Crowdsourced Whiskey: Old Forester 1920

When I asked readers what affordable, available whiskey I should be drinking, the top answer, by far, was Old Forester 1920, so I had to give it a try.  Traditionally, I have not been a fan of Brown Forman products, but I have enjoyed some of their recent releases in this series, so let's see how this one is.

Old Forester 1920, 57.5% abv ($60)

This has a really nice nose with polished wood, the type of nose you don't find on many current release bourbons. The palate starts rich, balanced and fairly dry.  After that, it develops a strong, unpleasant acidic note which develops into a berry like finish.

Water is really good for this one. A few drops of water cuts the acidity and brings out spicy rye notes from nose to finish which complement the dry, woody notes and make for a really delicious drink. This is a really nice bourbon provided you add some water.

Thanks to all the readers who suggested this.  A tasty, available, high proof bourbon for $60 is quite find these days.

New Releases You Don't Need

Given that we are fullt into the holiday season, I thought I would make this easy and review a bunch of new whiskey releases that you don't need to buy.


Old Forester Birthday Bourbon 2015, 12 yo, 50% abv ($80)

I've often been critical of this annual release from Brown Forman (though I did like last year's). This year's release isn't bad. It's got oak and maple syrup on the nose, a touch of acid and vanilla on the palate and a light vanilla finish. It's inoffensive and decent, but why on earth anyone would pay $80 for it, I don't know, especially when you can still get the Old Forester 1897, which is better, for cheaper.  


Maker's 46 Cask Strength, 54.45% ($40 for 375 ml; available only at the distillery gift shop)

I was a big fan of the regular Maker's Mark Cask Strength, and I generally like Maker's 46, so I was excited to try this cask strength version of the barrel stave finished Maker's 46. The nose is floral, earthy and fruity. The palate comes on with sickly sweet candy notes, like Kool-Aid. The sweetness dissipates after a few seconds but there's nothing much left, or whatever is left is so dominated by the initial sweetness that it's undetectable. The finish tastes like artificial sweetener. Yuck. Stay away!





Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Barrel Proof, Barrel 15-4962, 66.1% abv ($65)

Jack Daniel's finally gives us a barrel proof offering with this new version of the single barrel. The nose starts with bananas foster and ends with rotten bananas. The palate is banana liqueur and the finish is banana candy. Surprisingly, it's not too hot for the high abv. Well, JD delivers the bananas, which I suppose their fans must like. I don't much like bananas, so I thought this one was worse than the Maker's Kool-Aid.




For those of you who love to buy every special release, I just saved you $185 (plus tax) and who knows how much on the secondary market!  You're welcome.


Thanks to The Whiskey Jug and Steve Neese for the samples.

Old Forester 1897

Old Forester 1897 is a new Bottled in Bond expression from Brown Forman, part of their Whiskey Row series.

Old Forester 1897, BIB, 50% abv ($50)

The nose is dry with straw and some soapy notes. The palate is grassy/grainy with spicy notes of clove and ginger, showing more rye than most Old Forester does. The finish is the first time there is much sweetness in the whiskey with some gentle sugar on the tongue surrounded by spice.

As regular readers know, I don't generally have much good to say about Brown Forman products, but this is the best Old Forester I've had in quite a while. It's dry and complex without the bitter, off notes that have dragged down some of their past whiskeys.  It's really quite nice.

Thanks to John Burlowski for the sample.

 

Woodford Rye

Brown Forman has a mixed legacy when it comes to rye whiskey.  On the one hand, for years after the 1996 fire that destroyed the Heaven Hill Distillery, Brown Forman made Rittenhouse Rye. Rittenhouse is great rye, and it really became a popular mainstream brand during the period that it was being produced using Brown Forman whiskey.

On the other hand, the only rye under the Woodford label was a pair of ryes released as part of the 2011 Woodford Reserve Master's Collection, one aged in new, charred oak and another aged in used barrels.  Most of the Master's Collection releases range from mediocre to terrible.  The ryes may have been more on the mediocre side, but that's not saying much.

So I was a bit apprehensive when I heard that Brown Forman would release a straight rye whiskey under the Woodford Reserve label.  Would this be similar to the old BF Rittenhouse or would this be like the earlier Woodford ryes?

The new Woodford rye is a non-age statement straight rye made from a mashbill of 53% rye, 33% corn and 14% malted barley.

Woodford Reserve Rye, 45.2% abv ($40)

The nose has a nice rye spice on it, a promising beginning. The palate comes on with nice, sweet rye spice, then the spice starts to fade a bit and it gets very sweet and settles into a candy finish with a touch of spice.

