Drink the Bottles

  The 2024 BTAC (Buffalo Trace Antique Collection) has just been released and whiskey enthusiasts are scrambling to make back alley deals and beg with their buddies at the liquor store to find these bottles for them.  Without a doubt, the BTAC bottles are some of the most difficult to capture (especially at MSRP) and there is always a frenzy around the release dates every year. This is the Eagle Rare 17 Year Old Bourbon , offered at 101 proof and highly allocated.  Compared to the standard 10 year Eagle Rare at 90 proof, this one packs a little more punch and depth, due largely in part to the additional 7 years in the barrel.  The age statement on this is actually 17 years and 4 months for the 2024 release.  We tasted this from a 100 mL sample bottle neat in Glencairn glasses... multiple times.  It's amazing how quickly that sample bottle will run out! On the nose we didn't  get the herbal tea that we often experience from Eagle Rare 10 Year.  Tha...

  The newest batch of Remus Repeal Reserve is hitting shelves now and there's a lot to be excited about with this Series VIII release.  Master Distiller Ian Stirsman made some changes by blind tasting this and ultimately deciding on 101 proof and by also using a higher proportion of high rye recipe bourbon than in previous releases.  While some Remus Repeal Reserve releases have had more components in the final blend, the ten-to-seventeen year old aged bourbons really fire on all cylinders and have created a fantastic pour. Series VIII is comprised of 9% 2007 bourbon (21% rye), 24% 2014 bourbon (21% rye) and 67% 2014 bourbon (36% rye).  The older bourbon definitely shows it hand in this expression, displaying aromas of cherry syrup, fine bound book leather, roasted nuts, vanilla and overly ripe plums.  It is mouth-watering and immediately eye-opening and it is reminiscent of your dad's bourbon that he purchased twenty years ago and occasionally sipped on when m...

  Hold on to your hats for this one, folks!   This is the 2024 Yellowstone Limited Edition Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey .  This creation is a blend of seven and seventeen year Kentucky bourbons from Master Distiller Stephen Beam and it is tracking to become one of our favorite limited-edition releases of the year!   We visited this bottle on three separate occasions - a "pop and pour" (see video below), a more formal tasting the next day, and a re-visit about 10 days later - all neat and all from a Glencairn.  As we describe in the video link below, we know that most folks buy a bottle and then go home and immediately taste it right away.  We knew there was something very special about this bottle which is why we tasted it multiple times and the results were so varied and incredible. Our first impression (remember, pop-and pour) was an inviting, dusty funkness that was reminiscent of a box of old baseball cards and a sweet cigar wrapper....