s 100 Proof Bourbon is a sourced bourbon from the folks in Chicago that bring you Malört. If you know anything about Malört, you can see why this gave me pause. It was sourced from distilleries in both Indiana and Tennessee. This bottle was purchased at South Lyndale Liquor in Minneapolis, MN, for $19.99 for a 750 mL bottle or $1.33 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.

Zesty Doorknob (Old Forester 86 proof)

Price Per Drink (50 mL): $1.66

Details: 43% ABV

Nose: Vanilla sugar, red fruit, a touch of baking spice

Mouth: Oak, red fruit, and baking spice

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

Gleaming Pancake (Jeppson’s Bourbon 100 Proof)

Price Per Drink (50 mL): $1.33

Details: 50% ABV

Nose: Dusty oak and a nice mineral note. It’s reminding me a bit of an old garage

Mouth: Soft in the mouth. Cinnamon, caramel, and oak

Finish: On the longer side of medium, with notes of almond, oak, and baking spice

Thoughts:

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: Gleaming Pancake is much softer on the mouth with a nicer mouthfeel. Zesty Doorknob is a bit harsher. Flavors are decent on both, but I like Gleaming Pancake more.

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. But instead, because the lower-priced one was a sourced whiskey. Adding a middleman usually increases the price. Also, since the Jeppson’s name is most well known for Malört—a spirit marketed as being really unpleasant to drink—I did not have high hopes for this one. But that’s why we do this blind.

Winner: Jeppson’s 100 Proof Bourbon 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.

12th Annual BourbonGuy.com Brackets: The “Man, It’s Getting Hard to Find Things Under $25” Edition

You know what time it is! The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament has already started, 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, though 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 whenever I decide to hang up the ol’ keyboard, I already know what my last series of posts will be: brackets. But don’t worry—that’s a ways off yet. I’d like to make it to at least 15 years of publishing first.

And let me tell you, this year’s competition is a good one. Of the seven major bourbon producers that existed when I started this site (Beam/Maker’s, Buffalo Trace/Barton, MGP (now including Lux Row), Heaven Hill, Four Roses, Wild Turkey, and Brown-Forman), five are represented this year. The other two have been featured often enough that I used their spots for some newer faces.

The Selection Rules

This year’s selection process was simple:

• The bourbon had to be in a 750 mL bottle

• It had to cost under $25

That’s it!

For seeding, I sorted by proof first, followed by stated age (if applicable), and then used price as the final tiebreaker. Here’s what that got us:

Division 1

• Seed 1: Benchmark Bonded

  • A reader suggestion from last year. It's not available in Minnesota (that I’ve seen), so I grabbed it at Binny’s Beverage Depot in Chicago for $19.99 back in September of 2024. 100 proof.

  • Nonsense name: Baffled Toaster

• Seed 2: Rebel 100

  • The first of three wheated bourbons in the competition—and the cheapest of the three 100-proof bottles.

  • Purchased at Viking Liquor Barrel (Prior Lake, MN) for $17.09.

  • Nonsense name: Grumpy Cloud

• Seed 3: Jim Beam Black

  • The newly age-stated 7-year-old version, bottled at 90 proof.

  • Purchased at Total Wine (Burnsville, MN) for $20.99.

  • Nonsense name: Wobbly Cactus

• Seed 4: Old Bardstown

  • The only true craft whiskey in the contest, distilled by Willett in Bardstown, KY, and bottled at 90 proof.

  • Purchased at South Lyndale Liquor (Minneapolis, MN) for $21.99.

  • Nonsense name: Rusty Marshmallow

Division 2

• Seed 1: Jeppson’s 100 Proof

  • A sourced bourbon from the folks in Chicago who make Malört.

  • Purchased at South Lyndale Liquor (Minneapolis, MN) for $19.99.

  • Nonsense name: Gleaming Pancake

• Seed 2: Larceny Bourbon

  • The second of three wheated bourbons, coming in at 92 proof.

  • Purchased at Total Wine (Burnsville, MN) for $22.99.

  • Nonsense name: Soggy Parrot

• Seed 3: Maker’s Mark Bourbon

  • The final wheated bourbon in the contest—also the lowest proof (90 proof) and highest price of the three.

  • Purchased at Viking Liquor Barrel (Prior Lake, MN) for $24.97.

