Ben writes:To add further confusion to the "What Should Ben Drink" topic, I finished a bottle of Weller 12 sometime last week, and on your recommendation, I replaced it with Old Forrester.
Sigh. OF is really harsh and unpleasant.
Sigh indeed. It's becoming increasingly obvious that I haven't a clue about the attributes in a Bourbon that will appeal to Ben. More than that, I should never have recommended Old Forester at all. The only OF expression that I've had is the 2003 Birthday Bourbon; and if I've learned anything from trying many different varieties of Bourbon, it's that different Bourbons made from the same mashbill in the same distillery and aged in the same types of barrels in the same warehouses can taste radically different. The different Birthday Bourbons are intentionally different from one another. It shouldn't be any surprise that they all differ from the OF regular bottlings. More than that, it would not be at all surprising if the two different OF regular bottlings (the 86 proof and the 100 proof) differed in character from one another. It's not necessarily the case that Brown-Forman bottles them like Beam bottles the three different proofs of Old Grand-Dad: dumping a number of barrels, diluting to 114 proof, bottling, diluting to 100 proof, bottling, diluting to 86 proof, and bottling. Brown-Forman may actually be trying for different things with the 86 and the 100 proof expressions of Old Forester.
So the question is, Ben, did you try the 86 or the 100?
1 comment:
The 86 -- the guy at Spec's told me the only difference between the two was proof.
Maybe I should bring you a care package of 4/5-full bottles when we come to Houston this weekend.
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