@@apeekintime half 🤣😂. We have a couple hundred reviews and a few hundred blinds/news/tier lists/collectors corners/vlogs and about 15 other types of videos. When we launch/try out new content it makes it safer (for analytics) if we do it with Distilleries we know will do better. That just so happens to be BT products. Honestly the idea is to do this with other distilleries but launching it with BT is generally how we'll try it.
I remember working at a liquor store in 2016 and one of the big bourbon guys that regularly bought stuff from us got one of each bottle in the antique collection. He brought us samples from each bottle a week later and we did a blind tasting of each. I distinctly remember my friend describing it as tasting like "vanilla jet fuel" lmao. It was by far my personal favorite of the lineup
I run a Whiskey Club and we meet monthly to do double blind tastings of 4 or 5 whiskeys. It's been super fun and enlightening and one of the things I have learned to avoid is mixing proofs too much. It's really hard to taste a 125 proof whiskey before or after a 90 proof whiskey and give either a real fair shot. You guys have obviously tasted a hell of a lot more whiskey than our crew, but I think proof, more than similar flavors is the real x-factor in large blinds like this.
Yep... I think you really need to keep the proofs within 10 or so points for a fair comparison. Every time we've had 3 things that were 100 or less and one thing that was cask strength, the cask strength gets crushed because it it fire water compared to the others. One of my favorite tastings involved 4 pours that were lower proof and available and then whichever was your favorite, you'd get a step up version that was either older/rarer or higher proof... so if you liked EC Sm Batch, you got to try EC 18 after. If you chose Bardstown Fusion, you got a Discovery, if you went Baker's 7 yr, you got Bookers and if you went Maker's, you got FAE-01. It was really fun to zero in on something you liked and then step up or over to taste something in the same product line. But a Bookers vs. EC18 taste would be terrible.
I've tried alot of bourbons because bourbon is the only kind of whiskey i drink and only kind of liquor i drink in general but for me the best bourbon I've ever drinked is the one i bought this past weekend and that blanton's. Damn It was smooth and delicious it was worth the price i paid which considering it's and expensive brand that was $75. Hell as a matter of fact i don't think I'll ever drink another kind of bourbon blanton's is that good. It's my favorite whiskey of them all. 🥃
Loved that content and appreciate how you did that blind and double blind to reduce any bias! Great format...and you did a nice job of editing what was probably an hour-long raw video. i was fortunate enough to land a 2022 GTS and at first sip it was EASILY the best whiskey I'd ever had...surpassing a tie between an older Lagavulin 12 CS and Ardbeg Dark Cove.
Sorry you're unable to reconcile someone evaluating one whiskey experience over another despite them being drastically different flavors. What's the best dinner you've ever had? Was it steak, was it seafood, was it a hamburger? Those aren't the same, but if you said hamburger, I won't argue that your hamburger dinner beat out your best steak dinner. And I won't even think you're a maniac for thinking that.
Only switch id make is make is the small batch EH Taylor and the eagle rare. If you get a chance the blantons straight from the barrel is excellent. May disrupt the ranking s a bit.
Definitely a fun video. With your collection, you should be able to do this for quite a few distilleries. Seeing how all of the Sagamore variants do against each other would be fun to see.
Great video! There are no losers in that line up! For me, Blanton's is #9 (second to last) which moves everything else up. Also Stagg Jr. ahead of EHT SIB. Don't know about #1-2, I'm sure you're right placing them there, gonna have to take your word for it. Sean, I think you might have just had an off day on the other 8.
Just did a blind with two friends.. we all had Buffalo Trace, Taylor Small Batch, Eagle Rare and Blanton's. All three of us independently had Buffalo Trace first. Two of us had Blanton's second and we all three had Eagle Rare last.
Excellent Excellent vid guy's. Exactly what Everyone wanted to see. Super fun ...super content. Straight to the point. Wham bam thank you.... Thanks a bunch for posting.
I'm glad you guys actually make use of the 100 points range in total, not like other people who effectively use a range between 80 and 100. And I'm also glad that I'm not the only one detecting a grainy note in many BT products lately. Imo this doesn't correlate with age though, had experienced something similar with a very recent Eagle Rare as well. A lot of heat and roughness probably due to shortened fermentation periods and rushed distillation, neglecting quality to maximize profits. Can't do the same with WLW or GTS, or else, I guess. Best of luck with your Virtue project, Cheers dudes!
