Quite a while back, Todd slammed a marketing campaign for Old Forester bourbon. Rightly, I think, he suggested that a serious drinker would consider the particular marketing effort — which involved promoting some pretty awful drink ideas — so absurd as to not want to drink the bourbon. We later blind taste tested it against some others, and it fared well, though not as well as Buffalo Trace.
That said, in our tasting, we only covered a somewhat random handful of whiskeys, so I was kind of excited when Dave at the Sugar House decided to host a bourbon tasting tonight.
Here’s what I wasn’t expecting: Old Forester 100 would be my favorite.
The line up of 6 total whiskeys was (in order) Four Roses, Buffalo Trace, Elijah Craig 12, Old Forester 100, Old Granddad Bonded, and Henry McKenna.
I tasted each straight and then tasted each with a bit of water as well (we were given one ounce pours), and I most admired the OF 100 for its round, balanced flavor and lack of any noticeable off flavors either straight or cut. (I shouldn’t have been surprised: I probably drank 8 ounces of the stuff last Saturday night.) None of the whiskeys were noticeably “bad,” though I was surprised that Buffalo Trace was my second least favorite (next to Elijah Craig). I was equally surprised that the Henry McKenna didn’t clearly assert itself as a top two or top three choice and that Elijah Craig 12 year was so grassy and flat. It just wasn’t as complete of a drink. Among the 80ish proof bourbons, Four Roses was the clear winner. Compared to the McKenna, a higher proof spirit, I think I preferred the Old Granddad.
For straight drinking, the OF 100 seems pretty unmatched in the price range. For mixing… Well, more experimentation will be required.