With Jackie Zykan’s abrupt departure from Outdated Forester just a few weeks in the past, the distillery’s 117 Collection — which was billed as her creation and famously options her signature — will quickly must go in a brand new course (or be discontinued altogether). This fourth installment within the collection is Zykan’s swan tune, a bourbon designed to honor “the bravery of the Louisville Hearth Division” throughout a four-alarm hearth that raged in downtown Louisville in July 2015.
There’s some attention-grabbing backstory to the discharge:
In 2020, women and men of Louisville Hearth, lots of whom fought the blaze, chosen eight single barrels from lots crammed the identical day they extinguished the fireplace. All 8 barrels offered out in two days and proceeds had been donated to the Louisville Firefighter Catastrophe Fund. The rest of the barrels crammed that day slumbered an extra two years within the warehouse and at the moment are batched collectively to create the 117 Collection – Whiskey Row Hearth barrels. (You’ll additionally see these billed as “Fireman Barrels.” -Ed.)
The completed whiskey is 7 years previous. Let’s give Zykan’s swan tune a attempt.
Aggressive and wood-forward, this has all of the makings of a traditional Outdated Forester expression, with hearty however agreeable notes of leather-based and furnishings polish on the nostril, however with a delicate cherry character beneath. It’s completely approachable on the palate, notes of honey and graham crackers sweetening issues reasonably whereas letting notes of darkish chocolate and spice do the heavy lifting. Toasty and oaky on the end, with chocolate and vanilla notes each lingering, this finally emerges pretty much as good, reasonably mature bourbon with only a few surprises in retailer for the drinker. Nothing mistaken with that, actually; any bourbon fan will discover this a stable, workhorse sipper.
100 proof.
A- / $60 / oldforester.com
Outdated Forester The 117 Collection – Whiskey Row Hearth
$60
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