Meeting #13: March ‘25 - Russell’s Reserve 10, Ancient Age, & Kentucky Owl St. Paddy’s Edition

A bit late on the review, but better late than never! March was another fantastic and festive meeting, including Irish appetizers (Writer’s Tears, Red Breast, and Sexton), as well as hearty Guinness beef stew and mash. After dinner, Greg delivered our monthly educational moment: What is a sour mash?

There are two methods of whiskey making - sour mash and sweet mash. The sour mash method is similar to making sourdough bread. Your sourdough starter is consistent throughout each batch of bread you make. Similarly, each batch of sour mash uses leftovers from the previous batch. This creates a sweeter and more robust flavor, maintains a  similar tasting profile between batches, and is efficient when mass producing. Most major whiskey operations utilize this technique (Wild Turkey, Jim Beam, Old Forester, etc.). You typically use a ratio about of 3:1 or 4:1, where a third or fourth of each mash is from the previous run. The added “old” mash is called the backset. 

Alternatively, sweet mash is 100% new each run and utilizes fresh yeast. This allows you to have 100% control of your flavors, as it is not influenced by the previous batch. The downside is obviously inconsistency (not desirable when people expect a bottle of Buffalo Trace to taste a certain way each time), as well as contamination due to sweet mash being a lower PH. Sweet mashes are usually made by smaller distilleries, but overall is not a common technique. Peerless Distilling is a notable sweet masher - and FYI, their double-oaked is top notch!

OK - back to the review. After tasting 3 great upper-end whiskies at our February 2025 meeting, we came back to reality with what we would call two “daily-drinkers,” if in fact one drinks daily, and one “upper-end” bourbon (with an Irish flair, discussed below). Let’s dig in…

#1) Russell’s Reserve 10-Year  (Lawrenceburg, KY, distilled by Wild Turkey)

90 proof / 10 Years / $38-52

75% Corn, 13% Rye, 12% Malted Barley

HF Avg: 3.2

NOSE: Cinnamon roll, vanilla, caramel. Very traditional, somewhat light.

TASTE: Classic bourbon. More vanilla, caramel, slight baking spice

FINISH: Rye and baking spices peak here, continued vanilla and caramel.

Russell’s Reserve 10-Year is a classic bourbon. Nothing ground-breaking or unique, but it’s soft, drinkable, and good. The nose, taste, and finish share similar notes and blend seamlessly. I think the club scored this a fair 3.2, right in the sweet spot of good.

#2) Ancient Age 10-star (Frankfurt, KY) discontinued

90 proof / Aged 6 years / $25 for 1.75 handle!

Mashbill #2, undisclosed, high-rye. Same mashbill as Blanton’s, apparently! (per Buffalo Trace)

HF Avg: 2.98

NOSE: Vanilla, toffee, dark fruit (plum?), and fresh dough

TASTE: classic vanilla/caramel, toasted marshmallow, creamy mouthfeel

FINISH: caramel and bread dough, medium finish

They say if you put Ancient Age in a Blanton’s bottle and give it to your friends, they wouldn’t know… and this apparently came from Buffalo Trace! They claim it uses the same mashbill as Blanton’s, and while it has been discontinued, you can still find bottles around (the big plastic 1.75L handles for $25!). 10-star is different from the 10-year, and averages about 6 years in the barrel. Overall, I think it's a perfectly fine bourbon, 2.98 seems honest. And for $25…I’d definitely serve it to my friends!  

#3) Kentucky Owl St Patrick’s Edition (Bardstown, KY)

118 proof / Blend consisting of 4-11 year whiskeys / $135

Undisclosed mashbill.

HF Avg: 3.42

NOSE: Vanilla, Toffee, graham cracker, sugar, subtle bright fruit/berries

TASTE: baking spices, little warmth from the 100 proof

FINISH: lingering sweetness, pleasant oakiness, some slight coca hints. Really nice when snacking on peanut M&M’s!

This St Patrick’s edition is quite interesting! It’s a bourbon, meaning it’s entirely American made…however, it was blended by Irishwoman and master bonder, Louise McGuane. A cool collaboration! Overall, this was the most interesting whiskey of the night. There’s a degree of nuance to it that I look for - interesting yet balanced flavors. The club agreed, and received consistent higher scores, placing it at 3.59, now at #7 on our top-10!

Downside, Kentucky Owl (acquired by Stoli in 2017) just filed for bankruptcy in Nov 2024 - so their future is TBD. Hopefully they can make it through, because I was impressed. I will say though, for $135 a bottle, you can find things that HF has scored higher...hint hint (go check our scoring page)...

See y’all next week for our April tasting…. I think we have another good one lined up!