A Large Scale Tasting Of Dusty Old Weller Antiques 1998-2008 Tasted Blind & Compared With The Current Stuff.

11 Years of Old Weller Antique from 1998 (left) to 2008 (right).

The invitation came a couple of months ago.  Mike Jasinski - master dusty hunter and a great lover of old bourbons - had assembled a flight of Old Weller Antique paper labels bottles from 1998 to 2008: a full 11 years that chart the brands movement from Stitzel-Weller to Buffalo Trace.  These dusty bottles have become extremely popular these days and hard to find.  In the past few years the 7 year old age statement was dropped and the bottle design was changed from a stock cylinder with an antique looking paper label to a rounded ball shaped bottle with the ink printed right on the bottle (pictures of the current bottle are at the bottom).   Mike wanted a group of whiskey people to come out and taste them all blind - reporting our findings with numerical scores on the 100 point scale.  

We, however, tasted them blind - self poured from these flasks marked only by a number.

1940 BIB
(photo from Bonham's)

The brand, "Old Weller" harkens back to Pappy Van Winkle's original employer, William LaRue Weller who started his famous whiskey company in Louisville, KY in 1849.  The legendary inventor of the wheated whiskey mash bill (where wheat is used instead of rye as the flavoring grain, above a corn base and bit of malt to add enzymes).  Stitzel-Weller sold the wheated mash bill in a number of expressions, notably Rebel Yell, Cabin Still, and Old Fitzgerald.  Sam Cecil (in The Evolution of Kentucky Whiskey) reports that "Old W.L. Weller" (along with Mammoth Cave and Cabin Still) were brands that Pappy Van Winkle bottled after W. L. Weller's death in 1899 and before partnering with A. Ph. Stitzel during Prohibition using whiskey sourced from the Stitzel Bros.distillery in Louisville and the Old Joe distillery in Anderson.  Looking over old auction records I see the Old W. L Weller Special Reserve expression at 100 proof (as a Bottled In Bond expression) in the Repeal era (see photo at left taken from the October 2013 Bonham's NY Whiskey sale).  The "Old Weller" brand name doesn't seem to appear until the gold veined paper label incarnation apparently born in the early 1970s.  The earliest ad I could find showing it is from 1979 (below):

Ad from 1979 talks about the gold veining.
The word "Antique", however, is absent.

Chuck Cowdery lauds Old Weller Antique as a great value at $16 for a 7 year old in the back of his essential book Straight Bourbon (highly recommended) without reference to the brand's history. Sally Van Winkle Campbell doesn't mention the "Old W.L. Weller" or "Old Weller Antique" brands by name in "But Always Fine Bourbon".  Although she relates a story that "the reason that the distillery came out with 107 proof was because Pap's doctor said he could only have two drinks a day!"  If that's true then the Old Weller Antique expression dates to the mid-1960s (Pappy died in 1966), which jibes pretty well with the fact that I can't find a bottle or mention until 1970 or so.
(Update.  John Lipman (of http://www.ellenjaye.com/) has a much better explanation.  I posted it here:)
http://www.cooperedtot.com/2014/07/john-lipman-explains-why-there-is-107.html

That said, the expression existed through some very solid glory years of Stitzel-Weller (S-W) and then through a transition to production at Ancient Age / Buffalo Trace.  Experience tasting the Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve bottlings from 2009-2013 have shown me that Buffalo Trace has a good handle on the Stitzel-Weller wheated mash bill flavor component.  The first in the series we'd be tasting at Mike's house would be a 1998 Stitzel-Weller Old Weller Antique (abbreviated "OWA" henceforth) - labeled "Louisville".  The rest would be labelled "Frankfort" but, presumably there would be a transition period where Stitzel-Weller stocks would still be used until Buffalo Trace's Frankfort stocks took over.  The Old Weller brand was sold by United Distillers to Sazerac in 1999 (which renamed the Frankfort, KY Ancient Age distillery  Buffalo Trace (BT)  in that same year, 1999).

