Distiller: Old Forester

Release: 2020

Bourbon: Birthday Bourbon

Region: Louisville, Kentucky

Price: $110.00

Proof: 98

Age:  10 years

The Barrel Cellar Score:  94 Points

Review Date: 11/06/2020

About the Bourbon: Highly sought after and hard to find, Old Forester’s birthday bourbon is held in high regard year after year. It is released annually, in celebration of it’s creator George Garvin Brown. Master Distiller Chris Morris and Master Taster Jackie Zykan hand selected “cream of the crop” 10-year-old barrels for this year’s offering. The 2020 release was my first experience with any release of Old Forester’s Birthday Bourbon, so I was quite excited to see if it would live up to its reputation.

I enjoyed the whiskey for this review using a set of Prestige diamond whiskey glasses.

Color: Dusty Topaz

Nose:  Banana nut bread, oatmeal cookies, and cinnamon.

Taste: Strawberries and buttercream, banana brulee, Watermelon Jolly Rancher, almond paste, coconut cream pie, charcoal, and caramel. Drop a couple of ice cubes and tropical fruit notes emerge, specifically citrus and mango

Finish: Sustained, with notes of green apple and leather.

Assessment: The nose is typical Old Forester, and reminds me much of their 1910 offering. I was expecting the rest of the experience to be similar; I was wrong. The first taste that came to my palate was watermelon flavored Jolly Rancher, which melted into buttercream and then banana brulee. it sounds like an odd mix, but it works – it really works. The hints of watermelon jolly rancher keep popping up at different points in the dram. While I first noticed it up front, later it showed up mid-palate and periodically on the finish too. Birthday bourbon is full bodied, its texture is buttery and coating, and it is quite smooth; only presenting the slightest hint of its proof.

So what to say? In short, I love it; the buttery goodness is so fantastic that I’m wondering how this would taste soaked into a stack of pancakes. I may or may not have attempted to do so, but I’m not about to admit it here. Let me know if you do!

Old Forester Birthday Bourbon is an exceptional Bourbon. If you can find it at MSRP, buy it! 94 points.

Special Offer

Prestige Decanters is offering our readers an 8% discount on all their products, including the diamond whiskey glasses used in my review of this whiskey as well as a wide variety of beautiful decanters.  Use promo code “BarrelCellar” at checkout. Prestige’s products really are beautiful, they will make great conversation pieces for visiting friends and family, or a great gift.  Read my review on a couple of the items here.

A special thank you to Binny’s Beverage Depot for selling me this hard to find bottle.