  • Nonsense name: Lumpy Telescope

• Seed 4: Old Forester 86 Proof

  • The lowest proof of the contest, making it the lowest seed.

  • Purchased at Viking Liquor Barrel (Prior Lake, MN) for $22.49.

  • Nonsense name: Zesty Doorknob

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 storylines and surprises along the way—wheated matchups, high proof vs. low proof, price battles, and more. But that’s for the future. In the meantime, who you got? Let us know down in the comments!

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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.

Jack Daniel’s Single-Barrel Barrel-Proof Rye Whiskey

I’m a big fan of serendipity. Most of my most interesting experiences in life have been completely unplanned. Take tonight’s whiskey. I’d been sitting on a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Bonded Rye for months before it finally came up in the editorial calendar. Later that week, I was wandering through the liquor store to see if anything caught my fancy when I saw its barrel-proof big Brother, for the first time. My closest Total Wine is set up very similarly to many others across the country. They have the extra-wide whiskey aisle with bourbon up one side, things they are trying to push down the center and Canadian, Flavored, “American” whiskey, and then Rye down the other as you make your way toward the front of the store.

I went up the bourbon section without seeing anything. There were a bunch of boxes of Spirits Direct crap down the center. I turned the corner to go down the other side. Glaced at the Canadian and didn’t see anything that interested me. I walked past the flavored section without stopping. I looked at most of the American Whiskey and Rye without seeing anything when, on the second-to-last shelf on the final facing, I saw this bottle of Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Barrel Proof Rye. It was the only one there. And knowing that I hadn’t covered it prior, it was in my cart before I even looked at the price.

Of course, then I looked at the price and was relieved that it was well under a hundred dollars. So, what is this newish release from the Tennessee Behemoth of American Whiskey? Well, it’s something that we’ve kinda looked at before. Back in 2020, Jack Daniel’s released a limited edition Single-Barrel Barrel-Proof Rye. About a year ago, they announced that it would become a permanent ongoing addition to the Single-Barrel lineup—a very welcome addition, in my opinion.

Like the other Jack Daniel’s Rye Whiskeys, this uses their standard rye mash bill of 70% rye, 18% corn, and 12% malted barley. Bottles will range between 125° proof and 145° proof. The suggested retail price is $59.99, though it was quite a bit more than that here in Minnesota at $75.

So let’s see how it tastes.

Jack Daniel’s Single-Barrel Barrel-Proof Rye Whiskey

Purchase Info: $74.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Total Wine, Burnsville, MN

Price per Drink (50 mL): $5.00

Details: 65.25% ABV. Barrel House: 1-09. Barrel Number: 24-02588. Bottling Date: March 12, 2024

Nose: Spearmint, caramel, cedar, and circus peanuts (candy).

Mouth: Sweet and as hot as you'd expect 130° proof to be. Notes of Cinnamon, spearmint, caramel, and oak.

Finish: Medium length and hot. Notes of cinnamon, oak, banana, and caramel.

Thoughts: It is very sweet and very hot when neat. Luckily, a touch of water tames the heat without eliminating the sweetness or spice notes. This is delicious—absolutely delicious. Is it worth almost twice the price of the Bonded Rye? Well, that's up to you. All I’ll say is that I’m reaching to pour this one even though both are on my shelf next to one another. And honestly, I'd buy it again if I saw it at the store. Tasting them side-by-side, they taste pretty similar. As you might expect. But the added proof is quite tasty. When it comes to Jack Daniel’s, the less water they add, the more I like it.

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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.

Jack Daniel’s Bonded Rye

It is easy to get caught up in the negative side of any story. I mean, after two solid years of drought, 75% of my yard is currently flooded. I could be super unhappy with that. But, since we were able to get our garden in before all the rain, we shouldn’t have to water it for a while. And since our garden doesn’t like city water, it’s good that we won’t need to use it as soon as usual.

Or take tonight’s whiskey. I bought this 700 mL bottle of Jack Daniel’s Bonded Rye for $34.99 back in March. However, Jack Daniel’s Bonded Rye recently replaced Jack Daniel’s Straight Rye, which I reviewed back in November 2017 for $29.99 for a 750 mL bottle. That’s an additional five bucks for 50 milliliters less whiskey. And sure, I could be mad if I focused just on that. However, the proof went up along with the price. And honestly, if you look a little deeper and do the math, the price increase is slightly less than the difference in inflation since that time.*

So, I guess what I’m saying is that we got a higher-proof whiskey for the same effective price, which if you focused only on the negative items, you might have missed. Now, while I wander around the house singing a song from Monty Python’s The Life of Brian, let’s let the press release from Jack Daniel’s have a word.