Update: I'm wrong here.  I left out the period of time the Old Weller wheater recipe was made at New Bernheim where United Distillers (later to become Diageo) had consolidated Bourbon production - leading to the closing of Stitzel-Weller.  Thanks, Mike Jasinski, for setting it straight, in the comments on this post.  Also, in the comments below, Mike adds tasting notes: "The noses are dead giveaways as to which bottle is which. 98-01 had the typical green apple SW nose it is very muted but it is there. The 02-05 have they typical cherried sweet nose that Bernheim distilled wheated bourbons have. The 06-08 bottlings are very typical of the BT wet cardboard nose."

Mike (right center) and Claire Doorden,
(left center), welcome guests

Could we pick out the S-W 1998 stuff blind?  Could we taste a clear demarcation to BT?  Because Mike asked everyone to use a 100 point numerical scale I will be using that grading system for these.  Mike could swear he could identify BT by an aroma that I was classifying as "linseed oil" but which Mike called "cardboard".  Once he used that word I couldn't help but use it myself.  Cardboard - like sniffing the inside of a brown cardboard box is a good description of the aroma.  You'll see it mentioned in my nosing notes quite a bit below.  It's not as bad as it sounds. It's earthy and woody and sits among the floral and deep sugar notes.  As you can see by the scores below, all this stuff ranges from very good to excellent.

Josh Camerote pours himself a blind.

Jo

Old Weller Antique 7 yo. 53.5% abv. 1998 Stitzel-Weller.  Blind #4

Color:  medium amber
Nose:  Honeyed, fruity, oily, mossy, flinty.  Hint of tobacco.
Palate:  Sweet, fruity honeyed.  Maple, treacle shoo fly pie.  Cherry, citrus.
My score:  87  Mike's composite score:  87.

Old Weller Antique 7 yo. 53.5% abv. 1999 Buffalo Trace.  Blind #9

Color: dark medium amber
Nose:  honey toffee, cherry, cola, juicyfruit, oil, sandalwood.
Palate:  Intense sweet sandalwood and rancio.  Chewy mouth feel and long sweet oaky finish
My score: 91  Mike's composite Score: 92

Old Weller Antique 7 yo. 53.5% abv. 2000 Buffalo Trace.  Blind #1

Color: Dark amber
Nose: maple syrup juicyfruit.  Brown sugar toffee
Palate:  honey, malty toffee.  Cornflower, apricot bark.  Cherry, root beer
My score:  92  Mike's composite score: 92

Old Weller Antique 7 yo. 53.5% abv. 2001 Buffalo Trace.  Blind #8

Color:  dark amber (darkest yet)
Nose: Beautiful nose, floral cardboard
Palate: Honey, ripe cantaloupe, Turkish delight. Candy oak perfume
My score: 89  Mike's composite score: 88

Old Weller Antique 7 yo. 53.5% abv. 2002 Buffalo Trace.  Blind #2

Color:  dark amber (a shade darker than blind #1).
Nose light dusty musty oaky malt cherry cocoa.  Trace of iodine.
Palate, sweet cherry cola, char, tannin bitterness.
My score: 87  Mike's composite score:  87

Old Weller Antique 7 yo. 53.5% abv. 2003 Buffalo Trace.  Blind #11

Color:  dark medium amber
Nose:  Cardboard, malt toffee rancio brown sugar
Palate: Candied, toffeed, sandalwood perfumed glory.
My score: 91  Mike's composite score: 91

Old Weller Antique 7 yo. 53.5% abv. 2004 Buffalo Trace.  Blind #6

Color:  dark amber like 3
Nose: floral sandalwood, cherry, cardboard
Palate: Sweet, cherry, toffee, char and oak tannin.  Longer oaky maple finish with a bitter edge.
 My score 86 (bitter finish knocked it down)  Mike's composite score:  87

Old Weller Antique 7 yo. 53.5% abv. 2005 Buffalo Trace.  Blind #3

Color: dark amber, shade darker than 2 and 1
Nose: Oily, char. A little meaty
Palate: Fruity.  Tiny bit sour
My score: 88  Mike's Composite score: 88

Old Weller Antique 7 yo. 53.5% abv. 2006 Buffalo Trace.  Blind #7

Color: dark medium amber
Nose: Cardboard cherry juicyfruit
Palate:  honey, cherry toffee juicyfruit.  Oak tannin
My score: 88  Mike's composite score: 87

