Review #: 380
Description: Old Forester Japan Export (1990)
Spirit: Bourbon
Background: This is from a bottle of standard Old Forester that was sent out to the Japanese market in 1990. No age statement and otherwise shouldn’t be noteworthy, but it is dusty and intended for a different market so of course I want to try it.
Distillery – Old Forester
Bottler – Old Forester
Brand – Old Forester
Selection – N/A
ABV – 43%
Age – NAS
Nose – Like a lot of other dusty bourbons, this has an incredible nose: cherry, strawberry, musty barn, rich and chocolatey oak
Taste – Strawberry cream, vanilla frosting, light caramel, milk chocolate
Finish – Little peppery, lots of toasted oak. Nice but very short lived
Score: 6
Would I buy a bottle? Yes
Thoughts: This is dangerously easy to drink. A nice blend of sweetness and oak, a lovely nose, but still a bit thin. The other aspects make up for it though and make you want to keep going back. I wouldn’t be trying hard to run this down, but my understanding is that it’s not the hardest thing to find older OF bottles in Japan. So if you are there and run across it, it would be a fun one to bring back.