Dating a bottle of Hancock's President's Reserve

Have an old/rare bottle you'd like some more info on?

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Dating a bottle of Hancock's President's Reserve

Unread postby dc55110 » Fri Jul 26, 2013 12:39 am

I stumbled upon a little old shop in a rural Minneapolis suburb. Already a beer hunter I stop a just about every place I've never been before. The moment I walked in I knew it was a time machine. The two sections of craft and import beer featured long discontinued brands and breweries. Noting nothing of particular interest I was about to head out the door when a curious sticker on a bottle of liquor caught my eye. It was a Calvados bottle with a AFT Distilled Spirits tax stamp. This piqued my interest! As I moved towards the whiskeys I saw another bottle with the stamp, an Eagle Rare 101 (see picture). While craft beer is my forte, I truly enjoy bourbon as well. I began to study the dusty bottles. I then notice a warped and cracked wooden cylinder. It was a bottle of Hancock's President's Reserve. I opened it to find date or batch info but there was none. The bottom of the bottle was only marked with the numeral 1 in the middle. Outside of an old price sticker, there was not much I could find to date it. The price was right $39.99, so I grabbed it thinking I'd be able to find out more info online.
I was able to rather accurately date the ER 101. Tax stamp, both metric and standard volumes, bottom of the bottle dated 78: it's either 1979 or 80.
The Hancock's on the other hand, I've been able to find out nearly nothing. So any help that any of you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

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Re: Dating a bottle of Hancock's President's Reserve

Unread postby EllenJ » Fri Jul 26, 2013 2:47 pm

Hancock's Presidential Reserve is nowhere near as "old" as your Eagle Rare, which dates from when the brand was made by Seagram's at what is now the Four Roses distillery. Ironically, Buffalo Trace now produces both Eagle Rare and Hancock's. I'm not sure if Hancock's is still in ordinary distribution in the U.S., although the more important retail stores often have special bottlings of it made for them.

Your's is not one of those, though. It's an original. There is reason to state that the whole concept of "single-barrel bourbon" began when the late Elmer T. Lee worked with the Takara Shuzo company, the distilllery's most important customer, (it was actually called the Ancient Age distillery, even though that wasn't really its name, because Takara Shuzo's Age International was its major customer; the famous watertower displayed the "AA" logo then) to produce Blanton's back in 1983 or '84. That was outstandingly succecessful and was shortly followed by Rockhill Farm and Hancock's, all of which were single-barrel bourbons. Rockhill Farm is still commonly distributed, but I haven't seen any non-private-label bottlings of Hancock's for awhile now. The box alone is a work of art, don't ya think?

As for the bourbon itself, the original Eagle Rare was okay. Pretty good, if fact, for what it was (a Seagram's knockoff of Rare Breed/Wild Turkey). But Hancock's President's Reserve was (and still is when you can find it) one of the very best bourbons ever produced, and easily the best from Buffalo Trace.
Just my opinion, of course, others may disagree.
But they would be wrong. :)
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Re: Dating a bottle of Hancock's President's Reserve

Unread postby dc55110 » Sat Jul 27, 2013 8:23 pm

EllenJ wrote:
As for the bourbon itself, the original Eagle Rare was okay. Pretty good, if fact, for what it was (a Seagram's knockoff of Rare Breed/Wild Turkey). But Hancock's President's Reserve was (and still is when you can find it) one of the very best bourbons ever produced, and easily the best from Buffalo Trace.
Just my opinion, of course, others may disagree.
But they would be wrong. :)


Thanks for the response. I opened them both last night with a few friends. Both were amazingly smooth. The Hancock was full of tropical fruits, slightly sweet, just a wonderful bourbon. The ER 101 was much more deep and oaky, but showed no signs of being 101 proof.
So there is no way to date the Hancock's?
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Re: Dating a bottle of Hancock's President's Reserve

Unread postby PaulO » Sun Jul 28, 2013 10:33 am

I suppose you could contact Buffalo Trace, send them the picture, and ask them about the wooden container. I've never seen or heard of a wooden box like this for Hancock's. I imagine it was only used a short time; maybe the original release back in the 1980s?
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Re: Dating a bottle of Hancock's President's Reserve

Unread postby EllenJ » Sun Jul 28, 2013 10:29 pm

The wooden case was being used as late as the early-to-mid '90s. I've got one (the original bottle long since emptied, of course).
Excellent idea about sending photos to Buffalo Trace. Two sources who might be helpful would be Amy Preske or Fred Mozenter.
An email to Mark Brown himself is also likely to bring a response.
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Re: Dating a bottle of Hancock's President's Reserve

Unread postby Duewester » Tue Aug 20, 2013 1:05 pm

The warning label dates it to no earlier than 1990 when the words "Government Warning" were added to the warning label.
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