Bottom-Shelf Bourbon Brackets 2017: Round 1: Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond vs. Kentucky Tavern

Round 1a of the 2017 Bottom Shelf Bourbon Brackets features Number 1 overall seed Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond versus Number 4 seed Kentucky Tavern. 

Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond is a product of, wait for it, Heaven Hill Brands. Since this is the only age-stated bourbon in this year’s competition, this six-year-old product gets the top seed. This brand is virtually a Kentucky-only product. I have heard rumors of it being sold in other markets, but they are few and far between. Being a bottled-in-bond product, this is 100 proof. 

Kentucky Tavern is a product of the Sazerac company. It is a three-year-old, 80 proof straight bourbon. From what I gather, this is produced at the 1792 Barton Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky even though the label says that it is produced by Glenmore (another dba that Sazerac uses). 

These were tasted blind in the following order. My thoughts on each are from before the reveal.

Kentucky Tavern

Purchase Info: $17.99 for a 1.75 L bottle at Chicone’s Liquor Mart, Hudson, WI

Details: 40% ABV, 36 month age statement.

Produced by: Glenmore Distillery (Sazerac)

Nose: Delicate with dried grass, light cinnamon, and faint vanilla.

Mouth: Light and effervescent. Sweet grains, cinnamon, and light citrus. 

Finish: Short. Muted and grainy with some cinnamon.

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: This is an ok bourbon. Not anything a connoisseur would want but might be a nice introductory bourbon for the novice due to a lack of strong or off-putting flavors and lack of burn.

Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond

Purchase Info: $10.99 for a 750 mL bottle at The Party Source, Bellevue, KY

Details: 50% ABV, 6 year age statement

Produced by: Heaven Hill Brands

Nose: Brown sugar, vanilla, cherry, and tobacco.

Mouth: Warm and peppery with leather, cherry, chocolate and oak.

Finish: Long and warm with lingering leather and oak.

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: This is a bourbon-lover’s bourbon. Very tasty and complex enough to drink neat.

Who wins?

This was an unfair matchup to begin with. These bourbons are not even targeted at the same market. That said they both meet all the qualifications that I set for “bottom-shelf” back when I started this annual competition. So, as you might have guessed, the seeding worked. Number 1 seed overall, Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond is the winner and advances to round two where it will compete against the winner of the matchup between Beam Bonded and Beam Black.


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1792 High Rye and a Look at Whiskey Geeks

Last week I asked a question that I thought was just going to be a bit of fun. The premise was that Whiskey Geeks complain. It's what we do. As a friend of mine once said while giving a bourbon talk, "we're a bitchy lot." 

And it's true. We whiskey geeks are a passionate, opinionated people. If you ask a whiskey "expert" how you should take your bourbon, the answer will range from "drink it any damn way you want," to "no, here's the type of glass you should use and the setting you should be in." And that's just if the topic is ice. If you ask them about soda...Well, let's just say I almost had a bartender in Louisville start to tear up as he recounted a customer asking for a Pappy and Coke.

About the only topic that causes as much consternation is flippers. Geeks bitch about flippers. They bitch constantly and conspicuously. Partly it's because flippers contribute to a market where those who wants to drink a whiskey can no longer find it through legal channels or for anywhere near MSRP. Partly it's because a good portion of those people conspicuously bitching are just over-compensating for their own flipping. 

So that's where things sat when I asked which people would rather see. I thought it would be a little fun, a few people would vote, and we'd get some laughs. What I didn't expect was to have to turn off comments on the post. I didn't expect every comment that came in to be an attack on those people participating. I saw "mouth-breathers." I saw "big-brother." I saw "Marxist." Eventually, I had enough and made one scolding comment and shut the rest off. The idea of whiskey geeks being whiskey geeks seemed to have touched a nerve. 

One thing I never did was answer the question myself. And for me, the answer is easy. I'd much rather see someone truly enjoy a Pappy with Coke than see someone keep another from enjoying a bottle by flipping it. And it seems that most of you agreed with me. As of this writing, 73% of respondents voted the same way. 11% hated polls and thought that voting was stupid. Leaving only 17% of people who'd rather the price of a particular bottle get jacked through the roof than see it wasted with soda. For the record, there is no right answer...which is what makes it so much fun to argue about it.