All in all, this is pretty decent.  The nose and early palate are great, but it gets a little too sweet for me by midpalate.  Still, a good rye that offers a slightly different profile from the other standard ryes that are out there. It's certainly worth trying. 

Thanks to John Burlowski for the sample.

Tempest in a Tennessee Teapot

There have been a lot of pixels spilled in the whiskey blogosphere lately about a new bill in Tennessee to amend the definition of Tennessee Whiskey.  Most commentators have portrayed this as a cynical move by Diageo, owner of George Dickel, to undermine their big competitor Brown Forman, owner of Jack Daniel's.  There are a lot of accusations flying on both sides, so I thought some background might be helpful.

Before May of last year, there was no legal definition of Tennessee Whiskey.  None.  While Dickel and Daniel's both made a spirit that complied with the federal definition of bourbon, there was nothing stopping anyone from marketing any other whiskey as Tennessee Whiskey.

What was it that necessitated a new law last year?  Some speculated that it was the craft distillery movement and Popcorn Sutton in particular.  Popcorn Sutton was a legendary Tennessee moonshiner, and the his namesake brand was making an unaged whiskey and marketing it as Popcorn Sutton's Tennessee White Whiskey.  This may not have sat well with Brown Forman, who moved the bill to create a definition of Tennessee Whiskey based on how Jack Daniel's (and George Dickel) made it.

That law's definition mirrored the federal definition of bourbon except that the whiskey (1) had to be filtered through maple charcoal prior to aging; and (2) had to be manufactured and aged in Tennessee.  When the law came up last year, Prichard's, a Tennessee craft distiller that does not use the Lincoln County process of sugar maple charcoal filtering, objected.  As a result, a special clause was added to the bill exempting any distillery that was licensed in the year 2000, a very narrow bracket that included only Prichard's.

Now, Diageo has proposed an amendment to the law which makes several key changes, eliminating the requirements that Tennessee Whiskey must be:  (1) aged in new barrels; (2) aged in Tennessee; and (3) filtered through maple charcoal, replacing that provision with a requirement that it be filtered through charcoal (i.e. not necessarilly maple charcoal). It also includes an exception for any whiskey that includes words between "Tennessee" and "Whiskey."  This would make it clear that "Tennessee White Whiskey" is a permissible usage, but that merely codifies the interpretation given by the Tennessee ABC, which advised last year that it would allow the terms Tennessee White Whiskey, Tennessee Corn Whiskey and Tennessee Unaged Whiskey to be used without complying with the law's requirements for "Tennessee Whiskey."

It appears that the amendment hadn't even been formally introduced when Brown Forman fired the first shot, accusing Diageo of trying to weaken the standards of Tennessee Whiskey. Diageo responded saying that they were trying to maintain flexibility.  Both Chuck Cowdery and Mark Gillespie of WhiskyCast have covered the back and forth extensively.

For my part, I think this is a much smaller deal than it's being made out to be.  People have been quick to beat up on Diageo, and that's always fun, but I'm not sure I buy it.  Chuck Cowdery opines that permitting aging in used barrels is an attempt by Diageo to weaken Jack Daniel's not because of Dickel but because Daniel's is challenging Diageo's flagship brand, Johnnie Walker.

The problem with this theory is that allowing some producers to reuse barrels doesn't hurt Daniel's at all. The amendment doesn't require Daniel's to age in reused barrels so nothing they do would have to change.  And I don't see how other Tennessee Whiskeys aging in used barrels hurts Daniel's.  Let's face it.  For most of the world, Jack Daniel's is Tennessee Whiskey (and probably bourbon too).  They don't know or care how it's made.  No change in what the other, comparatively tiny brands do is going to hurt Daniel's or its giant slice of market share.

Second, as noted above, this law has been in place for less than a year. A year ago, nothing was stopping anyone from aging Tennessee Whiskey in used barrels, and no one seemed to think the sky was falling the way Brown Forman seems to think it is now.  If this truly is an attack on Jack Daniel's, it's a weak and ham handed one.

Curiously, everyone is talking about used barrels, and almost no one is talking about the fact that this bill eliminates the requirement that Tennessee Whiskey use the Lincoln County Process, the thing that has been the single defining feature of Tennessee Whiskey.  The new law substitutes "charcoal" filtering for "maple charcoal filtering."  That's a small change with a big impact.  Maple charcoal filtering is the Lincoln County Process traditionally used for Tennessee Whiskey.  Charcoal filtering would include that but presumably would also include filtering through activated charcoal (think Brita), which is the chill filtering process used by many bourbons.  From the perspective of the integrity of Tennessee Whiskey, I would be more worried about the elimination of the Lincoln County Process requirement than the used barrels.