I always thought RHF was tater bait (read: Lee, Elmer T.) until I actually got a bottle a couple of years ago. It's quite a delicious pour. No shame at all in ranking it above Stagg Jr.
All these things show is that taste is mostly subjective, and we taste and appreciate different things differently on different days. The top will always stand out and the bottom will always be the bottom, but the middle of the road bourbons will always be a more of “what you’re feeling” that kind of day.
I only own and have tasted 10 - 5 and pretty much rank them in that order with Stagg Jr (24A) the clear winner. I've never tried 4 - 1 and can't comment except to say that I definitely want to, especially WLW and GTS. What's interesting is that EHT SB did so well in this blind/3rd, so it sounds like something I need to find even if it's at secondary prices which I prefer not doing.
It think the only surprise was the 107 being so low, but really all of those are great bottles and its not gonna jump too much for my palate if i knew what it was. cool blind.
You need to separate them by proof. Stagg "Jr", EHTBP, and the barrel proof BTAC all drink dramatically different. It'd be interesting to see how all the 80-100 proofers line up against each other - EHT Small Batch & Single Barrel, Weller CYPB/12-year/Special Reserve, Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare, ALL of Mash bill 2.
I agree, jumping back and forth on proof can screw with yer pallet, which they even commented going back a few after getting acclimated towards the end.
Talking about E.H. Taylor Single Barrel “every time I see one of those…”. What?! I’ve seen ONE and it was, of course, behind the counter, and, OF COURSE, marked up to a RIDICULOUS price that any normal person wouldn’t touch… ugh.
Finally today (May 18, 2023) I was able to find, buy and taste a bottle of Stagg (22B @130 proof)! [Choir music in the background . . . ) for the first time; after looking for years. It is soooooooooooooooooooo great. Pricey, yes. Hard to find, yes. But the nose and the flavors are amazing. As I am not a "proof hound" like you guys, I would rate E. H. Taylor, Jr. Small Batch as an "A" and Stagg an "S".
EHT single barrel is the highest in the list that I have ever owned. It’s a great pour and bottle. Never Owen any stagg jr or higher options would love to one day though.
This video made me subscribe. Please do 4 more of these from different distilleries and then take the top 2 from all 5 and have a big dog blind tasting!
You guys were hyping up the WLW and I was like "Oh! OH! Oh yes, which one is it?!" And then my heart dropped because I'll probably never get to try it lol 💔
Lol "Everytime I see an EH Taylor Single Barrel I am 100% in" I have see it on a shelf once and it was $239.00. I was not 100% in at that price. Same store had a stagg for $450.
the first time i was introduced to bourbon was through a blind taste test with all of these except the William Weller and George T Stagg. Blantons won for me and stagg came in dead last the others were about the same
@@Mr10usdad Yup here in upstate NY they are getting $25.99 for a 375ml bottle $28.08 after the 8% sales tax! I only spent the money because I wanted to know what it was like but will never replace it at that price and I dont see the price coming down! once it's down to a 1/3 of a bottle it's just going to be a show piece!
Sometimes I think it's hard to compare a bunch of relatively similar products, because it makes it more difficult to pick up on the flavor of some of them. You get acclimated to certain similar aspects of the products. Kind of like how the tenth drink of slushie tastes different than the first.
Yea I'm honestly thinking that's what happened with the stagg Jr. Too much of the same kind of drown it out a little. We were a little rushed on time shooting this so it might have done a little better. Overall I think that's really close to how we'd rank them normally
@@BourbonJunkies Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. Of course a 130 proof whiskey is going to seem a bit underwhelming when you just drank something else that's, if we're being honest, pretty darn similar to it (other than being lower proof of course).
Some buds and I blinded batch 15 Stagg jr against 3 different Stagg jr picks. Batch 15 was dead last for all 5 of us and 2 of us didn’t finish it. *then* our buddy revealed he had filled his batch 15 bottle with Benchmark FP. I was bummed as I was hoping for a better fight from it.
@@jaymze44 oh yeah I just blind tasted the Benchmark SiB and BT and ER. I was shocked how sweet the Benchmark SiB was and the BT had this rough oak flavor. I thought the Sib was better and it was I think 4 years younger and cheaper.
