American Whiskey Review #73: Old Forester 1920 Prohibition Style

Distillery: Brown-Forman

Region: Kentucky

Age: NAS

ABV: 57.5%

Mashbill: 72% Corn, 18% Rye, 10% Malted Barley

Color: 1.5, Auburn/Polished Mahogany.

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Nose: It kind of smells like Apple Jacks Cereal. There’s some cinnamon dust and notes of sweet baked apples mixed in with cereal.

Palate: The mouthfeel is thicker than your average whiskey. It’s quite hot with the high proof rearing its downsides a bit. There’s a lot of baking spices with clove and nutmeg being front and center. With water, it does cool down. Some caramel comes to balance out the spice a bit along with some Graham crackers.

Finish: Medium in length. There’s a lot of spice here again. Bits of peppery oak as well as clove, so much clove. Even with water, it’s a tad too boozey for my liking as a bit of ethanol lingers on the tongue.

Conclusion: It’s amazing the fun things your memory can dig up. I haven’t had Apple Jacks in years, maybe even decades at this point, but it’s the first thing that came to mind when I took a whiff of this whiskey. The bits of cereal with tons of cinnamon and bits of apple is a lovely trip down memory lane. The rest of the whiskey doesn’t carry any of the fruitier notes though, but rather a lot of spice. Clove and nutmeg are everywhere here and dominate throughout. It’s an interesting one and if you like getting lost in the spice aisle, you’ll probably enjoy this one quite a bit. The booziness that lingers at the end is a bit off putting, but not enough to completely ruin this. Not a bad whiskey at all!

Final Score: 76.

American Whiskey Review #73, Bourbon Review #59, Whisky Network Review #337

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Scoring Legend:

• 96-100: The perfect dram, nectar of the gods.
• 90-95: Near perfect, there is something truly special about this whisky.
• 85-89: Amazing, will always try to keep a bottle of this in my collection (if feasible).
• 80-84: Very Good, maybe only one minor nitpick about the whisky keeping it here.
• 75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink.
• 70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get it.
• 60-69: Meh, still drinkable.
• Below 59: If you have a bottle of this, start cooking with it instead.

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