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