Would you do a blind of the Buffalo Trace winner next to 3 other top-shelf bourbons? I still think Buffalo trace is overrated and/or way too expensive.
@@red5standingby419 IF you can find them but when I have seen them they are usually double or more the MSRP. Including plain old Buffalo Trace. Blantons was $190.00. That's a big no for me as there are good bourbons out there that are sold at MSRP.
This might be my favorite video of all time. I would love to see you run it back with other distilleries.
For sure will in the future
Agreed absolutely loved this one.
I agree with the agreement 🤝
This! Yes!
@@apeekintime half 🤣😂. We have a couple hundred reviews and a few hundred blinds/news/tier lists/collectors corners/vlogs and about 15 other types of videos. When we launch/try out new content it makes it safer (for analytics) if we do it with Distilleries we know will do better. That just so happens to be BT products. Honestly the idea is to do this with other distilleries but launching it with BT is generally how we'll try it.
The results. You’re welcome
10. BT
9. EHTSmB
8. OWA107
7. Blantons
6. ER
5. Stagg Jr
4. RHF
3. EHTSingle
2. WLW
1. GTS
I remember working at a liquor store in 2016 and one of the big bourbon guys that regularly bought stuff from us got one of each bottle in the antique collection. He brought us samples from each bottle a week later and we did a blind tasting of each. I distinctly remember my friend describing it as tasting like "vanilla jet fuel" lmao. It was by far my personal favorite of the lineup
It'd be cool to have a series where you guys rank every legacy distillery's offerings then have a final blind with the winners.
@@apeekintime Seriously… everything besides Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare and Blantons I’ve never seen on a shelf anywhere
OF next.. Or just brown Forman products in general
@@apeekintime they have tons of videos on budget bottles... Budget blinds even
@@apeekintime Reviewing more exclusive bottles is nice because when you find one you know what to expect
I run a Whiskey Club and we meet monthly to do double blind tastings of 4 or 5 whiskeys. It's been super fun and enlightening and one of the things I have learned to avoid is mixing proofs too much. It's really hard to taste a 125 proof whiskey before or after a 90 proof whiskey and give either a real fair shot. You guys have obviously tasted a hell of a lot more whiskey than our crew, but I think proof, more than similar flavors is the real x-factor in large blinds like this.
Spot on.
Like wine tastings to a degree. Need to keep the shot group tight.
totally agree.
Yep... I think you really need to keep the proofs within 10 or so points for a fair comparison. Every time we've had 3 things that were 100 or less and one thing that was cask strength, the cask strength gets crushed because it it fire water compared to the others. One of my favorite tastings involved 4 pours that were lower proof and available and then whichever was your favorite, you'd get a step up version that was either older/rarer or higher proof... so if you liked EC Sm Batch, you got to try EC 18 after. If you chose Bardstown Fusion, you got a Discovery, if you went Baker's 7 yr, you got Bookers and if you went Maker's, you got FAE-01. It was really fun to zero in on something you liked and then step up or over to taste something in the same product line. But a Bookers vs. EC18 taste would be terrible.
Very much so. Tastings like this are just for fun.
My guy said heavy rye spice to a wheated bourbon 🤣🤣.
I loved the video thou, great job guys.
I've tried alot of bourbons because bourbon is the only kind of whiskey i drink and only kind of liquor i drink in general but for me the best bourbon I've ever drinked is the one i bought this past weekend and that blanton's. Damn It was smooth and delicious it was worth the price i paid which considering it's and expensive brand that was $75. Hell as a matter of fact i don't think I'll ever drink another kind of bourbon blanton's is that good. It's my favorite whiskey of them all. 🥃
Love how Dan said W107 was very Rye forward spice… Enjoy this type of content, keep it up!
So strange cause I don't get spice at all. I think it's so smooth.
I get that spice on most wheaters. It can also come across like light effervescence or carbonation.
Loved that content and appreciate how you did that blind and double blind to reduce any bias! Great format...and you did a nice job of editing what was probably an hour-long raw video. i was fortunate enough to land a 2022 GTS and at first sip it was EASILY the best whiskey I'd ever had...surpassing a tie between an older Lagavulin 12 CS and Ardbeg Dark Cove.
