~$21, 750 mL bottle - Purchased from Cork & Flask Liquor Store
Background
Old Forester is the Bourbon sold today that has the longest-running streak on the market. It has been continuously sold since 1870, including during Prohibition when it was one of only 10 brands authorized for lawful medicinal production. It was created by George Garvin Brown, the founder of Brown-Forman Company…his descendants still run the company today. (Brown-Forman also owns Jack Daniel’s, Early Times, Canadian Mist, GlenDronach, Glenglassaugh, and Woodford Reserve).
According to Wikipedia (which references an article that is no longer online), the mash bill for Old Forester is 72% corn, 18% rye, and 10% malted barley…which is the same thing used for Woodford Reserve. I would be interested in trying both back-to-back at some point to see if there is much difference…I suspect it’s a matter of specific age of the Bourbon more than anything else.
There are several expressions of Old Forester, including Signature, Birthday Bourbon, 1870 Original Batch, and Single Barrel, but today, I’m turning my attention to the “Classic 86 Proof” which is billed as “authentic Bourbon without one drop of hype.”
Notes
The whiskey appeared a lighter amber in the bottle than many of the other Bourbons I favor, making me wonder exactly how long the average aging time is. As with any Bourbon, the minimum aging time is 2 years, but the longer it remains in the barrel the darker it tends to get.
When I poured it into the glass, it seemed even lighter…to the point that if someone handed me a glass of this, based on color alone, I would probably believe it to be some sort of Scotch whiskey.
In the glass, I picked up on some floral notes, followed close behind by oak and vanilla. The website says they get the aroma of “rich tobacco leaf” but I got none.
Taking a sip, I got mostly alcohol burn up front, but that changed quickly to corn and vanilla, oak and pepper, with a bit of citrus. The spicy burn lasted a long time and faded very slowly.
As the Old Forester Classic tended to hit me as a medium-bodied, more middle-of-the-road Bourbon, I elected to pair it for this article with a Sobremesa by Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust…specifically, the Short Churchill, which is a new vitola in the line. It is blended to have a little more punch than the standard Sobremesas released in 2015, but it’s still doesn’t rise to the level of full-bodied.
After lighting up the Sobremesa Short Churchill, I got an unexpected, but very welcome, hit of maple flavor. Other than that, it was the standard complexity that I’ve grown to love: grass, earth, cinnamon, pepper…just a little bolder in expression than the Cervantes Fino vitola that I enjoy the most. What this blend in this size lacks just a bit of is some sweetness…and the Old Forester definitely helped fill that need. Other than that, the notes of wood and spices in the cigar and whiskey melded very nicely.
I tried pairing several cigars with Old Forester and most just didn’t quite work. I blame that mostly on the whiskey, which isn’t my favorite when sipped neat…it just has a little more harshness and edge than I generally enjoy. It did pair very well with the Sobremesa, but I think this whiskey might be better off as a mixed-drink Bourbon rather than consumed by itself.