Jack Daniel’s Bonded Rye has a grain bill of 70% rye, 18% corn, and 12% malted barley and is charcoal mellowed before aging in new, handmade American white oak barrels. It opens with notes of dried fruit followed by lingering hints of toffee, imparting a bold, complex, and balanced taste with a rye spice finish.

Alright, I’m back. Let’s see what the BourbonGuy household thought of this one, shall we?

Jack Daniel’s Bonded Rye

Purchase Info: $34.99 for a 700 mL bottle at South Lyndale Liquors, Minneapolis, MN

Price per Drink (50 mL): $2.50

Details: 50% ABV. Mash bill: 70% rye, 18% corn, 12% malted barley.

Nose: Cedar, cinnamon, and chocolate.

Mouth: Zesty spices of cinnamon candy and clove, vanilla, citrus zest, cocoa, and oak.

Finish: Medium length and warmth with notes of oak, almond, baking spices, and just a touch of banana.

Thoughts: This is decent. Like its predecessor, it's not a world-beater by any means, but it's solid. It drinks well neat and works well in a cocktail. The oak is more prominent than I’d have thought for a product from Jack Daniel’s core lineup. It is sweeter than I usually like my rye, but it seems to work in this case. If you loved Jack Daniel’s Straight Rye, this is more full-flavored and isn’t as soft as that. If you really like Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Rye, this has a higher proof, but it reminds me of that. However, Single Barrel is over $50, so personally, I’d buy the Bonded Rye more often for that reason.

Now I need to figure out how to get Always Look on the Bright Side of Life out of my head…

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*$29.99/750 = 3.999 cents per milliliter. $0.03999 x 700 = $27.99. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, $27.99 in November 2017 had the same buying power as $35.44 in March 2024—or slightly more than the $34.99 that I paid for the new bottle. Basically it’s a wash.

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11th Annual BourbonGuy.com Brackets: The Championship Rounds

Welcome back, folks! We are now at the end of the 2024 contest. Eight whiskeys entered the arena. Four have fallen by the wayside. There have been some delicious treats, with not a single stinker in the bunch. Let’s see how it all ends and see if we’ve learned anything along the way. First, we have the Round Two matchups.

Division 2: Whiskey A (Buffalo Trace) vs. Whiskey B (George Dickel Bourbon)

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: The noses are pretty similar. “A” is more vibrant, “B” is nuttier. In the mouth, “A” is very nicely balanced with a nice sweetness. “B” is spicier, also with a nice flavor.

Winner: “B” (George Dickel Bourbon) moves on to the Championship Round based on the nice spiciness.

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Division 1: Whiskey A (Old Forester 100 Proof) vs. Whiskey B (Old Grand-Dad 114 Proof)

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: The nose on “B” has more caramel and nuttiness. The nose on “A” is more muted with a faint medicinal note. “B” is very spicy on the month. “A” has notes of red fruit and marzipan.

Winner: “B” is spicier, but that spiciness overwhelms the other notes. “A” is more well-rounded, which I prefer. “A” (Old Forester 100 proof) moves on to the Championship Round

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Championship Round: Whiskey A (George Dickel Bourbon) vs. Whiskey B (Old Forester 100 Proof)

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: The nose on “A” shows more caramel and vanilla versus the fruit notes on “B.” The mouth on “A” is showing spice, caramel, and oak. “B” shows more fruit. It’s close, but I think “A” pulls ahead based on the oak and spice.

Winner: “A” (George Dickel Bourbon)

Congrats to George Dickel 8-Year-Old Bourbon, the 2024 BourbonGuy.com Bracket Champion!

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Lessons Learned:

This was an interesting contest for me. I like contests where I know I won’t need to brace myself before taking the first sip in a tasting. Every one of the bourbons was good. I don’t think I’d say there is anything in here that would warrant a “meh/neutral” rating if it were being tasted alone. That might be a first.

So, what did I learn about each of these?