Old Weller Antique 7 yo. 53.5% abv. 2007 Buffalo Trace.  Blind #10

Color: almost as dark as 8/3
Nose: Cardboard, dark, sweet toffee, char, a hint of mildew
Palate: Sweet, cherry, cocoa, dark malt, cocoa, root beer.  Fruity, dark brown and delicious.  Char & edge of bitter char on finish.
My score: 90  Mike's composite score: 89

Old Weller Antique 7 yo. 53.5% abv. 2008 Buffalo Trace.  Blind #5

Color: light medium amber
Nose: Linseed nose, honey, yellow flowers
Palate:  honey, treacle, mint notes, honeysuckle,
My score: 88  Mike's composite score 87

Conclusion:  The Stitzel-Weller in the group wasn't the highest rated and it wasn't apparent to me at the time that it was the Stitzel-Weller one.  I like to think I can see some of the tell tale signs in my tasting notes and that if I were really paying attention I might have caught it.  Coulda Woulda Shoulda.  The bottom line is that it's all delicious Bourbon - with some significant variation between a dark and malty rich variety and a lighter amber more floral and fruity variety.  These varieties don't seem to correlate with year at all.  I suspect it's about barrel variation and rickhouse location.  While my 3 top rated ones were all dark and rich, the lighter ones were excellent drinking in their own right.  And notice that the Stitzel-Weller one was one of the lightest ones.

It makes a lot of sense to compare these experiences of tasting an extensive group of dusty Old Weller Antiques against the stuff you can buy today.  It's extremely popular and lauded.  So popular, however, that it has gone on allocation (i.e. a rationed limited supply to distributes).  It can still be readily found - particularly earlier in each month.  It's the same Buffalo Trace stuff, just now without an age statement.  Does that matter?  I tasted the bottle of Old Weller Antique that I have open at the moment (purchased late 2013) the following day at home - in the open (i.e. not blind).  This was a completely different tasting.  But just one day later the flavors of the paper label OWAs were fresh in my mind.

New Old Weller Antique 107 - no age statement.  53.5% abv. Bottle purchased 2013

Color: Medium light amber
Nose:  Vanilla, floral, hints of mint and lilac.  Light linseed oil/cardboard note.
Palate:  Opening is hotter and less malty than any of the examples tasted at Mike's.  It is grassy sweet with corn and apricot-citrus and cherry fruity notes along with some acetone notes.  The mid palate turns to oak and char, but with a more bitter presentation.
My score: 82

Conclusion.  It's still a wonderful Bourbon for the money, but it has lost a measure of depth of flavor, malty richness, and candied intensity.  With youth it has gained floral, herbal, and fruity notes - but the overall balance is thinner and less lush.

Phil Simon checks Mike's treasures

Phil Simon brought treasures
of his own too. 

The after party to this event was epic.  Major events included Phil Simon bringing a bottle of the legendary Hirsch Rye 13.  This epic bottle will be the topic of it's own post soon, but for the moment here are quick tasting notes taken at the event (when my palate was, admittedly, a bit toasted):

Hirsch 13 rye 47.8 % Medley bottled for Priess by Julian Van Winkle

Color: Dark coppery amber
Nose: caramel toffee, soft lanolin, cut daisy, cilantro flower
Palate;  Gentle, effervescent, malty, caramel, brown sugar, rum rancio, herbal, cinnamon.  Complex, rich, and superb.

Mike then opened a Louisville bottling of W. L Weller Centennial
Then people started getting goofy.

Other highlights included Mike's Louisville bottling of W. L. Weller Centennial, the last of his open bottle of 1916-1922 Old Bridgeport Mongahela PA rye (the topic of an upcoming post), the excellent Diageo bottling of Rosebank 21, and an amazing 1940s Old Taylor (that also needs its own post).  What a wonderful evening!  Thanks Mike and Claire!  Looking forward to our next 2am drive to Waffle House!

George T. Stagg 2011 - The Titan. The King.

