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Thursday, May 23, 2013
Dusty Thursday: David Nicholson 1843 (circa 1955)
This was an old Stitzel-Weller brand bottled for the Peter Hauptmann Co. in St. Louis that I haven't been able to find too much about. I'm hoping some of our bourbon experts can shed some light on it in the comments. This one is a 1955 bottling. The brand is now a sourced bourbon owned by Luxco.
David Nicholson 1843, BIB, 100 Proof
The nose has honey, floral notes and some citrus. The palate is rich with vanilla bean, butterscotch and some oak. The finish returns to some of the floral notes.
This is actually far better than I expected it would be with some real complexity. I've had a number of Stitzel-Weller bottom shelfers that weren't great. This is really good stuff and more akin to some of the better Old Fitzgeralds I've had.
David Nicholson is still being bottled AFAIK. At least it was quite recently. Originally made under contract by Old Fitzgerald (Stitzel-Weller), it was basically Old Fitzgerald as a 7-year old instead of five. Or, another way to look at it is that it was Old Weller Antique at 100 proof instead of 107. Either way, it was delicious bourbon, available only in a relatively small region, and your 1955 version would have been some of the best bourbon ever produced. I have some from the 1990s that was United Distillers' S/W product, and I'd guess that Heaven Hill is still fulfilling orders for them from Bernheim, which would not be as good as yours, but better than current Old Fitz. For those who enjoy today's Old Fitz, this would be a brand worth seeking out. I think it's available from the usual internet marketers; the last bottle I bought was from internetwines.com
ReplyDeleteThanks EllenJ, that's very helpful info.
ReplyDeleteI have acquired a few bottles of David Nicholson 1843 (circa 1955). They were stored in basement cellar. Unopened bottles any idea what the value would be?
ReplyDelete