Much appreciated!
@@apeekintime You can still like one better.
Sorry you're unable to reconcile someone evaluating one whiskey experience over another despite them being drastically different flavors. What's the best dinner you've ever had? Was it steak, was it seafood, was it a hamburger? Those aren't the same, but if you said hamburger, I won't argue that your hamburger dinner beat out your best steak dinner. And I won't even think you're a maniac for thinking that.
Only switch id make is make is the small batch EH Taylor and the eagle rare. If you get a chance the blantons straight from the barrel is excellent. May disrupt the ranking s a bit.
Incredible video! I had my wife do the same for me but I only had the Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare, and Blantons….. ER won… LOL
Definitely a fun video. With your collection, you should be able to do this for quite a few distilleries. Seeing how all of the Sagamore variants do against each other would be fun to see.
Awesome video. 👌
Next up, I recommend Jim Beam product line, including the Knob Creeks and Baker's, Booker's etc. obviously.
Seems like a pretty accurate ranking of them. Only surprise is OWA, but still not too shocking knowing what it's up against
Love it! It's like an objective based tier list. I can't wait to see you do brown Forman with the old non saz early times and watch it crush!
Great video! There are no losers in that line up! For me, Blanton's is #9 (second to last) which moves everything else up. Also Stagg Jr. ahead of EHT SIB. Don't know about #1-2, I'm sure you're right placing them there, gonna have to take your word for it. Sean, I think you might have just had an off day on the other 8.
Blinds reveal all lmao. Glad you guys aren't afraid to be "wrong"
Just did a blind with two friends.. we all had Buffalo Trace, Taylor Small Batch, Eagle Rare and Blanton's. All three of us independently had Buffalo Trace first. Two of us had Blanton's second and we all three had Eagle Rare last.
Would love to have seen Weller FP in there.
Do Wild Turkey next!!
This video is a nice change of pace. You guys should do this with all major distilleries. Old carter next please. 😊
I’ve only had about half of those but I think it was really spot on. The rankings I mean
The Stagg Jr. was not batch 12. 130.2 proof was Batch 14. Batch 12 is 132.3...I think this might have been mixed up
Excellent Excellent vid guy's. Exactly what Everyone wanted to see. Super fun ...super content. Straight to the point. Wham bam thank you.... Thanks a bunch for posting.
I'm glad you guys actually make use of the 100 points range in total, not like other people who effectively use a range between 80 and 100.
And I'm also glad that I'm not the only one detecting a grainy note in many BT products lately. Imo this doesn't correlate with age though, had experienced something similar with a very recent Eagle Rare as well. A lot of heat and roughness probably due to shortened fermentation periods and rushed distillation, neglecting quality to maximize profits. Can't do the same with WLW or GTS, or else, I guess.
Best of luck with your Virtue project, Cheers dudes!
Fun video to watch but for me it doesn’t matter which one is the best or worst because I can’t find any of them on the shelves anyways 😢
You can't get BT these days? Since they fired the hoarding distributor it's been readily available here
Maybe one of my favorite videos of late from y’all … love the rapid fire results!!!! Don’t over think it, just drink it!!!! ❤❤❤
Would be great to include the cost of each bottle to give a little more context to how good or bad the ratings for each one is...
I always thought RHF was tater bait (read: Lee, Elmer T.) until I actually got a bottle a couple of years ago. It's quite a delicious pour. No shame at all in ranking it above Stagg Jr.
"That smells like nothing". My exact problem with buffalo trace lol
All these things show is that taste is mostly subjective, and we taste and appreciate different things differently on different days. The top will always stand out and the bottom will always be the bottom, but the middle of the road bourbons will always be a more of “what you’re feeling” that kind of day.
100%
I love this video. Buffalo Trace is my favorite distillery. Now I'm excited to try some of the top Whiskeys yall ranked.
One of your best, honest videos .
I only own and have tasted 10 - 5 and pretty much rank them in that order with Stagg Jr (24A) the clear winner. I've never tried 4 - 1 and can't comment except to say that I definitely want to, especially WLW and GTS. What's interesting is that EHT SB did so well in this blind/3rd, so it sounds like something I need to find even if it's at secondary prices which I prefer not doing.
Thanks, I wish you had done all of the Wellers too, and Hancock's but this is a huge line up to compare.