So that's a recap. But let's turn away from what other people do with a limited edition whiskey and turn our thoughts to what we'd all like to do with one. Drink it. Tonight it's Valentine's Day, so it is appropriate that we are celebrating with one that my wife loves. 

1792 High Rye

Purchase Info: 49.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Ace Spirits, Hopkins, MN

Details: 47.15% ABV. According to the company's website. This uses "a much higher percentage of rye as the secondary grain than most bourbons do." 

Nose: Butterscotch, custard, cinnamon, mint and a pleasant nuttiness. 

Mouth: Sweet and spicy with allspice, butterscotch and hints of mint and banana. 

Finish: On the longer side of medium, with very little burn. Lingering mint and banana. 

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Thoughts: Like I said above, my wife loves this. She put a little heart as her rating in her tasting journal. Me? I like this a lot, but I'm not quite ready to give it a heart just yet. It's very close, though. 

As I was finishing the tasting, thoughts of banana bread popped into my head. This is sweet with baking spices and hints of banana, so that isn't an outrageous comparison. And personally I love banana bread, so this is a compliment. I do know that some people react negatively to banana notes in their bourbon so be aware. 

Like I said, for $50, I think this is a great whiskey and worth the price they are getting for it. I'd feel differently if they were asking $75 for it, though. 


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For the record, comments are off on this one too. Mostly because it's the same topic and I hate getting the emails that are full of spite and hatred. It's a bit of a gut-punch to an otherwise nice day. It's whiskey...it's not worth all the anger.

What to try when you haven't tried much yet.

It's not unusual for people to send me an email me with questions about how they can get started on their bourbon journey. Often, they've dabbled, but are looking to get more serious. 

With Bourbon, there are a surprisingly significant number of flavor profiles on the shelf. It's weird. Almost all bourbon is made with the same three or four ingredients: corn, barley, and rye or wheat. And yet, the flavors produced range from floral and fruity to spicy and dry with an entire library of flavors in between.

I'd say that the quickest way to find out what you like is to try different things. But don't jump straight to the top shelf and only buy barrel-strength bourbons with age statements in the double digits. Don't get me wrong. These are probably very fine bourbons. But I wouldn't start there. First, they are expensive. And if the goal is to try as many as you can, it is helpful if you don't have to miss a mortgage payment to do so. Secondly, if you were to take a big swig of George T Stagg unknowingly, you are probably going to sputter and choke and possibly decide that bourbon is not for you.

So, what to do? Well since bourbon has so many flavor profiles, I think that the best idea is to run to the store or your local bar and try some of the delicious, yet affordable offerings out there that show off these distinct flavor profiles. And yes, I've compiled you a shopping list.

Maker's Mark

Due to being owned by one of the largest bourbon producers in the country, this red-headed darling is available at almost every liquor store and bar you'll come across. Made with wheat as its flavoring grain, Maker's Mark is a sweet and soft bourbon. It shows caramel, custard, fruit, and baking spice. It's inexpensive, ubiquitous, and very tasty. This is a great bourbon for trying to decide if you like sweeter bourbon flavors.

1792 Small Batch Bourbon

Produced by the Barton 1792 distillery in Bardstown, KY, this bourbon is a great example of a dry bourbon. Dry bourbon is a little different than dry wine, but it follows some of the same ideas. Namely, that sweetness is not the major flavor component. All bourbon is sweet, to an extent, but I find this bourbon brings a lot more peppery heat to the party. It feels like it evaporates in the back of your throat. This is a good one to see if you like drier bourbons and peppery spiciness. 

Buffalo Trace

When speaking of bourbon, spice can mean two different things. It can mean spicy like the heat of a red pepper or it can mean spicy like the ground spices you put in cookies. In the case of Buffalo Trace, we are talking about the latter. Buffalo Trace bourbon leads with cinnamon and nutmeg flavors before adding in maple and custard flavors. Buffalo Trace is the perfect bourbon to see if you like bourbons that feature baking spice as their main flavor component.

