Old Forester
1910
Finished Bourbon
46.5%

For Day one of the advent I decided to go with Old Forester. In the world of whiskey brands there are few more consistent than Old Forester. They produce excellent spirits and in a world where everything is hard to find, these bottles are always on store shelves. The 1910 edition is finished bourbon, aged in a new barrel to mature and finished in another new barrel to give it this dark red color. The low proof makes it approachable to every drinker and the toasted sweet wood notes are a favorite of mine.

The story goes that over 100 years ago a fire at the bottling line caused the distillery to halt its bottling for a while. However, there was a vat full of whiskey that needed to be bottled soon or risk going bad. So they took the whiskey from the vat and put it back into new barrels until the bottling line was repaired. Once the previous liquid was finally bottled a new whiskey and finishing method was created. This 1910 is a re-creation of that point in Old Forester’s history.

Great story, even better whiskey. This bottle will always be on my shelf and is perfect for long cold nights when you know “we are going to be here a while.” I put this one on the list because it’s one of my top ten favorites and I would probably be drinking it tonight anyways. It also represents the world of whiskey, primarily bourbon. Let’s not forget, most of this product was originally made by farmers, moonshiners, and just regular hard working people. Mistakes were made but sometimes divine intervention gives us the nectar of the gods. Cheers