It think the only surprise was the 107 being so low, but really all of those are great bottles and its not gonna jump too much for my palate if i knew what it was. cool blind.
The 2022 GTS might be the greatest bourbon I've ever tasted in my life. It was transcendent. A supernova of flavor bursting in your mouth.
I don't drink bourbon (yet at least), but I love your videos.
You need to separate them by proof. Stagg "Jr", EHTBP, and the barrel proof BTAC all drink dramatically different. It'd be interesting to see how all the 80-100 proofers line up against each other - EHT Small Batch & Single Barrel, Weller CYPB/12-year/Special Reserve, Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare, ALL of Mash bill 2.
I agree, jumping back and forth on proof can screw with yer pallet, which they even commented going back a few after getting acclimated towards the end.
The bottom 5 makes sense to me as a whole...although i would have guessed a different order
Should have dumped the remnants ultimate infinity pour….Thanks for confirming my Eagle Rare love
I’ve been lucky to have tasted this entire lineup, minus WLW. My top 2 is RHF and GTS, so not too surprised how this panned out.
first-timer. Seeing the cat in the promo early on sealed the deal with the subscribe.
Excellent video fellas! Love the scoring system 🥃💪🏻
Talking about E.H. Taylor Single Barrel “every time I see one of those…”. What?! I’ve seen ONE and it was, of course, behind the counter, and, OF COURSE, marked up to a RIDICULOUS price that any normal person wouldn’t touch… ugh.
Brilliant segment. Loved it from beginning to end. Thanks
Finally today (May 18, 2023) I was able to find, buy and taste a bottle of Stagg (22B @130 proof)! [Choir music in the background . . . ) for the first time; after looking for years.
It is soooooooooooooooooooo great. Pricey, yes. Hard to find, yes. But the nose and the flavors are amazing.
As I am not a "proof hound" like you guys, I would rate E. H. Taylor, Jr. Small Batch as an "A" and Stagg an "S".
This video is effing awesome! You guys are getting back to basics and your individual idiosyncrasies. *Sorry Dan, big words.😅 I ❤ Junkies.
"zhere you ghooo buffahlo traceheshe that'shs the ordershs"
Godspeed gentlemen, you'e done us proud.
I really like this type of video, like the simple soring simple and the blinds. Hope the next one is with Dan double blind instead of Sean!
Sean is never ready for the STAGG!
I did a blind buffalo trace and had almost the same thing - minus I ended up having ER and ER in front of the EH taylors.
Interesting! I love Stagg. It is one of my favorites.
Perfect timing. Going to the BT distillery tour next month…EH Taylor is on the buys list
EHT single barrel is the highest in the list that I have ever owned. It’s a great pour and bottle. Never Owen any stagg jr or higher options would love to one day though.
Can’t say that i agree with all of them but GTS number one and not being close is the truth!
This video made me subscribe. Please do 4 more of these from different distilleries and then take the top 2 from all 5 and have a big dog blind tasting!
You guys were hyping up the WLW and I was like "Oh! OH! Oh yes, which one is it?!" And then my heart dropped because I'll probably never get to try it lol 💔
I’m just happy that I have 6 out of 10 bottles. Nice vid.
Next up - Old Forester!
Lol "Everytime I see an EH Taylor Single Barrel I am 100% in" I have see it on a shelf once and it was $239.00. I was not 100% in at that price. Same store had a stagg for $450.
what did you say, I'll add 5 to it. "97".... uh oh. lmaooo that was hilarious. this was fun to watch
Kinda curious why Elmer wasn't apart of this reunion 😅
This was exactly what we want to see
Curious where EHTBP would land
Wow you guys are tough critics. Love the content!
The Buffalo lineup you still can’t go wrong
what do you have your DJI mics set at for gain? Have you noticed any bleed over being that close to each other?
Love the pairings! Can’t find Girl Scout cookies, but fortunately Aldi has clones for Samoas and Tagalongs!
Another fun one. Thanks. Love the blinds, double blinds in particular, of available and affordable bottles. Keep it up. Cheers.
the first time i was introduced to bourbon was through a blind taste test with all of these except the William Weller and George T Stagg. Blantons won for me and stagg came in dead last the others were about the same
This was awesome! Way to be vulnerable guys. 🤣
Agreed, some of my eht single sp are absolutley the best.