Four Roses Small Batch

Most of the time, floral flavors are a by-product of the yeast used for fermentation. Along with carbon dioxide and ethanol, these little guys create flavor compounds that, if treated nicely, survive through distillation and maturation. Four Roses Small Batch Bourbon is a perfect example of a floral bourbon. Floral and fruity notes start at the nose, mix with sweetness and spice in the mouth and hang around into the finish. If you want to know if you like floral and fruity bourbons, try Four Roses Small Batch.

Wild Turkey 101

At six to eight years old, Wild Turkey 101 is a good example of what some extra time spent in the barrel can bring you. It is filled with the flavors of sweet caramel, ginger, and oak. Think you don't like the taste of oak? Remember that 100 percent of the color and more than 50 percent of the flavor of a bourbon come from the oak barrel it is stored in. Wild Turkey is a complex, yet inexpensive bourbon, and it is a good choice to see if you like oakier bourbons. 

So there you have it. Five bourbons to get you on your way. After you identify what you like and what you don't like about each bourbon, then you can start expanding your horizons. And of course, it goes without saying that you should be taking notes along the way. After you've been at it for a while go back and revisit some of the ones you tried early on to see how your palate has changed. I think you'll be surprised to find out that you now like some of the ones you didn't previously or that you don't care for some of those you thought were favorites. 


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Buffalo Trace Store pick: Westport Whiskey & Wine

Back in September, I met up with a fellow blogger for his first trip to the Party Source. It's in the Kentucky part of the Cincinnati Metro area, and he'd just moved to Ohio. We'd never met in real life before, and I'm always up for a bit of whiskey shopping, so I was more than willing to make the drive from Louisville to Cincinnati.

And boy did I fill my cart. I didn't get anything too special, but everything I did get was unavailable here in Minnesota, so that made it special to me. I must have bought like eight to ten bottles of bourbon. I doubt I spent more than $12 on most of them. It was fun. A lot of chatting. A bunch of shopping. Good times had all around. 

So of course, after heading back to Louisville, we decided that since we were driving right past Westport Whiskey and Wine that, well, we'd probably better stop in. I mean we are right there. It'd be a shame to have to drive all the way back over here, wouldn't it? (Not going to mention we were visiting a friend later in the week that lives about 15 minutes from there...)

After we had convinced ourselves that this was, indeed, the best course of action we stopped in and took a look around. WW&W is not a huge mega-store. It's a nice sized store that has a decent selection and has had a private selection of one sort or another, every time I visit. I can't remember what we actually went in looking for, but I'm pretty sure we didn't find it. What I found instead was a liter bottle of a store pick Buffalo Trace. I hadn't picked up a Buffalo Trace for a while, so when they offered me a sample, I was pretty sure that I was going to buying it if it was at all good. And it was. It was very good. 

Or well as good as anything can be in a tiny disposable plastic shot glass. 

Buffalo Trace Private Selection, Westport Whiskey & Wine

Purchase Info: $37.99 for a one-liter bottle at Westport Whiskey and Wine, Louisville, KY.

Details: Barrel # 111, 45% ABV

Nose: Cinnamon sugar, crisp apples,and almonds.

Mouth: Fresh Green apple, almond, and baking spices rounded out by vanilla and oak.

Finish: Warm with lingering vanilla and apple. 

Thoughts: This is a tasty variation on the Buffalo Trace flavor profile. This is a good example of why I like store picks. 

If you've had standard Buffalo Trace, then the store pick is...

Fruitier on the nose with more prominent cinnamon. The mouth is softer with more fruit and spice, but with less pronounced almond notes. The finish is a little warmer. 


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1792 Full Proof

It wasn’t long before my trip to BourbonFest that I got a note from a friend of mine letting me know that he saw the 1792 Full Proof at a municipal liquor store near his house. Ordinarily, I might have passed on driving the 70 miles or so (round trip) just for the opportunity to spend money on bourbon. Especially since I would be driving about 1600 miles (round trip) in the coming weeks also for the opportunity to spend money on bourbon. But, I like 1792 and quite liked the last of their limited releases that I’d tried. Plus to be honest I was feeling more than a little bored on that late August morning. So I made the trip up there and decided to do a little shopping.