While Diageo may be facing a barrel shortage that would make it beneficial to age in used casks, the real benefit for them could be aging whiskey out of state.  On WhiskyCast, Brown Forman's spokesman noted that Diageo has been shifting some aging to the Stitzel-Weller site in Kentucky.  Perhaps Diageo would like to shift some of its Dickel barrels to Kentucky and just threw in the used barrel and other provisions to try and secure allies among the craft distillers.

The other reason that this strikes me as silly on everyone's part is that none of this impacts what whiskey can be made, just what it can be called.  Nothing is stopping Dickel from aging whiskey in used barrels or aging the whiskey out of state; they just couldn't call it "Tennessee Whiskey."  Would anyone really notice if Dickel changed their label to say "Whisky Distilled in Tennessee" or something similar?

To summarize, Diageo's amendment is unnecessary and Brown Forman's reaction is overblown.  Add to that the fact that it is very unlikely that a whiskey bill can pass the Tennessee legislature without Brown Forman's support, and I'd say this is the archetypal tempest in a teapot.

Old Forester Birthday Bourbon 2013

Today, I continue my new release reviews with Old Forester's 2013 Birthday Bourbon.  Unlike many distilleries, Brown Forman's Shively distillery pretty much eschews special release.  Actually, they pretty much eschew quality in general.  The Old Forester Birthday Bourbon is their loan gift to whiskey geeks, but while there have definitely been some good ones, I found the last one I reviewed (the 2011 Birthday Bourbon) disappointing.  Still, people always seem excited when it comes out and this year's has received some positive reviews, so I thought I'd check it out.


Old Forester Birthday Bourbon 2013,12 yo, 48.5% abv ($55)

This has a very nice nose with big oak notes, honey, bay and tobacco, a very promising beginning. The palate falls apart almost immediately.  There's a brief sweetness which fades quickly and the it's somehow sour and bitter at the same time.  The finish is medicinal and bitter, really, really bitter.

This is just really unpleasant stuff.  Sadly, this series seems to get worse every year.

A Dusty Curiosity: Brown Forman President's Choice

Brown Forman introduced a President's Choice bourbon into its line in the late 1960s, but prior to that, it used the President's Choice label for gifts to special customers and other clients. The official name is actually the President's Choice for Distinguished Gentleman. The label includes the following description:

This whisky was selected by the President of Brown-Forman Distillers Corporation for its perfect balance and true Kentucky Bourbon flavor, and set aside for his private stock. This rare Bourbon was custom distilled and specially bottled at the direction of the president at the proof of 90.3 selected for barrel #989843 through barrel #989867.

Hmm, distinguished gentlemen? I'm not sure I qualify, but let's give it a try anyway. This bourbon was bottled in 1963, a blend of 24 barrels.


Brown Forman President's Choice, bottled 1963, 90.3 proof/45.15% abv

Another nice dusty nose, this one is rich, sweet and candy-like; It reminds me very much of some of those great, dusty Old Foresters I like (another Brown Forman bourbon). The palate is sweet with peppermint and vanilla, moving onto spices in the late palate. It's very rich and densely flavored, though a bit flatter than the nose. The finish is short and spicy.

Sweet and rich, this is a very drinkable bourbon.

See the LA Whiskey Society reviews of Brown Forman President's Choice.

They Say It's Your Birthday: Old Forester Birthday Bourbon

Old Forester Birthday Bourbon is an annual release that comes out every fall. I haven't reviewed one since the 2007 release, so I thought I would check out the most recent version, from 2011. The Birthday Bourbon is widely regarded as the best thing Brown Forman has to offer (which, mind you, isn't saying much).


Old Forester Birthday Bourbon 2011, 12 years old, distilled 1999, 49% ($40)

The nose has green grapes, cough syrup and some tinny, metallic notes. The palate is light with some minty flavors akin to mint Chloraseptic spray, with a numbing mouthfeel to boot, and some tropical fruit notes, including banana and papaya. The finish has an artificial mint taste (if you've had a Disneyland Mint Julep, you know what I'm talking about).

I have to say, I found this one to be disappointing. The flavor profile is all over the map and it ends up as sort of a light mish-mash with some unpleasant notes. As I said, I haven't had the Birthday Bourbon in a few years, but this one is distinctly inferior to the last one I reviewed. This one is no way to celebrate a birthday. I think I'd rather drink their Woodford Double Oaked.

