Review #443 - Old Forester Single Barrel Barrel Strength - 'Nothing Better in the Market'

When we visited Old Forester's downtown Louisville distillery in 2023, we reserved spots on the 'Nothing Better in the Market' tour. This tour takes you around the different parts of the company's mini-distillery in the downtown area; of course, with such large production volumes, Brown-Forman has much larger facilities elsewhere that do most of the real work.

After making our way past fermentation vessels, a bottling hall, a testing laboratory, a miniature cooperage, a small warehouse, and their impressively tall copper still, we arrived at our tasting. Four expressions from Old Forester were included: their 1870 Original Batch, 117 Series Warehouse H, 2022 Birthday Bourbon, and a Single Barrel Barrel Strength bourbon bottled specifically for their Louisville tours - that's what we're looking at today.

This Single Barrel was aged in warehouse K, on the 1st floor; there's no age statement, and because Old Forester uses heat-cycled warehouses to increase the oak interaction with their whiskies, some of their whiskies can be quite young. There's no official word on these SBBS bourbons, but we've heard rumors between 4 and 6 years.

Because of that heat cycling, the proof on these single barrels can end up quite high, too - we always see them above 120 proof, sometimes stretching up to 130+ proof. The tour bottle sits around the middle to high end of that range: 64.55% ABV, or 129.1 proof. Because of that high strength, the distillery doesn't feel the need to chill filter the bourbon, either.

Old Forester Single Barrel Barrel Strength - 'Nothing Better in the Market'

USA - Bourbon

Current Locally Available Price: USD 100 (2024, equivalent product)

Age Statement: NAS

Strength: 64.55% ABV

Details: Not chill filtered; Warehouse K, Floor 1

Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 1 time; bottle 80% fill level at time of review. Tasted in a Glencairn glass, rested 10-15 minutes

Nose: Sweet to start - maple syrup, sweet banana. There's a decent amount of baking spice, such as clove, cinnamon, and cardamom; oak is also strong, adding more of a backbone of spice.

Palate: The mouthfeel is thick; lots of oak spice at the beginning, very woody, decent tannins. Baking spices return from the nose: vanilla, brown sugar, refined white sugar. Great buttery texture, and this is nicely rounded, as the sweetness and spice are balanced. Later, caramel grows stronger.

Finish: Medium-long, very oily, and packed full of sweet notes like brown sugar, demerara sugar, and molasses. It's still oaky, and more baking spice is added: cardamom, nutmeg, and clove.

Final Note: This is a great single barrel - in our tasting at the distillery, it easily beat out the Birthday Bourbon for our spot as favorite that day. It isn't the most complex pour, but it has great strength, and it shows off those classic sugary baking spice flavors well. We did also get a bit of that typical Old Forester banana tasting note, but that was a more subtle part of the profile.

Value is decent on the better examples of these Old Forester single barrels - they can offer tons of punchy, rich flavor. This specific single barrel wasn't for sale at the distillery - reserved for those tours - otherwise, we would have snagged one.

Our Average Rating: 8.5 / 10

In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.

Value Rating: 7.33

About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.