Forty Creek Double Barrel Reserve - Still good?

I won’t buy any more FC offerings without trying from the batch first. The Double Barrel was a terrific whisky, but I fear that the “newer” bottlings are going to be weaker offerings. The Copper Pot Reserve has been going downhill ever since John Hall retired. The Barrel Select is a roll of the dice, quality-wise. It’s a shame, since older bottlings (like the Portwood Reserve) were magnificent. The newer ones tend to have a very bitter, unpleasant, spirity, vodka-esque note on the finish.

@OdysseusUnbound Yeah, that Portwood was good. Wherever did you come across that? You lucky guy!

@Nozinan It was only a sample, gifted by a thoughtful medical professional who wrote me a script for it. For, uhm, mental health purposes...

@Nozinan The kind dr had also given me a lovely sample of FC Heart Of Gold which was also terrific...

I think the potential for Forty Creek is amazing...too bad John Hall sold out when he did. He started a great thing, and Compari is capitalizing on huge volume sales...but where is the good stuff for us whisky nerds?

@dloewen

At Wiser’s

@Nozinan That is absolutely true!

@dloewen, They aren't watering it down, it was already 40%

There is no doubt in my mind that Campari is using younger, uhm, I mean adequately matured, hand selected barrels of whisky for the new and improved Double Barrel. It is now a premium-priced mixer. The early batches of FCDB were very good, especially a number of months after being opened.

I saw the 40 Creek Barrel Select for well under 20$ today, but wasn't sure what it's like. it's easy for me to get. Canadian whisky conns, is it good stuff?

@Jonathan I'm assuming you live in the U.S.? Yes, the Forty Creek Barrel Select is a good easy sipper/mixer with absolutely nothing off-putting, however it also lacks character to make it a "good" sipper. In Ontario it is our bottom-shelf selling at $27...I'd maintain, it's better than most bottom-shelfers (I think most would agree with me.) This thread, however, is about Forty Creek DOUBLE Barrel Reserve. I don't know whether that is exported. The first two bottles are the two currently offered in Ontario. If you find the third bottle pictured, snatch it up, it's the discontinued version of FCDBR that sold for $59 CAD.

Edit: I attached 3 photos, but it only saved the third...can't see any way to edit the attached photo, sorry.

There we go...I'll try this again.

@dloewen, the bottle style change for FC Double Barrel is probably driven by pack size. The old style tall, flask-like bottles were packed six in a box. This box looked big enough to hold 8 or 9 bottles, but had spacers on the end (to protect the bottles?). The new style bottle is most likely going to the standard pack size of 12/ctn, making it more practical for production line runs as well as shipping and handling....and getting more bottles onto store shelves.

@dloewen Just a note: the price was below 20$. Should probably have snapped it up.