George T. Stagg is the famous poster boy of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection.  Huge alcohol concentration, dark color, amazing reputation.  What kind of reputation?  This ran on the PR Newswire at the end of May 2012:

"For the second year in a row, George T. Stagg, the iconic uncut, unfiltered bourbon released annually from Buffalo Trace Distillery, has been named the number one spirit in the world by noted spirits reviewer F. Paul Pacult" 

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/george-t-stagg-named-top-spirit-in-the-world-for-second-year-in-a-row-155340915.html

Yes - Pacult considers George T. Stagg 2010 and 2011 to have been the finest spirits in the world - period.  It made big news in 2010 when Highland Park 18, his top pick for over a decade, was finally unseated by *gasp* a Bourbon.

This is a perfect selection for this, the 100th post on The Coopered Tot.  We're celebrating with fireworks.

Let's drop by top whisky blog The Casks yet again to get the lowdown on George Stagg's bio & and some details about the bottling, such as age and the number of casks:

"George T. Stagg was successful whiskey salesman who, in 1870, helped E.H. Taylor purchase a distillery originally built in 1812 by one Harrison Blanton. They named the distillery “O.F.C.” after its original name, “Old Fire Copper” and proceed to make a number of significant improvements until 1878 when Stagg bought out his partners share. The distillery was re-named the George T. Stagg distillery in 1904 and ultimately was re-named the Buffalo Trace Distillery in 1999." ... "Along with the strikingly high proof (142.6), another incredible stat about this whisky is the amount lost to evaporation over the years, nearly 58%. After maturing in new American Oak for 18 years and 5 months, the 2011 version was pulled from 124 barrels to make up arguably the most well-known and revered expression of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection."

http://thecasks.com/2012/04/18/george-t-stagg-kentucky-straight-bourbon-2011-buffalo-trace-antique-collection/

So, it's the marquis product, incredibly old, enormously powerful, rare, and reputed to be the best spirit in the world.  What a build-up.

George T. Stagg 2011 71.3%

Color: Dark Reddish amber bronze. A fascinating and incredibly rich color.

Nose: Dense dry leather, saffron, apricot. Old orange, canned peaches and cherry preserves. Virginia tobacco. Chrysanthemums, dried daisies, sultanas. Citrus flowers. A wild and wonderful nose with nobility, depth, and complexity.

Explosive on entry with juicy dried apricot orange paste, cherry, leather, and tobacco. There is sandalwood perfumed oak and  intense spirit heat. The flavors keep coming and evolving on the palate:  dust, parchment, old books, dried fruits.  The finish has old oak bitter tannins, walnuts, and almonds

A few drops of water adds some hard candy and flowers to the dense apricot leather nose. It also adds some smoky, meaty notes.

With those few drops of water, on the tongue the sweetness and mouth feel are enriched and oak forms a rich incense filigree. Char and smoke mingle with the oak incense and deep dried citrus cherry fruit leather. Huge. Titanic. Mouth filling.

With extensive time (an hour) the entry evolves from fruits to brown sugar blackstrap molasses and the sandalwood box wood perfume grows in influence become exquisite and intense.

The afterglow bears the flavors of having eaten red hots jujubes, and cherry pie.

Dense. Layered. Evolving shades of sweet wood fruit and char.

What a monster.  What a stupefying tour de force of flavor density, august majesty, and complex and delicious flavor profile.  It's clearly one of the greatest spirits ever.  Who am I to disagree?  My conversion is complete.  I am 100% smitten.

*****

Sazerac Rye 18 2011 rich flavor, zest, and balance for an old rye but at some expense of power

Sazerac 18 is the mature rye in the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection and is, by many accounts, a lot of people's favorite. I received a sample from Tim Read, the incredibly thoughtful whisky blogger of Scotch & Ice Cream, LAWS member, and a man who was one of the original inspirations for me to blog in the first place. Encountering him on the Internet was a thrill. Being able to sample his bottles of the BTAC is a big thrill too. I had skipped the annual BTAC frenzy for years, with a superior "I'm not a joiner. I'm not going to jump through hoops just to get some bourbon or rye" kind of attitude. My recent tastings showed me that the frenzy was justified and I have been missing out on some of the finest whiskies that America has to offer. But the fact remains, these are wickedly hard to get even in the limited autumn season they are available.

