Fred sat down with his sample of Eagle Rare 17 Year from the 2021 Buffalo Trace Antique Collection to do a blind taste-off with it and four other bourbons chosen by his YouTube members.

The choices were some pretty heavy hitters: Knob Creek 12 Year, Four Roses Small Batch Select, Calumet 15 and Remus Repeal Reserve V. In the past, Fred has noted, Eagle Rare 17 didn’t hold up well in blind taste-offs. This year, however, things changed.

For the first time in Fred’s career, he said, he has been so high on an Eagle Rare product. It won the taste-off.

“I’m actually rather shocked, but this is really, really great bourbon,” he concluded about the new Eagle Rare release. “I love this so much.”

Here are a few of Fred’s tasting notes:

1. Eagle Rare 17 Year Old (Glass 2) – “Wooohoohoohoooo!” Cigar box, fresh caramel chew in the nose. Butter, curls up under the tongue. Strawberry with vanilla icing, touch of nutmeg, dried apricot. “I want to smoke a cigar with this. … This is an exceptional campfire sipper. … Special occasion bourbon.”
2. Remus Repeal Reserve V (Glass 4) – French bakery, pies in the oven, croissants on the nose. Spicy, complex. “Exceptional pour.”
3. Four Roses Small Batch Select (Glass 1) – Spicy. Chocolate, cinnamon. Slow to develop, but big peppery sensation with a big Kentucky hug. Floral, fruity. A true contender. “This was the biggest winner tonight,” Fred said during the wrapup.
4. Calumet 15 (Glass 5) – Nose initially is “offensive.” Smells like dust, barn wood, maybe a “moldy rotten banana.” Palate saves the day, though. Nutty, bitter notes on the middle of the tongue, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg.
5. Knob Creek 12 Year (Glass 3) – Fruit, leather in the nose. Cornbread, salt and pepper, bit of banana nutbread on the palate. Flattens out. “I will say that this has been the least palate-moving (of the first three tasted). … Just kind of splashes and goes.”