Though I tend to like 1792, it really was a previous 1792 limited release that I had picked up (the Port Finish release) that made me decide to make the trip up there to grab this one as well. I'd liked the Port Finish quite a bit and it showed me that the blenders for 1792 know what they are doing with these releases. And plus 1792 Full Proof sounds like it's just 1792 with less water. More proof is hardly ever a bad thing since at worst you can dilute to your favored proof level and get more pours out of a single bottle.

1792 Full Proof

Purchase info: $44.99 for a 750 mL at Top Valu Liquors, Columbia Heights, MN

Details: 62.5% ABV (My research on this one indicates that this was the proof that this was entered into the barrel, not the proof that it was removed from the barrel. So it was probably diluted to 125 proof).

Nose: Juicyfruit Gum, brown sugar and baking spices.

Mouth:  Whoooo…that’s a hot one without water. This is fruity with cloves, cayenne, caramel and oak.

Finish: Hot with medium length. Lingering fruit and oak.

I like this. So this is a smile.

Thoughts:  I’m really impressed by these 1792 limited releases. The price is right and both of the ones I’ve tried have been very tasty. Where the Port Finish was much sweeter than the regular 1792, this 1792 Full Proof is just the regular 1792 on steroids. It has the same wonderful dry and evaporative qualities as 1792. Just more so. It is a very lovely, though hot, whiskey neat. I tend to give it just a little ice to dilute it and help tame the heat. It’s very tasty so if you like 1792, grab this if you see it. If you don’t like 1792 however, I’d give this a pass. It’s that, just more so.


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My trip to the Kentucky Bourbon Festival 2016

Kentucky Bourbon Festival sign.

Every September, I hop in the car and head to Kentucky. It's my yearly trip to the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. It lasts a week, and I go for a week but, our paths don't usually cross until Wednesday night. Sure, the ticketed events can be fun, but there are plenty of other things to do in Kentucky, BourbonFest is just the excuse. Here was my week. 

KOA cabin in Shepardsville, KY.

I "camped."

It's a small trailer with a fridge, shower and a nice bed. But it had a firepit and you smelled of campfire every night when you went to bed. I say that counts. And the KOA is about halfway between Bardstown and Louisville. Which makes it easy to get to either of them. 

a cart full of bourbon I can't get at home.

I Shopped

This photo is at the Party Source, near Cincinatti, I was meeting an Internet friend In Real Life for the first time. But I did plenty more of this in both Louisville and Bardstown.

 A Bourbon on the bar at the Silver Dollar

I Had a Drink

The Silver Dollar is by far my favorite place to grab a drink in Louisville. Tons of good bourbon—great house picks—and a little brisket and mac 'n cheese to go with it.

Jim Beam Distillery.

I Visited Distilleries. Distilleries Big...

Glenn's Creek Distillery at Old Crow.

...And Distilleries Little.

Barton 1792 Distillery

I visited Distilleries real,...

The Bulleit Experience at Stitzel Weller Distillery

...Distilleries fanciful,...

The ruins of Old Crow Distillery at Glenn's Creek Distillery

...And Distilleries Abandoned

All of these distilleries brought an opportunity to have fun that I wouldn't have given up. Maybe it was wandering through the ruins of an abandoned whiskey factory after getting geeky with the guys that ended up capturing it's yeast, seeing a historic distillery that's been wrapped in Disneyland-style make-believe or just running into Fred Noe at Jim Beam. 

The bar at the Kentucky Bourbon Marketplace

I had a drink.

Because, seriously, did you expect me to spend the entire week there and only stop once? This one was at the Kentucky Bourbon Marketplace. A store with a bar attached to it. They won the contest for the official Festival Cocktail this year. It was quite tasty.

The Woodford Reserve table at the All-Star Sampler

I did still go to the All-Star Sampler.

Why do I keep going to this. Firstly, I almost always meet friends there. It's gotten a little expensive at $75 per person this year, but there aren't that many events where I know I'll see a good chunk of my Kentucky friends in one place and maybe even meet one or two more while I'm there. I also broadcast live from the event on Periscope.

Old Forester 1920 Prohibition Style

Plus you might get to try something new...

The new Packaging for Elijah Craig Small Batch

...or just something that looks new.