The 2011 Sazerac 18's composition is described on the excellent SF whisky blog "The Casks" as follows: "Created from a mashbill of Minnesota rye, Kentucky corn, and North Dakota malted barley, this was aged for, you guessed it, 18 years and bottled from a selection of 28 barrels."
http://thecasks.com/2012/04/24/sazerac-18-year-old-kentucky-straight-rye-whiskey-2011-buffalo-trace-antique-collection-review/

Just 28 barrels. No wonder these are so hard to get. I hope they start putting more away for the decades to come.

Sazerac 18 rye fall 2011 45%

Color: Amber Bronze (orange and gold)

Nose: Initially acetone, cherry, leather and peach - bourbon-like. With 15 minutes or so of air floral and candy notes emerge mysteriously and wonderfully: roses, orange blossom, candy apples (the red glazed kind) and cotton candy join the cherry peach. The apple note have a nutmeg allspice aspect that is reminiscent of compote or baked fruit desserts. Ultimately floral and fruit sweet meets potent baking spices. Nice. It's an extraordinary nose by any standard.

Entry is initially soft. Sweet citrus and then dry strawberry wine with a potent floral aspect mark the opening. Certain sips are marked by a strawberry candy note like a Jolly Rancher or strawberry-orange turkish delight - but with much less sugar on the palate than this signature implies. The mid-palate expands with spicy cinnamon heat, cardamom pods, sweet lotus, baked spiced apple, or mulled cider, leather and oak. It's a rich and full palate - but the mouth feel is light and fairly dry, and the density of flavor is as well. Rich, but not intense. The turn to the finish sees the sweet notes fade and oak warm an fill the void. The rye bitter herbal finish waxes over that and you end up left with a bittersweet vegetal note like having eaten lotus root with cherry glaze and bitter almond oil. There is a black tea like tannin aspect at the finish as well.

Gentle, rich, spiced yet soft. This is another regal august flavor profile. The floral and strawberry aspects are particularly beguiling for me, although after the Handy this barely reads as rye. Blind, I might guess a high rye bourbon.
After the Handy I miss the pow and density of the flavor. However, truth be told this is incredibly lovely hooch no matter whether it plainly appears to be rye or not. This is a common paradox with older ryes. Smoother, more regal, but less herbal flavor and less spicy heat. Sazerac 18 avoids the most common pitfall: an overly strong oak influence.

I don't know the factors that led to this being bottled at 45%. Perhaps after the angel's share this was what was left? If not, my hope is that they skip dilution in the future. With a touch more intensity this might be one of the greatest spirits ever. Actually, even as is it is one of them.

*****

Thomas H. Handy Rye is a fireworks display in your mouth.

 

Next up, Thomas H. Handy Rye from the 2011 Buffalo Trace Antique Collection.  I'm a big fan of rye whiskies. They have, generally, a lovely sweetness and powerful vegetal note and lovely spicy heat.  The combination is seductive, traditionally American, and works well straight or mixed in cocktails.  Having read the stellar review in the SF whisky blog The Casks, I was aware of the history, rarity, and big flavor profile of this moderately young Rye from the BTAC.  It's quite a story that connects this brand with the roots of a great American cocktail in the birthplace of Jazz:

"As Buffalo Trace is owned by Sazerac, and Sazerac was founded by Thomas H. Handy, it seems only fitting to begin a look at Buffalo Trace’s 2011 Antique Collection with the Thomas H. Handy Sazerac Straight Rye. The story begins (more or less) at the Sazerac Coffee House which was located on Exchange Alley in New Orleans’ French Quarter and was well-known for its cocktail made with Sazerac de Forge et Fils Cognac, bitters and absinthe. Handy purchased the Sazerac Coffee House in 1869, switching the Cognac to Rye whiskey in the 1880′s as the Phylloxera epidemic wiped out the supply of grapes for wine and spirits in Europe. Handy steadily built his spirits empire over the years, purchasing and marketing brands like Peychaud’s Bitters and opening another establishment, The Sazerac Bar. The actual Sazerac company was started by a former secretary of Handy’s, C. J. O’Reilly, but it was Handy who laid the groundwork and is generally seen as the father of the company."
This straight rye whisky is made from a mashbill of Minnesota rye, Kentucky corn, and malted barley from North Dakota. 41 barrels of new American White Oak were filled and the spirit was aged for six years and five months before it was bottled uncut and unfiltered."
http://thecasks.com/2012/04/16/thomas-h-handy-sazerac-straight-rye-whiskey-buffalo-trace-2011-antique-collection-review/

