An interesting whiskey with a history. I always understood Old Forester to be a wheated bourbon made at the now closed Stitzel-Weller Distillery which was famous for another wheated bourbon, the Van Winkle line. In fact at the distillery today the large red brick chimney in the grounds still has Old Forester painted on it. This expression is now part of the 83 different bourbons produced at Heaven Hill and I believe it is still a wheat recipe mashbill. However the taste profile, to me anyway, was more like that of a rye bourbon and I have no doubt in a blind tasting I would have picked it as a rye bourbon. It seems everytime I think I am starting to understand whiskey something like that happens and I realize just how little I really understand. Anyway the nose had sweet dark fruits, perhaps blackberry jam, some grain spirit and bubblegum. The taste was sweet and complex, tobacco and oak carried over from the taste into the finish along with the slightly herbal note I always associate with rye. With water it became a little spicer (nicely balancing the sweet) with cinnamon and cayenne leaving a nice little tingle on the lips. Great stuff.