A breakfast cocktail at Four Roses

I had Breakfast at Four Roses during Let's Talk Bourbon

There was actual food too. Eggs, sausage, bacon, biscuits, gravy, cheese grits, pastries, fruit, coffee, water, juice, and more. Plus you got to listen to question and answer sessions with Al Young and Master Distiller, Brent Elliott.

The Master Distiller's Auction to raise money for the Getz Museum

I didn't buy anything at the Master Distiller's Auction.

But I still had a lot of fun watching people pay multiple thousands of dollars for whiskey. We bid a few times, but only helped drive the price higher. I bought very little out on the lawn outside the museum either, but I did broadcast a taste of it on Periscope as well.

Friends and I gathered in Bardstown

I spent time with friends, old and new. 

There were very few days when I didn't spend at least a little time with friends while I was there. Dinner, drinks, cake, talks over lunch or into the night. These were my favorite times during the trip. They are the reason I keep going back.

Well, that and the Bourbon.


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Head to Head Review: Eagle Rare, Store Pick vs Regular Release

Store picks versus regular releases. It’s a topic I find myself thinking about more and more often as I realize that I’ve examined a lot of bourbon for the blog and tasted a lot more outside of it. As my local liquor stores realize that they need to do something in order to differentiate themselves from the competition, I run across more and more store picks of things like Knob Creek, Woodford Reserve, Russell’s Reserve, 1792 and others. Plus, the price is normally either the same as the regular release or even a little cheaper. As such I’ve found myself picking them more often on my shopping trips. 

I’ve had mixed results with store picks, some are amazing and some are…well…not. But I tend to buy them anyway. While I always like a good familiar bourbon, sometimes I like a slightly different take on that familiar flavor. I say slightly very purposefully. It is rare that a store pick will fall too far outside the accepted flavor profile for a given brand. It may be the the producer didn’t offer samples that strayed too far (it is their name on the bottle too after all) or it may be that the retailer didn’t want to surprise customers with something that didn’t match their expectations. So I tend to buy them when I see them. Not because they are totally different, but that sometimes I find it interesting how fairly slight differences can extremely noticeable when you taste things side by side. Of course sometimes I just buy it because it is on sale too.

Eagle Rare is a bourbon produced by Buffalo Trace. It is dumped out of barrels that were filled with distillate made from Buffalo Trace’s Rye Bourbon Mash Bill Number 1 (though I have been told that very occasionally a mash bill number 2 barrel will hit the flavor profile and become Eagle Rare). This same distillate is also used to fill barrels that will become Old Charter, George T Stagg, Buffalo Trace and Benchmark. It is also a bourbon that I was positive that I had reviewed before. I buy it every so often when I go home to visit my family because it is readily available and tends to be pretty cheap in relation to the price I sometimes find it for in Minnesota, where it’s a different story completely. Here it is neither readily available or as cheap. I will often find it for almost $10 more per bottle. 

A local retailer peaked my interest when they sent out an email hinting that they’d solved the allocation problem by picking their own barrel. Even though I had a bottle open and on the shelf from my last trip home, I decided that the ability to taste these side by side was too tempting to pass up. 

So now I have two open bottles of Eagle Rare on the shelf.

Eagle Rare: Regular Release vs Store Pick

Regular Release:

Purchase Info: ~$27 for a 750 mL at Marketplace Foods, Hayward, WI.

Details: Single Barrel. 10 Year Age Stated, 45% ABV.

Nose: Oak, mint and a slight smokiness

Mouth: A nice viscous mouthfeel. Sweet caramel, herbal mint and anise, oak.

Finish: Of medium length with sweet and oak notes.

Ace Spirits Store Pick: 

Purchase Info: $34.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Ace Spirits, Hopkins, MN

Details: Single Barrel. 10 Year Age Stated, 45% ABV. Barrel # 170.

Nose: Oak, mint and a slight smokiness with the addition of baking spices and a light fruitiness.

Mouth: Butterscotch, oak, anise and a light fruitless.

Finish: Nice and spicy and of medium to long length.

