Last Night's Tipple

Believe it or not, doctors used to prescribe whiskey for medicinal purposes. More than one distillery was able to stay open during Prohibition by making and selling medicinal Bourbon to doctors. It was because of this medicinal market that Old Forester Bourbon came to be. George Garvin Brown and his half-brother, John Thompson Street Brown, were well-aware of the problems with whiskey adulteration that the Bottled In Bond Act was later passed to address. They figured that if they sold Bourbon in sealed glass bottles with a guarantee of authenticity, they would find a ready market amongst the doctors of the country. Because of the expense of bottles before the invention of an automatic bottle-making machine in 1903, it was unlikely that ordinary members of the general public would buy it; but George Garvin Brown must have figured that the medical market was large enough for him to make a good deal of money. Old Forester was first sold in 1870, and it was the first bottled Bourbon. Brown's company, which became Brown-Forman, today not only sells Old Forester Bourbon but also owns Jack Daniel's and Early Times, two of the largest-selling whiskeys in the world.

Brown-Forman releases a limited bottling of specially-selected Bourbon every year in honor of George Garvin Brown's birthday, called, amazingly enough, Old Forester Birthday Bourbon. My bottle was distilled in the fall of 1990 and bottled in 2003 at 89 proof. It's a very robust Bourbon, with powerful aromas of creme brulee and vanilla. Its palate is spicy and full-bodied, with a good dose of candied orange peel. A nice Bourbon, even if the bottle is annoying.