Hmmm, speaking of birthdays, there's one coming up on Thursday. Tune in then to find out more.

Dusty Thursday: Early Times Bourbon Circa 1981

Since I've been writing a lot about Brown Forman lately, I thought I would try another dusty Brown Forman bottle: Early Times Bourbon.

Early Times used to be a regular bourbon offering from Brown Forman. Then, they started ageing it in used barrels (a bourbon no-no) and calling it "American Whiskey." In 2010, Brown Forman brought back a bourbon under the Early Times label while continuing to produce the American Whiskey.

Today's dusty Early Times is from the era when Early Times was always bourbon. The bottle indicates "81" on the bottom so it's likely from around 1981. It is a liter bottle with the metric measurement. Alcohol is indicated by proof only and there is no government warning, but there is a UPC code.


Early Times Straight Bourbon, 80 proof (40% abv), 4 years old.

The nose on this is very light with alcohol fumes and kerosene. This is actually one of the few bourbons that is better on the palate than on the nose, though it is still pretty light. It's got corn syrup and rock candy. The finish is nice and Bourbony. It is light and easy to drink, but it doesn't come together that well and the nose is weak. Mediocre, but I still like it better than the current Early Times American Whiskey.

Early Times has always been Brown Forman's lower shelf offering. When looking for dusties, I'll stick to Old Forester.

Why Does Brown Forman Suck So Much?

There are many mysteries in the world of whiskey, but this is one of the biggest for me. Brown Forman is a hugely successful company. Why does their whiskey almost universally suck? I'm generally not a fan of Jim Beam, the other huge player in US whiskey, but there are products in their portfolio that I can enjoy, such as Old Grand-Dad 114, and they put out some great Scotch from Laphroaig and Ardmore. But with Brown Forman, their whiskey is just terrible. What's the deal?

If you're not familiar with the company, Brown Forman is one of the biggest selling whiskey producers in the United States. They own three whiskey distilleries (Brown Forman, Woodford Reserve and Jack Daniel's). They also own Canadian Mist, Finlandia Vodka, El Jimador and Herradura Tequila and Southern Comfort.

They clearly know spirits and marketing, so why does their whiskey suck so much? It's easy to reflexively answer that they are just too big, but Diageo is an even bigger company, and it owns some distilleries that are making excellent whiskey.

The three Brown Forman whiskey distilleries are very different. Jack Daniel's is their cash cow. I can understand it sucking, and I don't complain about it. It doesn't need to taste good because it sells on its well crafted mystique. Rock stars, bikers and hipsters all agree that the black bottle of Old No. 7 is cool, and they'd like a t-shirt and some barbecue sauce to go with it. I've never met a Jack product I liked, but given the role the brand plays, that's okay.

Woodford Reserve is the polar opposite of Jack. It's a small distillery making pot still whiskey which does a limited experimental release each year. It's essentially a corporate owned microdistillery. The only problem is, their whiskey runs from mediocre to terrible. Experimentation is all well and good but if you don't start with good whiskey, you aren't going to end up with good whiskey. Garbage in, garbage out.

The eponymously named Brown Forman distillery is mid-way between Jack and Woodford, an industrial distillery but not one that produces on anywhere near the scale of Jack Daniel's. This is where they make Old Forester, a mediocre mid-range bourbon and Early Times, a lower end American Whiskey (bourbon stored in used barrels) which now also has a bourbon label. These whiskeys are boring, boring, boring. Some whiskey fans do like the annual Old Forester Birthday Bourbon. While that is undoubtedly the best bourbon that comes out of Brown Forman, I've never been as excited about it as some others. It just never seems that distinctive.

While Brown Forman has some special releases, one notable thing is that they never seem to release anything at barrel strength. In fact, their only regular higher proof offering is the Old Forester Signature at 50% abv (last year saw a Jack Daniel's special release, the Holiday Select, also at 50%). I'm not one of those people who thinks nothing under cask strength is worthwhile, but I am suspicious about a distillery that never releases anything at cask strength. It's as if they don't believe in the quality of their whiskey in its purest form.

The tragic thing is that Old Forester used to be lovely stuff. For last week's Dusty Thursday, I tasted a bottle from the 1970s that was just wonderful, with more complexity than anything they are doing today. I've had bottles from the 1950s that have an intense, chewy, cigar butt note that reminds me of a well aged Zinfandel. It saddens me that this once great bourbon is a shadow of its former self.

I suppose there is no use in encouraging one of the most successful whiskey companies in the country to change its game, but success is more than balance sheets. I want to see Brown Forman do more than succeed. I want to see them make whiskey worth drinking.

