Prerequisite: Go read my recent Eagle Rare 17 review. I find this bottling of ER-17 rather characterless, but its age and body make it an excellent component for vatting.
My first experiment involved adding it to Ancient Ancient Age. The feistiness of AAA made a nice pairing with aged smoothness of ER-17. The vatting had a few rough edges, but it was an interesting and satisfying result.
Last night I finally tried a vatting I had been contemplating for several weeks; ER-17 and Stagg (Spring 05 bottling). I was aiming to solve 2 problems in one ‘shot’. ER-17 has too little character and Stagg can have too much. Now I do often enjoy Stagg neat, but you have to be in the right mood to deal with it.
I’ve never liked adding water to a whiskey to bring down the proof or “open it up’. I understand the concept, but for me even a few drops of water thin out the body too much. So how does one tame a super strong bourbon without adding water? How about by adding a very smooth bourbon of lower proof and similar age?
The result was marvelous. The ER-17 knocked the Stagg down a peg without thinning out the body or character. It was full and complex with a ton of flavor. But it had lost that evil little edge that makes you sip straight Stagg oh-so-slowly.
P.S. I’m certain that many of you are gasping in horror at this hideous transgression. I await your abuse.