Been waiting on this video for a minute!!! Great content and I hope I get to try top 3 at least once in my lifetime lol
great vid. keep up the good work. looking forward to friday. good luck on matt madness.
Can't wait!
wow so much whiskey to taste at once. great job. Love this idea. Buffalo Trace has just so many. very crazy. cheers.
This wouldn't hurt so much if I hadn't just spent $48.59 on a bottle of Buffalo Trace. 🥃cheers
Wow! I have never seen Buffalo Trace for that much! It is under $30 here in Georgia.
@@Mr10usdad Yup here in upstate NY they are getting $25.99 for a 375ml bottle $28.08 after the 8% sales tax! I only spent the money because I wanted to know what it was like but will never replace it at that price and I dont see the price coming down! once it's down to a 1/3 of a bottle it's just going to be a show piece!
Despite the video being a little messy organization haha I love this type of content great video 💚🤘
This is what we love to see
Guys I recently just got a george t stagg in a raffle...best bourbon I've had yet
Hope you can enjoy every last drop!
Sometimes I think it's hard to compare a bunch of relatively similar products, because it makes it more difficult to pick up on the flavor of some of them. You get acclimated to certain similar aspects of the products. Kind of like how the tenth drink of slushie tastes different than the first.
Yea I'm honestly thinking that's what happened with the stagg Jr. Too much of the same kind of drown it out a little. We were a little rushed on time shooting this so it might have done a little better. Overall I think that's really close to how we'd rank them normally
@@BourbonJunkies Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. Of course a 130 proof whiskey is going to seem a bit underwhelming when you just drank something else that's, if we're being honest, pretty darn similar to it (other than being lower proof of course).
These are really cool. How bout one with finished and one with toasted. For sure do more videos like this though!
I want to see the benchmark series in this too since I bet some of them beat regular BT.
Some buds and I blinded batch 15 Stagg jr against 3 different Stagg jr picks. Batch 15 was dead last for all 5 of us and 2 of us didn’t finish it. *then* our buddy revealed he had filled his batch 15 bottle with Benchmark FP. I was bummed as I was hoping for a better fight from it.
@@jaymze44 oh yeah I just blind tasted the Benchmark SiB and BT and ER. I was shocked how sweet the Benchmark SiB was and the BT had this rough oak flavor. I thought the Sib was better and it was I think 4 years younger and cheaper.
Weller antique 107. Not available here in Finland. Found it in Ireland .
That's too bad. 107 doesn't even have to be your favorite. It's just everything a good bourbon should be.
52+75 does not equal 137, lol
THESE ARE THE BEST VLOGS!
I think you guys nailed it.
Should’ve added Benchmark Full Proof in there too(Stagg Jr Jr)
I really enjoyed this video you all. Great job., fun to watch, funny. Do it again!!
Wonder how Elmer would have done
Great artist love them both. The island one is dreamy.
The hype the hype! Loved this video
blantons gold and STFB for the win!?
Hey wait a minute...you're not the same guys that were in the video I watched the other day...😁
Best contest ever.
Would you do a blind of the Buffalo Trace winner next to 3 other top-shelf bourbons? I still think Buffalo trace is overrated and/or way too expensive.
Way too expensive on secondary*. Their MSRP's are some of the best.
@@red5standingby419 IF you can find them but when I have seen them they are usually double or more the MSRP. Including plain old Buffalo Trace. Blantons was $190.00. That's a big no for me as there are good bourbons out there that are sold at MSRP.
@@scurfie2343 I agree on BT but I’d pay decent money for some of the better wellers and EHT not small batch
@@Hunter-dl1gd I did like Weller Green label. $12.00 a pour at a bar in Georgia.
@@scurfie2343 I will say I hate green Weller but everyone has their own tastes. I’m in Ohio and it’s everywhere “allocated” but I like OWA 10x more
I wonder if you have to cleanse the nose just like you cleanse the palate to get everything neutral again.
Well, that was super fun!
That was awesome. I can’t find any of them in NJ.
top shelf smirnoff on the far right. cheers
Great video fellas. Wild Turkey next?
Yup, I know Mash and Drum just did it but I’d like to see the Junkies do Wild Turkey as well.