This review is based on the col­lec­tive notes from a Bal­ti­more Amer­i­can Whiskey Club (BAWC) tast­ing con­duct­ed on March 7th, 2015. Attend­ing mem­bers were Josh Sul­li­van, PJ Sul­li­van, Nicole Fish­er, Owen Lang, Justin Custer, Devin Byrnes & Steven Sil­berg. Writ­ten by PJ Sullivan.

If you’re like us, you’ve prob­a­bly won­dered what’s the best bar­gain when select­ing a bour­bon that won’t break the bank. Well, we decid­ed to put that query to the test. We select­ed sev­en bour­bons that were all pur­chased for under $25 and blind taste test­ed them. The results were quite infor­ma­tive. Some results were pre­dictable. Some were eye-opening.

The sev­en bour­bons we chose were:

• Wild Turkey Straight Bour­bon ($18)
• Four Ros­es Yel­low Label ($18)
• Old Bard­stown ($18)
• Med­ley Broth­ers Her­itage Col­lec­tion ($25)
• Old Grand­dad 80 Proof ($17)
• Old Forester ($18)
• W.L. Weller Spe­cial Reserve Straight Bour­bon ($25)

After we tast­ed and took notes (see below) on all sev­en brands we ranked them and then put the top 3 to a test in a Man­hat­tan. This was a chal­leng­ing tast­ing as the bour­bons’ char­ac­ter­is­tics were much more mut­ed than our usu­al tast­ings. How­ev­er, there was a clear top tier that includ­ed three bour­bons, W.L. Weller, Old For­rester and Med­ley Broth­ers. These three bour­bons were head and shoul­ders above the rest. They had dis­tinct­ly pleas­ing fla­vor pro­files. While there was­n’t a con­sen­sus on where the three bour­bons fell among each oth­er it was evi­dent that Old Forester was the best val­ue as it’s almost $10 cheap­er than Med­ley Broth­ers and W.L. Weller.

The rank­ing went like this:

Tier 1: W.L. Weller, Old Forester & Med­ley Brothers

The remain­ing bour­bons ranked as follows:

• Wild Turkey Straight Bourbon
• Four Ros­es Yel­low Label
• Old Bard­stown
• Old Grand­dad 80

Since these are cheap­er bour­bons we want­ed to see which of the three made the best cock­tail. In this case, we stirred up some Manhattans.

All three were sol­id, but we all agreed the W.L. Weller Man­hat­tan was the best. It’s unique char­ac­ter­is­tics, such as the euca­lyp­tus and herbal qual­i­ties, worked best with the ver­mouth and bit­ters. Old Forester got lost in the cock­tail and the Med­ley Broth­ers was a lit­tle on the sweet side.

Tasting Notes

Old Forester or “Ol’ Fo’ ”

Overview: This was the sur­prise of the group. We did­n’t expect to rate this guy as high as we did. Old Forester starts off with a dis­tinct whiff of apple, which car­ries into the palate. In the mid-palate you’ll notice the tan­nins creep­ing in. The fin­ish is very dry, which is pleas­ing con­sid­er­ing a lot of low­er price point bour­bons lean on the sweet corn notes.

Rat­ing: 3.5 of 5 stars

Proof: 86

Nose: sour apple, caramel corn, grainy, musty

Palate:  sweet corn, malty, grainy, sug­ary syrup / sim­ple syrup, apple, tan­nic, heat

Fin­ish: very dry, tan­nic, syrupy, heat

W.L. Weller

Overview: Weller has the most dis­tinct fla­vors of all the bar­gain bour­bons, which is why it was a crowd pleas­er. The euca­lyp­tus and hon­ey lemon drop nose is so sooth­ing. The palate has a dry, men­thol and herbal play that piques inter­est. The fin­ish is also on the dry­er side. It’s def­i­nite­ly a lighter bour­bon. Great for sum­mer nights on the porch.

Rat­ing: 3.5 of 5 stars

Proof: 90

Nose: euca­lyp­tus, hon­ey lemon cough drop, earthy, damp straw, moss

Palate: men­thol, herbal, dry, tan­nic, slight pep­per, caramel corn

Fin­ish: a dry fin­ish, slight pep­per, “a good sum­mer whiskey”

Medley Brothers Heritage Collection

Overview: Med­ley Bros. had the best nose of the bunch. It had some of the notes you’ll start to see in high­er price point bour­bons like nuts and tof­fee. The palate was­n’t quite as pleas­ing as Weller but had nice stand­out fla­vors like light fruit. It was one of the only bar­gain bour­bons to have a hint of oak in the finish.

Rat­ing: 3.5 of 5 stars

Proof: 102

Nose: sour apple, pep­per, corn, creamy, almond, tof­fee, “good nose for a bar­gain bourbon”

Palate: apri­cot, new wood, light fruit, med­i­c­i­nal, varnish

Fin­ish: heat, sweet dried light fruit, oaky varnish

Wild Turkey Straight Bourbon

Overview: Wild Turkey was the best of the low­er tier. These bour­bons real­ly did­n’t have much going on, but Wild Turkey did­n’t have as many neg­a­tives. Vanil­la car­ried through the experience.

Rat­ing: 2.5 of 5 stars

Proof: 81

Nose: caramel corn, vanilla

Palate: vanil­la, carmel corn, creamy, apple

Fin­ish: vanil­la, marzi­pan, tan­nic, buttery

Four Roses Yellow Label

Overview: Four Ros­es has a dis­tinct pow­dered sug­ar note that starts in the nose and car­ries into the mid-palete. The palate has some veg­e­tal and apple notes that are nice, but we were also pick­ing up a decent amount of unpleas­ing plas­tic fla­vors. The fin­ish was lack­ing also.

Rat­ing: 2 of 5 stars

Proof: 80

Nose: fresh cut grass, corn, vanil­la, pow­dered sug­ar, light beer malt

Palate: veg­e­tal, brown sug­ar BBQ, hint of apple, med­i­c­i­nal, pow­dered sug­ar, plas­tic or “Bar­bie legs”… haha

Fin­ish: chalky, basic

Old Bardstown

Overview: Old Bard­stown let us down… we expect­ed it to come in high­er since we all love its high­er proof broth­er. The nose was­n’t very nice and the palate did­n’t help it out much. The fin­ish was fleet­ing and had no note­wor­thy characteristics.

Rat­ing: 2 of 5 stars

Proof: 90

Nose: gym socks, corn, oak, var­nish, musty

Palate: some wood­i­ness, corn, soap, metal­lic, rust, oily, slight­ly chewy

Fin­ish: fleet­ing, some burn, medicinal

Old Granddad

Overview: We don’t rec­om­mend any­one buy Old Grand­dad 80. It was­n’t good at all. It tast­ed like it went bad.

Rat­ing: 1 of 5 stars

Proof: 80

Nose: carmel corn, tof­fee, corn husk, straw, arti­fi­cial cinnamon

Palate: corn water, funky, hint of mint, moldy

Fin­ish: clean, muted