Ok, right off the bat, I expected a little blowback on George Dickel Bourbon even being in the contest. I got it last year when I included their Bottled-in-Bond Whiskey, and I honestly expected the same this year. I am personally shocked that Dickel won the contest. I honestly expected Old Forester 100 proof to win based on what I thought my personal preferences were. That said, upon reflection, I’m not shocked that the only age-stated bourbon in the batch won the whole thing. It’s hard to beat time in a barrel for making good whiskey. Add in the fact that it was less than $25 and less than 100 proof, and the whole thing just makes me happy. I love an underdog story.

Moving over to the other Championship contender, as stated above, Old Forester 100 Proof would have been my favorite to win the contest at the outset. Not only does it sit in my favorite proof point, but it was also the most expensive of the bunch. Not that price always correlates to quality (that’s one of the reasons we run this contest each year), but it certainly correlates to how much a company thinks people would be willing to pay for something. And that has at least a passing relationship with how good something is, especially with a product that has been on the market for a long time like this. That said, it came in second and won its division. It’s a good bourbon and one that is often on my shelf.

Newcomer Wheel Horse Bourbon handled itself admirably. It didn’t quite have the gusto to knock off a competitor with lots of age on it, but it should hold its head up high. It lost to the eventual champion this year. That’s nothing to sneeze at. It’s good whiskey and a good value. It may have advanced if it had had a different matchup in the first round. I think I’ll be doing a full review of this one in the near future if I don’t drink it all first.

Elijah Craig is a great bourbon. It is more delicate than other bourbons in this list, having neither the age nor the proof of other contestants. Because of that, it doesn’t surprise me that it lost in the first round. But with no comparisons, I'm a happy camper if this is in my glass.

When I think of Buffalo Trace, the old chant from high school sports of “O-Ver-Rate-Ed clap clap clapclapclap.” That isn’t to say that it is a stinker or even a “meh” bourbon. No, it is very good. But when I get comments from people saying that it goes for $50 in their neck of the woods, it’s hard to take it seriously these days. Especially when contrasted with other comparable products. Sazerac won the PR lottery when they got the contract to have Pappy chosen from among their stocks oh-so-many years ago.

I’m just going to copy and paste what I said last year about Old Tub, as nothing has changed in my assessment: “Old Tub reminded me that Jim Beam makes good whiskey. It just needs some proof. Go below 100° proof, and it gets way too nutty for many folks, including me, when the mood isn’t right.”

I didn’t learn much from Old Grand-Dad 114 that I didn’t already know. I knew it was a great bourbon that didn’t cost much, and nothing about that has changed. The proof adds a nice spice to what might otherwise be a lackluster bourbon that would be too grain-forward for my personal tastes. That’s why I like Bonded and 114 so much better than the 80 proof.

Finally, Ezra Brooks 99 is right there with the other bourbons in this group. It was great as a 90° proof. And with that great base, the proof bump makes it an absolute winner. Sure, the price is higher than the now-discontinued 90, but I think the quality went up more. If I’m not buying for content, this is one that I pick up a lot.

Ok, so we have one further contest to take a look at before we put the brackets to bed this year. I retired Wild Turkey 101 from the yearly bracket contest a few years ago. It won every time it appeared until I paired it against other, more expensive, 100-ish proof bourbons during the pandemic. It is literally the GOAT when it comes to inexpensive bourbon. One of the guys I talk to at a local liquor store describes more expensive bourbons using Wild Turkey 101 as the measuring stick. “Is this worth four bottles of Wild Turkey 101?” And I love that. So, I decided to bring it out of retirement to see how this year’s winner stacked up against the old bird. (You may notice it hiding in the back of the photo above.)

Emeritus Round: Whiskey A (George Dickel Bourbon) vs. Whiskey B (Wild Turkey 101)

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: “A” has a lot of oak on both the nose and mouth, along with toffee on the mouth. “B” shows nice cinnamon on the nose and mouth along with some caramel on the mouth. Both have a nice spice.

Winner: Very close, but I'm leaning toward “B” (Wild Turkey) in the Emeritus Contest.

Now that we are done, it’s time to turn the page to the future. Next week, we will look at the samples that have been stacking up while the contest was going on. As much fun as this was, it’s fun to try new bourbons, too.

Once again, congrats to George Dickel 8-Year-Old Bourbon on their 2024 Championship!

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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.