Dusty Thursday: Old Forester 86 Proof (circa 1978)

Bourbon dusty hunters search high and low for Old Fitzgeralds and other dusty Stitzel-Weller bourbons, but to my mind, the less coveted, more accessible dusty Old Foresters are a great find as well. Today's dusty is an 86 proof Old Forester in a quart bottle. The bottle bottom indicates "78" and 1978 sounds about right given that there is no metric volume measure and abv is stated in proof only; there is neither a government warning nor a UPC code. I live in a pretty dusty neighborhood and like most of my dusties, this one was found within a quarter mile of my home.


Old Forester 86 proof (43% abv), 4 years old.

Wow, this stuff is great. The nose is a perfect balance of wood and caramel. The palate is decidedly rich and full of caramel and some vanilla with lots of wood, again in perfect balance. The finish is all sweet corn and lingers pleasantly for quite a while. This is the whole package with amazing richness for the low proof. Textbook great bourbon.

This is likely what is known as glut bourbon. Starting in the late 1960s, demand for bourbon (and spirits generally) plummeted. Distilleries stuck with a glut of whiskey in the warehouse dumped older whiskey into their standard brands such that a whiskey like this might say four years old on the label but actually contain whiskey that is much older (remember that the age statement indicates the youngest whiskey in the bottle). These days, that older whiskey would go into some premium or specialty bottling, but back then, they were just trying to get rid of it.

So keep in mind, you may not be able to find an Old Fitzgerald 100 proof in the dust bin (I never have), but don't ignore those old Old Foresters.

Whiskey Wednesday: Early Times Kentucky Whiskey

We've talked about Bourbon and rye and even American single malts, but Early Times is something different, slightly. A Brown-Forman product, Early Times labels itself as Kentucky Whiskey, but what does that mean and what differentiates it from Bourbon?

You'll find the answer in the small print. On the side of the bottle, there is a notation: "Matured at least thirty-six months in reused cooperage." Bourbon, as you may recall, must be aged in new oak barrels. Because Early Times reuses barrels, it cannot be called Bourbon. Instead, Brown-Forman has chosen to label it Kentucky Whiskey.

While Bourbon must legally be aged in new barrels, there is nothing inherently wrong with reusing barrels. Nearly all single malt Scotch is aged in used barrels, many of them Bourbon barrels, since the single use rule for Bourbon makes Kentucky's distillers a good source of barrels. Indeed, some Scotch distilleries reuse barrels multiple times. It's not necessarily a bad thing to create a corn-based whiskey aged in used barrels; it's just not Bourbon.


Tasting

Early Times Kentucky Whiskey, (Brown-Forman) 3 years old, 40% alcohol ($10)

The nose has some banana, honey and rubbing alcohol (mmm, flavored rubbing alcohol). The initial taste is a bit nicer than that with some corn and fruit, a very light taste; going down it's a bit on the harsh side. The finish is light and quick. A touch of water brings out the wood, but it's a flat wooden taste at the expense of the nicer notes.

I wouldn't say that this an objectionable whiskey, but there's not much too it.

Whiskey Wednesday: Born in the USA Part 10 - Old Forester Birthday Bourbon

Well, we made it to number ten. The final (for now) whiskey in our Born in the USA series, which turned out to be mostly Bourbon. And for number ten, I've picked a Bourbon I had been wanting to try for sometime.

Since it's introduction in 2002, Old Forester Birthday Bourbon has been one of the most widely acclaimed Bourbons on the market. The Birthday in question is that of George Garvin Brown, founder of Brown-Forman, the liquor giant that now owns Jack Daniel's, Woodford Reserve, Korbel Champagne, Herradura Tequila and Finlandia Vodka as well as Old Forester.

This was the 2007 Birthday Bourbon, a thirteen year old which is still available at some on-line retailers, but the 2008 should be out any day now.

Tasting

Old Forester Birthday Bourbon, distilled Spring 1994/bottled 2007, 47% alcohol (owned by Brown-Forman), $38.99.



Beautiful aroma exuding toffee, honey and other sweet things with a bit of a floral scent, with water it becomes more of a Cognac scent. The taste is less sweet than you'd expect from the nose, though it definitely has an underlying sweetness, including some tropical fruit(pineapple). Almost Scotch, like; it has some of the rugged notes of a Dalmore, some real savoriness there that comes out more with water. On balance, a very nice Bourbon, but I would say it didn't quite live up to the high expectations I had for it. Very good, though, for the price range and certainly one that would make a find gift for a birthday or otherwise.

Next Wednesday: Born in the USA Wrap Up