Transcription
This is Eagle Rare, which is a 10-year-old, almost single barrel, kind of single, single barrel-ish. I'll explain that in just a second.
But first, my name is TJ Gamble, and you've stumbled your way into Bruisel. In this video, I'm gonna taste Eagle Rare. I'm gonna judge it on five different criteria. I'll assign it a Bruisel score and see how it stacks up against the other bottles we've tried.
Eagle Rare is Kentucky Straight Bourbon whiskey, made by the Buffalo Trace Distillery. Now, "straight bourbon whiskey" really just means this guy is aged a minimum of two years, but it says aged 10 years on the back of the bottle, so we really didn't think that was a problem in the first place.
Eagle Rare is made with Buffalo Trace's Mash Bill Number One, which is their lower rye recipe. That's shared by other brands like E.H. Taylor, George T. Stagg, and Little Baby Stag, that's feeling inadequate and doesn't want to be called Junior anymore, along with the namesake Buffalo Trace bourbon. I will note that this particular bottle I'm reviewing is a store pick from Alabama's ABC. I've actually had a lot better luck finding store picks of Eagle Rare than just normal old Eagle Rare. Now, I chose this one, despite being most of the way empty, because this particular store pick, I find, just completely right in line with the normal Eagle Rare releases that I've had. So, not a lot of variation from the normal release should make this a fair review.
Back in the mid-1970s, Wild Turkey 101 was just cleaning up with bourbon aficionados. Like, this was the sipper you wanted to have. And so Four Roses, which was owned by Seagram's, tasked their master distiller, Charles L. Beam, with coming up with a competitor for this bottle. And Charles did what any smart distiller is going to do. He gave his bottle something that this one didn't have, and that was a 10-year age statement.
Now, of course, Seagram's had great marketing folks, and they got their minds together and they said, "What are we going to call this bourbon? We got to call it something better than Turkey." Like, come on, nobody likes a freaking turkey. They're pretty tasty to eat, but realistically, do you respect turkeys? Probably not. You know what bird's better than a turkey? A freaking eagle. And so, Eagle Rare was born with a 10-year age statement, released at 101 proof in the late '80s.
Sazerac bought the Eagle Rare brand, actually a few years before they bought the Buffalo Trace Distillery. In 2005, they lowered the proof to 90. It started marketing this as a single barrel bourbon, which was the hot new buzz term in whiskey. And you heard that right, I said single barrel bourbon, even though you're not going to find that on this bottle anywhere. And that's because in 2012, they actually removed the single barrel designation. And that's because the way they bottle these, it's possible for two barrels to mix together into one bottle. So instead of fixing that, they're just like, "Screw it, take that crap off the bottle and let's keep selling it." But as far as I know, every single one of these Eagle Rares is single barrel-ish. It's technically not a single barrel, but it basically is. If you know different, let me know.
Before we get into the review, let me, let me holler at you for a minute. If any one of you fine folks out there has 101 proof Eagle Rare just laying around that you're not doing anything with, did you help a fella out? Please think about it. Just think about it. And apparently, Eagle Rare at some point released a 107 proof version that only went to the Japanese market. So if you've got one of those, you just go ahead and send it my way. And, uh, origato. Also, Buffalo Trace, if you happen to be watching this, if you just happen to stumble upon it on your lunch break, I would consider selling a kidney if we could do an Eagle Rare store pick and release it at 107 proof.
All right, that's enough bagging. Let's look at the bottle. On the front, Eagle Rare, aged 10 years, Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. On the side, Single Barrel Select, selected by ABC. On the back, Eagle Rare, Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The cornerstones of the birth of a nation, epitomized by the American bald eagle. That nation has come to represent the freedom, spirit, and independence of the individual, giving the world products and innovations that are uniquely its own. One such innovation was Kentucky Straight Bourbon whiskey. Early Kentucky settlers created bourbon, the true American spirit, in the late 1700s. By practice and protected by law, no other distilled spirit adheres to standards as strict as those established for Kentucky Straight Bourbon whiskey. And few other whiskeys can offer even a glimpse of the great whiskey-making found in Eagle Rare. "Eagle Rare 10-year-old Kentucky Straight Bourbon whiskey has a sweet, oaky nose and full, complex body reminiscent of a fine port wine. This rare whiskey is best served neat or over ice. Of course, feel free to drink Eagle Rare in such classic cocktails as the Manhattan or whiskey sour. It comes in at 90 proof. Distilled, aged, and bottled by Buffalo Trace Distillery, Frankfort, Kentucky."