I certainly was expecting a lot.  Shockingly (to me), my expectations were exceeded:

Thomas H. Handy Rye Fall 2011 63.45% abv

Handy, at 6 years old is the younger of the two ryes in the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection (as Sazerac 18 is 18) and the youngest spirit in the collection overall. However it has a magnificent regal quality all its own.

Color: a shade deeper and redder than new penny copper. More like old red copper, like a gem large cent that will bring tens of thousands at auction. It's a henna auburn color.

Nose: like a mature sherry bomb Scotch. Noble, august, cognac-like jammy marmalade and cherry, fragrant sweet oak spice perfume. The big notes are jammy dried orange citrus with musky overtones and a sprightly dancing nimble cherry note above with a bit of sweetness and fruit acid zing. After 45 minutes or so of air caramelized sugars like a baked cinnamon candy apple lead off. What a rich and lovely nose.

Entry is sweet and complex with bourbon peaches, cherry compote, crushed ivy and cilantro herbal note, floral vanilla oak, sandalwood incense, raging cinnamon spice heat and sawn rugged oak. Long air time (45 minutes to an hour ups the opening sweetness better here than adding water does - with no loss of intensity). Then the mid-palate expansion rocks these flavors into explosive overdrive. Vibrant cinnamon heat overlays a powerful coiling bittersweet herbal filigree. The turn to the finish sees the herbal notes take over from the sweet and transition into a bitter and medicinal eucalyptus or bitter almond note. The bitterness rides the finish into rich charred oak flavors and lingering ivy herbs at the fade out.

This is a fresh rye palate of flavors yet seemingly paradoxically young and vigorous and aged, mature, and regal at the same time. How do they do it?  If I hadn't had the William Larue Weller 2011 last week I would have said this was the most flavor density I had ever experienced in a spirit.

(sample provided by my friend Tim Read, creator of the amazing blog http://www.scotchandicecream.com/ )

*****

Powerful Rye put me in the mind of Old Potrero - a rye with a powerfully herbal spicy rye kick. So I queued up a dram and sipped them head to head.  It's not a fair fight as Old Potrero is diluted to 45% abv, and doesn't sport an age statement.  I don't know how old Old Potrero is , but the fact that it is issued in uniquely labelled "Essays" - as indicated in labels on the neck - indicate that it is a small batch product of a single distillation run, rather than a vatting of different ages.  Furthermore Old Potrero is, unusually for an American rye, made from 100% rye and malted rye at that.  Old Potrero is a much gentler flavor on entry, sweet and clean and vegetal with a spicy kick that builds up over repeated sipping.  The rich vegetal flavor is fresh and cleanly plant-like.  Thomas H. Handy is redolent of other flavors - with burnt sugar, cinnamon spice, cherry and other fruits and an almost smoky richness overlaying the powerful vegetal note.  It's a far more complicated and richly flavored brew of sensations.  Ultimately Handy is in a totally different league from a flavor density perspective.  It's truly an incredibly dense flavored spirit.  Amazing.  Old Potrero's clean clear vegetal note seems a signature of it's 100% rye mash bill.  However Handy's traditional mash bill is utilized to full effect with incredible complexity and intensity of flavor that delights and mystifies.  How, indeed, does Buffalo Trace achieve such remarkable intensity of flavor in this 6 year old Rye?

William Larue Weller 2011 - The General

Do you believe in love at first sight? Yeah, me neither. But I believe in love at first kiss and I just had that experience with tasting William Larue Weller from the 2011 Buffalo Trace Antique Collection. For some tragic reason I skipped the hype and mania surrounding the annual Autumn releases of these limited edition bourbons. How could I have been so foolish?

