I wouldn’t say I’ve had a “disdain” for all things Old Forester for the last decade, but I definitely haven’t had it on my list of “must buys”…or “might buys,” for that matter. Almost a decade ago I reviewed the Old Forester Classic Bourbon and found it to just not be to my liking…hey, it happens. I have tried a couple other expressions over the years, but found none to be all that memorable. Then I was watching a YouTube channel for SLB Drinks and they were blind tasting several bourbons; when they hit the Old Forester 1910 (they showed onscreen what they were tasting even though they didn’t know it at the time), they went on and on about how great it was. So I set out to find a bottle.
Which wasn’t all that hard, really…it seems to be available everywhere. 1910 is one of the many year-named whiskies that Old Forester produces, with the year indicating a story from the company’s past. This “1910 – Old Fine Whisky” is named for that year because a fire on Whiskey Row in Louisville led to “Old Forester being re-barreled into heavily charred barrels.” Thus they make this a double-barreled expression of their bourbon. It is bottled at 46.5% ABV or 93 proof. I’m going to assume it uses their “Traditional” mash bill which is 72% corn, 18% rye, and 10% malted barley.
1910 is quite dark in the glass, just about surpassing amber and going to an amber-tinged milk chocolate brown color. Their notes state an aroma of buttercream, toffee, cedar, and apricot. The only one of those I agree with is apricot…along with hints of butterscotch and a rich maple syrup aroma that just about blew me away every time I got a whiff of it.
Taking a sip, I got notes of caramel and sweet baked items…not quite the oatmeal raisin cookies they suggested, but in the same ballpark. I did get a solid flavor of chocolate, although they said milk chocolate and I found it to be more of a dark. They also mentioned caramel corn (I didn’t see it) and “evolving spice” (which I definitely did). Even though it was on the lower proof side, I got definite “heat” spice in terms of pepper and cinnamon, along with other baking spices.
Bottom line…I really love this bourbon. And Old Forester is back on my radar for trying other expressions to see what else they have that I might enjoy. Most of these “decade” bottles tend to run in the high $40 range to the high $60 range, depending on a variety of factors, so not “cheap” but also not ridiculously high priced.