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Thoughts: Both of these are very good. Let’s just start there. I’m a big fan of both when I have them on their own. Together though, there is a definite standout. The regular release feels almost tired compared to the Ace Spirits pick. The addition of a light fruitiness to the oak and sweetness really livens up the pour. That isn’t to say that these are miles apart from a flavor standpoint. They both taste like Eagle Rare. One just tastes like a better version of Eagle Rare.


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Bottom-Shelf Bourbon Brackets 2016: Championship Rounds

Here we are: the Championship rounds! We’ve made it through the opening rounds and tonight we find out which of our Bottom Shelf Challengers will graduate to the Fancy Shelf. 

Once again, I am struck by just how good the competition has been. Most years we’ve had a clunker or two that made it in. This year, I liked every bottle that made it into the competition. I blame this on the fact that we were just able to find better bourbons in the price range this year. 

In fact, I’d say that the story of the year was certainly the “Total Wine effect.” Total Wine sells their national brands at as close to cost as they can get away with while marking up their store brands with a higher margin. This has had the effect of driving up the selection and driving down the price at many of their local competitors. Prices have been driven down to the point where many of the bourbons I included this year, wouldn’t have qualified last year. 

Normally I have to scramble to find eight items to include. This year, I didn’t have that problem. The increase in local competition has made it such that I actually had plenty of choices and was able to be a little choosier about what I included (leading to that lack of clunkers mentioned above). By way of example, three of the four of the finalists either used to be sold at a higher price or weren’t in the market at all before Total Wine came in. 

Yep. The Total Wine Effect is in full swing. And right now spirits consumers are winning in the Minneapolis/St. Paul market. To this point, unlike the many dire predictions from before Total Wine showed up, there have been few liquor store closings that I have noticed. If anything I find more reasons to spend money at more liquor stores than I did before. I now shop at seven-eight regularly instead of the three-four I visited in years past.

So here we go. The Championship Rounds. These were tasted blind again. And remember as with previous years, these were not formal tasting notes, just impressions to let us decide which one we liked better.

Round 2: Down to Four

Division 1: #4 seed Buckhorn vs #2 seed Evan Williams 1783

Thoughts: Bourbon A has a slightly richer nose and gets the nod there. A is sweeter on the mouth while B is more grain forward by comparison. Toss in a relatively and enjoyable finish on both and seems that A is fitting our palates better.  

Winner: So which is which? Very much to our surprise, Bourbon B was Evan Williams 1783 while Total Wine house brand Buckhorn was Bourbon A. Buckhorn moves on. 

Division 2: #1 seed JW Dant Bottled in Bond vs #2 seed Very Old Barton (86 proof)

Thoughts: Both of these have nice sweet noses. If forced to choose a favorite, I’d say A for being slightly sweeter. In the mouth A is slightly more grain forward while B has slightly more depth to it. These are both tasty and are well matched to on another. In the end Bourbon B gets the nod by a hair.  

Winner: So which is which? Once again to our surprise Bourbon A was previous winner JW Dant Bottled in Bond and Bourbon B was lower proof VOB 86 proof. Very Old Barton 86 proof moves on. 

Fancy Shelf Championship

Buckhorn vs Very Old Barton 86 proof

This is the first time we haven’t had at least one Heaven Hill product in the Championship round. Instead we have a couple Sazerac products competing. Buckhorn is the Total Wine Exclusive made by Sazerac under the Clear Spring Distillery name and Very Old Barton is made at Sazerac’s Barton 1792 distillery. In a break from every other year, both of these beat out higher proof competition to make it to this point. Which is a testament to the quality of the bourbon that Sazerac/Barton/Buffalo Trace is putting out even at lower proofs.

Thoughts: The nose on Bourbon A is fruitier and a little sweeter while Bourbon B brings a little more cinnamon red hots to the party. The mouth follows the nose with A being fruitier and B being spicier with a little more oak presence. This is close but in the end I gotta give it to Bourbon B, but just barely.

Winner: So which was which? Bourbon A was Buckhorn and our winner Bourbon B was Very Old Barton 86 proof


BourbonGuy.com accepts no advertising. It is solely supported by the sale of the hand-made products I sell at the BourbonGuy Gifts Etsy store. If you'd like to support BourbonGuy.com, visit BourbonGuyGifts.com. Thanks!