Ancient Ancient Age 10 Star

Still on the quest for a decent price bourbon for cocktails, cooking, and the occasional sipping. Price to quality is the key. With that in mind I picked up this 1L bottle for $12.50 plus tax. We might have a winner here.

Nose: Baked Granny Smith apples, cinnamon and sugar. There is that tart bourbon nose with an underlying sweetness. There is depth here and a hint of wood. Definitely deeper then the OG114, but this is not a nose I am taken with. This has the biggest tart nose and the most white sugar sweetness of the bunch. Water actually helps this nose. It mutes some flavors and turns down both the sour and the sweet.

Taste: Mild tartness and sweetness in a fun balance: sugar, apples, and cinnamon. Full mouth feel.

Finish: Big wave of brown sugar and Granny Smith apples. Nice and full bodied for an inexpensive bourbon. A fairly long finish. Water does help flatten this out in a good but different way.

Balance, Complexity: Decent balance of sour and sweet. The sweet is a bit too much “sugar” and the sour is very strong and assertive. It has decent complexity for such a young whiskey. Impressive for the price.

Aesthetic experience: I actually like this bottle better then the standard Ancient Age (I haven’t tried the 10 year old version). Although it does seem to prominently display the “10” and makes you think it is a 10yo, the “star” is written very small. I hate the deception. And that actually does lower my score for this bourbon.

Conclusion: A nice easy bourbon for the price. This might be my go to cooking bourbon. It is a bit too sweet and sour for a regular drinker . . . but that price to value is hard to beat. This could easily make a “B” for a standard issue bourbon. However, I feel a bit of deception going on with whole “10 star” thing. For me this makes it a B- bourbon.

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