Lord have mercy, do we have to write entire freaking novels on the backs of bottles? Like, do you all really read all of this crap? If you walk into a store and you see a bottle, do you pick it up and read all of this tiny ass font right here? I couldn't read that at a store if I wanted to. I might be able to take a picture on my phone and blow it up and look at it then. I look all dumb in the stores. No, I'm not reading that crap. Make the font bigger. Condense this down to a couple of sentences to sell me. That's what you need to do. Or maybe not. Seems to be working for them, so don't listen to me. What do I know?
Now, this 90 proof is going to put this at a disadvantage in our test, but this is a fine whiskey. The MSRP on this guy is right around 30-ish bucks, but I rarely ever see it for that unless I'm buying from a state-controlled store. I'll see it a lot for 40, 45 dollars, up to a hundred bucks. Now, I'll let y'all judge as to how much money is too much money for this particular bottle. Availability just kind of varies. For some reason or another, there was a ton of this in Georgia this past year. I see it from time to time, but it really seems to be in bunches. I'll go a month and I'll see three or four bottles that I could buy, and then I may go four, five, six months and not see it again. So it just tends to come and go. You can get your hands on these, they do put a lot of these out, but they are in demand. And as I mentioned, I'm going to judge this bottle on five different criteria. But before we get into that, it really helps me out if you'll hit the like button on this video. Maybe consider subscribing if you haven't already. Also, we're trying to take this channel to new heights and do some really crazy things, and all of your support on Patreon and channel memberships really goes a long way to helping us do that. Also, we've got a free Discord server where we just hang out and talk about bourbon. So if you're into that, consider joining that. Links to all of those things are in the description if you want to know more. That's enough talking. Let's get to drinking.
We're going to try this in our brand new, handy-dandy Bruisel Glencairn, which you can get in it for a limited time at bruzel.com. I've got like 30 of these left, and then we're going to change the design up.
Criteria number one: Aroma. Now, the distiller's note says, "The nose is complex with aromas of toffee, hints of orange peel, herbs, honey, leather, and oak." Now, Eagle Rare is interesting to me because it has a bit of a sour note. And I know it's just a little bit of bitter oak coming through. It almost has that kind of bitter floral fruity grape note, almost like a grape candy. Which means the nose on this thing is freaking exceptional. A lot of sweetness, but balanced really well with the oak. I'm going to give it a seven.
And the next criterion is complexity. Again, what we're looking for here is how it evolves in the palate. You know, right on the front of the palate, I don't get a ton of flavor. Like, it's almost like an indescript sweetness. And then it opens up through the mid-palate, and that's where most of the flavors are concentrated. And then the finish just has a slight warming effect, a little bit of dryness, and it lingers for a little while. Overall, there's some complexity there, but it's not overwhelming. And I give it a five.
And the next criteria is mouthfeel. And this is the viscosity, the thickness, like how well does it coat the palate and really hit all of those taste receptors. It's 90 proof whiskey, you just don't expect it to be that thick, but sometimes we have exceptions. I find it thin and a little bit watery. Now, it's enough to give you some really interesting flavors, but it's not exceptional. And it gets a four.
And the next criteria is finish. The distiller actually says, "The finish is dry and lingering." Just, I mean, I guess it's better than smooth. A little bit of oakiness, and that's really it. Like, it's a fine finish. There's nothing really off-putting about it, but there's nothing about it that makes me say, "Wow, that whiskey is just a fantastic finish." So it gets a four.
The next criteria is the taste. Now, the distiller says, "The taste is bold, dry, and delicate with notes of candied almonds and very rich cocoa." Again, not how I would have described Eagle Rare to anyone, but I understand where they could say that. You know, it's, it's fun reading the distiller's notes and then trying to pick up those flavors yourself. It's an oakiness, but it's not an overpowering dry oakiness, which I tend to dislike. Lots of times, if a whiskey's 10 years old or older, it starts to get kind of dry and bitter through the mid-palate, and this one doesn't really do it that much. You do get almost some of that grapiness that I was talking about, which is just kind of that floral sweetness with the oak. And when you first try it, if this is the first pour of the day, that oak can oftentimes be a little bit overwhelming. But after you've had a few, it's pretty good. I just wish the proof were higher and those flavors were a little more intense. So I like the flavors on this whiskey, but I don't like them as much as the nose. So I'm going to give it a six.
It gets a Bruisel score of 26, which puts it here, tied with Woodford Reserve, a few points ahead of Buffalo Trace, and just shy of Blanton's. I may get a little pushback on this review. We'll see. Y'all let me know in the comments where you think this should rank. Am I right? Am I wrong? I don't know. Let me know.