I can't do a better job of telling the story of Weller than this paragraph from the excellent whisky blog "The Casks":

"The name Weller is as intertwined and as important a name as you will find in the history of American whiskey. Daniel Weller was operating a still near Bardstown, KY as early as 1800. His son Samuel followed in his father’s footsteps, and his son, William LaRue Weller started making and selling whiskey in 1849. W.L.Weller is generally credited for being the father of wheated whisky, that is, substituting wheat for rye in the mashbill, and was a strong proponent of aging whisky for longer periods of time. He was both a salesman and an educator, and whiskey with his name on it was always of reliably high quality. Weller’s company was eventually purchased by Julian “Pappy” Van Winkle under whose guidance the relationship with the Stitzel Brothers and their distillery began. After weathering the doldrums of Prohibition, the Stitzel-Weller Distillery officially opened in 1935. Today, the Weller name lives on with the brand being owned by Buffalo Trace. Their range includes the 90 proof W.L. Weller Special Reserve, the 107 proof “Antique”, the 12 Year Old, and this eponymous release which is part of Buffalo Trace’s Antique Collection."

"The 2011 William Larue Weller Kentucky Straight Bourbon was distilled from a mashbill of Kentucky corn, North Dakota wheat, and North Dakota malted barley and matured in new American oak (of course) for 12 years and 11 months. It was bottled un-cut and un-filtered from a selection of 45 barrels."
http://thecasks.com/2012/04/21/william-larue-weller-kentucky-straight-bourbon-whiskey-2011-buffalo-trace-antique-collection-review/

Data source for these specs from the distiller:
http://greatbourbon.com/docs/WLWeller.pdf

William Larue Weller 2011 66.75% abv

Color: dark amber bronze with copper orange glints

Nose: Startlingly, chocolate. Then deep dank rich black prunes, stewed peach and black raisin compote with fragrant sawn oak incense.

A dazzling rich explosion of flavor with a dense syrupy mouth feel: sandalwood perfumed oak and rich orange citrus peach toffee sweet literally explode onto the palate at opening then immediately get huge and mouth filling at mid-palate joined by sweet rich pipe tobacco. Cowboy saddle leather appears at the turn, and a distinct note of freshly ground dark roasted coffee beans. Huge tannic walnut skin bitterness emerges at the finish. Dark as a brother's war, rich as the Kentucky bluegrass and as august and tough as an aged Civil War general. This Bourbon owns its hype. This is just astounding bourbon. Over oaked to be sure, but I wouldn't change a thing.

In discussions with serious bourbon people I have learned that this 2011 version is less oaked than a number of other years. Tim Read, the whisky blogger who writes the superb meditations known as www.scotchandicecream.com,  tweeted "WLW is all about big oak. 2010 is a lumberyard. 2011 was relaxed in comparison. 09 more so.". These observations are also reflected in Tim's blog post on the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection.  (Tim also provided the sample. Thanks, Tim!) I'll endeavor to get a hold of samples of the earlier expressions, if possible - and definitely get the new expressions as they come out. Meanwhile, this first experience was a dazzling and mind opening experience. Not only was this 2011 WLW bigger and more densely flavored than any other bourbon I have ever tried. It is bigger and more densely flavored than just about any other spirit of any kind that I have ever tried. The flavor signature isn't the last word in balance - but it is so magnificently BIG that I fairly swoon with love. Love at first kiss.

*****

The very definition of five stars.

Rock Hill Farms - high rye mashbill hits the perfect balance of elegance and fierce heat.

Today I'm drinking Rock Hill Farms - a single barrel bourbon bottled at 50% abv, by the fine people at Buffalo Trace.  Rock Hill Farms sports no age statement, and enjoys, apparently, the high rye "mashbill #2"used in such Buffalo Trace bourbons as Hancock President's Reserve, Blantons, Elmer T Lee, Ancient Age, and Virginia Gentleman.  I say "apparently" because there is very little information about this brand on the Internet.  On the topic of "mashbill #2", Jason Pyle's Sour Mash Manifesto says so.  So does StraightBourbon.com.  However there's no primary source that I can find.  There's also a dearth of information about the brand.  Why, "Rock Hills Farms"?  A clue to the name is found on the Lexington, Kentucky tourist site"visitlex.com": "As you enter Buffalo Trace you’ll notice the stone Rock Hill Mansion where Albert Blanton lived".   In the absence of firm information I'll just let the whiskey do the talking.  In the end that's all that matters anyway.

