Review of 2026 Old Forester President's Choice; Ep. 83

Dan and Calvin: Good evening. Welcome back to Bourbon Brass and Beyond. tonight. gonna do just kind of a short one, talking about the twenty twenty six Old Forester President's Choice release. Now they came out. This was a online thing this year. I did see that. And so a number of us Ordered a couple bottles. Yeah. And but there were different barrels. this one was barrel two zero three. it was aged ninety-two months, and it is sixty-one point eight percent alcohol volume, so hundred and twenty-three point six proof. Now they put a few of these bottles this year, including I think a couple ryes. Yeah. Saw that. And they were available for Quite a while. Quite a while. Now this is a fresh crack. This one did not breathe. Nice pop. Good pop. Make it the president's choice 'cause this used to be exclusive to presidents of universities, colleges, if I am correct. I I I did not know that. I know it was originally it was the president of Brown Foreman that picked it, right? I believe so. I had the 2025 release and when I first cracked it I it was okay but I wasn't overly impressed. Overly impressed. But once it I waited about a month, month and a half, and the next time I came to it, every sip was like a a mouthful of flavors and it was it was amazing. So I'm I'm really curious how this is gonna be compared to that. the twenty twenty five release was a little older than the twenty twenty six. Believe it was a hundred and one months versus ninety two. Nice brown sugar. Yeah. Brown sugar. Small amount of fruit, not Yeah. Like a dark fruit. Like Boysenberry or something like that. Yeah. Blueberry. Getting a little ethanol in the nose. Maybe it should sit for a sec. I mean, even for ninety two what, ninety two months compared to a hundred hundred one it still has a great nose on it with full yeah. Excellent nose. more it breathes, the more the fruit comes out. Yeah. Nice and dark. I'm really starting to like the nose. Yeah. That's nice. I get that fruit immediately. You get a little bit of spice that comes in like starting in mid tongue and then Almost has like a Armagnac finish, like it has Like that deep blueberry. Yeah. Deep grape. Finish. Little hotter than what we've been Than we'll be sitting on tonight. Yeah. And I would say that the finish is not as long as some of the stuff we had tonight. It's it's it's it's a little bit thinner feel. Now from what you can remember from the twenty twenty five, is this about similar fresh crag when you had the twenty twenty five or is this I would say the twenty twenty five had a little bit longer finish. Maybe that's just the age, but 'Cause kinda turns to that that little bit of bitterness. Yeah. And I did not get that on the twenty twenty five. Hmm. Really like the nose though. It's a great nose. And when it first hits the tongue it's great and then like you said, it turns into that bitterness and it's not a bad bitterness, but it's not one that not one that you want to finish off with. Not something that you wanna you feel like you need to drink something else to get that bitterness out. Whereas That twenty twenty five I feel like it did not do that. So the second drink. was a lot sweeter. Yeah. And my theory is that the flavors kinda layer. And so I'm getting more of the flavor. Rather than the bittern so it you're saying the bitterness from the initial hit, coat of the tongue first and then now you're starting to get more of the fruit forward. Yeah. And the the palette's already changing. I would say that twenty twenty five lasts a little bit longer. Yeah. But for a fresh crack? It's not bad. Yeah. I'd say it's pretty good. Think once it opens up more then you'll get more you won't get that bitterness as much once you have the first taste. It'll be interesting to see hopefully if that finish lasts a little bit longer. Yeah, I agree. Twenty twenty six president's choice. Barrel number two zero three, one hundred and twenty-three point six proof. Aged ninety two months. Phenomenal nose now. Yeah. Solid. Solid. So what do you got coming up? Anything? Coming up. hopefully some more bourbon hunting, trying to find more of that craft stuff. Obviously work, you know. Yeah. Same old stuff. Yep. Hopefully she's getting ready for a vacation in three months. Hopefully make it to the hopefully make a make it that long. yeah. I just finished up four days of flying and lot of flight time, the four days. we had one day that had a number of cancellations, but nice to be home and be with the family but yeah time to play catch up. Hadn't mowed the grass in a couple weeks because right before going flying I I was down in Kentucky. But yeah I've got I've got a lot of a lot of stuff to do. Yeah. But appreciate you coming over tonight. I appreciate you having me. Yeah. This is something I've been wanting to open At least give a a little bit of a a review, A review. Yeah. But been a fun one. So thank you. Thank you. Yep. Have a good night. Please like, share, subscribe, let us know what you think. or any of the previous episodes. of course if you have any complaints email them to Bob. Email them to Bob. he's not here tonight. But He's more than happy to take your complaints. Absolutely. Absolutely. So once again, thanks for watching. Good night.