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Question for Cowdery??

Unread postPosted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 3:23 pm
by Jon
You mentioned "...truly outstanding bourbon" as opposed to bad bourbon in a forum response to the 108yr old topic. I am curious in regards to your taste, what you consider to be a "truly outstanding" bourbon, rare as it may be, available to consumers today? There is not much out there that I haven't purchased already, and if you come up with something I haven't tried I will definitely give it a shot.

Re: Question for Cowdery??

Unread postPosted: Mon Jul 06, 2009 7:28 pm
by cowdery
I don't recall the exact context of the remark, but I always thought all of the A. H. Hirsch bottlings were outstanding. I thought the 21- and 23-year-old Rittenhouse Ryes were very good, as were all of the Parker's, including the 27-year-old. Van Winkles are always top notch. The Michter's 10-year-old rye is really terrific, although since most people believe it's the same juice as the Van Winkle rye, I usually buy the Van Winkle. I hope that answers your question.

Re: Question for Cowdery??

Unread postPosted: Mon Jul 06, 2009 10:35 pm
by cowdery
That's a good theory, although Wild Turkey still has a pretty low proof off the still and into the barrel, so it's not like nothing since 1984 has been in the traditional range of distillation proofs. As for the bottlings I mentioned. the earlier Parker's were post-1984. So are all of the current and recent Van Winkles, both S-W juice and Bernheim juice. The last of the pre-fire vintages of EWSB were exceptional and all EWSBs are post-1984.

I named the ones that I did because I thought the person asking the question was interested in which very old (say 15 or older) bourbons I thought were exceptional, since I said the truly exceptional ones are rare. To mention another, the Ezra Brooks 15-year-olds. Although those may have been pre-1984 juice.

I think my original point was that just because something is 18-, or 20-, or 25-years-old, that doesn't necessarily mean it's great, it doesn't necessarily mean it's even good and, in fact, I have tasted a great many very old bottles that, in my opinion, never should have been bottled.