I believe the reports about the high rye mashbill #2.  The high rye mashbill really shows in the nose and on the tongue. 

Color: in the glass: new copper penny orange-red.  You can see it in the bottle too.  A lovely reddish bronze.

Rock Hill Farms bourbon is a lovely copper red color.

Nose: August and lean.  Acetone, honey, bitter orange and tropical fruits, herbal spice (cardamom?), pipe tobacco, plus a musty meaty note - black forest ham.  The nose is nuanced and opens over time, gaining depth, sweetness, and additional notes.

Entry is off dry with both corn and rye sugars gently showing at the end of the entry, which is quite reserved.  The texture is silky with a full mouth feel.  The midpalate expansion is rich with peppery herbal rye, honeyed sugar maple, sandalwood, black pepper, and plant sap.  This is a big flavor.  There's a tropical fruit aspect in this midpalate sugar and rye-spice medley.  I've seen it called "papaya".  It think it is more of a pineapple upside down cake with some banana and tobacco mixed in.  Sure enough, smokey savory notes join the black pepper and a cognac-like rancio in the turn to the finish.  Elegant, complex, and filigreed at the end.  There is oak, char, and sandalwood incense in the finish which is long and drying (but not unpleasantly so).  There are wood tannins which show up more as a feeling than a flavor.

Cool label is a plastic sticker.

There is a big round corn whiskey sweetness perfectly wedded to the heat, zing, and herbal notes of rye.  Unlike Wild Turkey's high rye mashbill offerings (which I love) which are more fruity and full, Rock Hill Farms is more lean and dry - an elegant balance that comes off as just right.  Hot and yet full of corn and rye sweetness; clean and yet wooded with all the little details of the flavors of the oak clearly delineated.  This is a complex and rich flavor profile that likes a lot of air time to open up.  I found the flavor required a full half an hour of airing in a Glencairn glass before it fully bloomed. 

This is a strong assertive whiskey.  For folks who love the richness of the bourbon flavor profile this will be treasured dram.  Folks who find bourbon a bit hot and strident will find this a bit much.  I'm definitely in the former camp.  This is in my top 10 regular issue bourbons.

*****

Value notes:  Rock Hill Farms is $44.99 at Shopper's Vineyard at the time of writing.  I've seen it as low as $38 down South.  It's 65 pounds in the UK.  This puts it at the higher end of the price scale for bourbons (For example 4 Roses Single Barrel is $32 at Shopper's Vineyard).  I'll state right now that this particular refined flavor profile is worth it in my book.  It has tough competition from the aforementioned Four Roses Single Barrel, as well as other fine bourbons in this price range such as Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit, Eagle Rare 17, Elijah Craig 18, and others.  However I find that Rock Hill Farms brings something different and valid to the table in its clean, elegant, semi-dry rye forward balance.  It stands its ground well at this price point in my opinion.

notice the cork on the decanter top, at left

Sealing 5 samples for the experiement

Carrying on the Value Whisky Reviews Open Bottle Shelf Life experiment.   

Ryan of Value Whisky Reviews / Value Bourbon Reviews started a fascinating series of experiments on the effects of oxidation and evaporation on whiskey left in open bottles.  Follow the link above to read his 3 posts on the topic.  The experimental methodology is to fill samples when the bottle is first opened and then compare them with the bottle over time as its contents oxidize.  I'll be performing these experiments on an ongoing basis.  Thus, when I opened this bottle I filled 5 two oz. sample bottles and will compare them with the remains of the bottle over time.  I'll be looking at mouth feel, aromatics, nose, and flavor and will use Ryan's five point scale of discernible affects.  I'll try to do comparison tastings at 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, and a year.  However, I must tell you right now that this bottle of Rock Hill Farms is never going to last a year.  At the current rate of consumption it will be lucky to last a week.