Question for Cowdery??

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Question for Cowdery??

Unread postby Jon » Thu Jul 02, 2009 3:23 pm

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.
Write what YOU smell and taste in an accurate descriptive form and in complete disregard for others posts. Not everyone will share your particular taste, but you very well may succeed in helping them find theirs!
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Re: Question for Cowdery??

Unread postby cowdery » Mon Jul 06, 2009 7:28 pm

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.
- Chuck Cowdery

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Re: Question for Cowdery??

Unread postby cowdery » Mon Jul 06, 2009 10:35 pm

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.
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