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Old Fitzgerald Bottled In Bond

Sweet Wheat Cotton Candy

0 187

@VictorReview by @Victor

30th Oct 2012

0

  • Nose
    23
  • Taste
    21
  • Finish
    21
  • Balance
    22
  • Overall
    87

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Distribution of ratings for this: brand user

Alternate review title: 12 Days and 10 Minutes, to reflect the bottle opening time and glass airing time which made this bottle come alive. That strange alternate title reflects the variability of whiskey over time and circumstances

I haven't liked most of my experiences with Old Fitzgerald bourbons over the last three years. I didn't know the brand prior, though it had a very good reputation some years ago

Bottled in Bond is a US Government legal status of a whiskey which is a minimum of 4 years old, sold at 50% ABV, and using distillate deriving from a single year's production. Since Old Fitzgerald has no separate age statement on the bottle, the whiskey is assumed to be 4 years old. Old Fitzgerald whiskeys are currently produced at the Heaven Hill distillery

I greatly enjoyed bar samples of Old Fitzgerld Bottled in Bond on different occasions at a restaurant, which made me want to acquire a bottle. There being no 750 ml bottles of this whiskey available locally, I wound up buying 1.75 Litres of it. I sampled and internally reviewed this whiskey immediately upon opening the bottle and found it lacking compared to the restaurant samples I had had, especially with respect to the quality of the wood flavours. Upon opening I would have rated this at only about 72. This review reflects the whiskey 12 days after the bottle was opened, and after 10 minutes sitting in the glass. Whiskeys frequently need time to oxidise a bit to open up their flavours. 12 days is a very short time for this to occur well, compared to many other whisk(e)ys

Nose: nice sweet vanilla-oak wheat aroma; a very good wheated bourbon nose. Water increases sweetness in the nose

Taste: very sweet nice bright wheat flavours. There is a lot of spice from both wheat and new oak here. The wood flavours are mostly deep, fuzzy, and very slightly to the bitter side. These wood flavours are adequate, but could be much better. By contrast, the restaurant samples of this I have had did not have any bitterness in the wood flavours. Addition of water makes this even sweeter still, and makes the mouth feel very rich, lush and creamy. It also made the alcohol seem stronger

Finish: very strong and long, sweet and spicy; fuller still after the addition of water

Balance: this needed to breathe to be fully ready to enjoy. The wood flavours from this bottle are not as good or clean as those that I had in other samples. That said, this is a very good easy-drinking sweet wheated bourbon, and I prefer its flavours to those of most other young "standard" large-brand wheated bourbons. Like eating candy, this is the sort of whiskey that you can sit around and sip on all day long

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1 comments

@Victor
Victor commented

Ah, the "good old days"! I miss being able to pick up whiskeys like Old Fitzgerald Bonded In Bond wheated bourbon for a very inexpensive price. Even in fall 2012 I came late to looking for a bottle of Old Fitz BIB, and could only find a "handle", i.e. a 1.75 Litre bottle. It cost me about $ 30 at the time, so I didn't much mind that I had all of that whiskey on hand for awhile.

I found the various Old Fitz products to be variable and often disappointing when I was investigating them in 20010-2012. The young but 50% ABV Bottled in Bond seemed the most satisfactory to my tastes at that time, and still does.

This 'handle' of mine has some bitterness not usually found by me elsewhere in samples of Old Fitz BIB. I think the bitterness is from heavy char, and that this batch has a heavier char profile than most batches of Old Fitz BIB.

This bottle is still a lot of fun, and I think that you might be pleased with a dusty bottle of Old Fitzgerald Bottled In Bond, if you happen to find one.

7 years ago 0

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