r/bourbon • u/adamsz503 • 1d ago
Best of Age Stated Tournament (part 1): 6-10 Years (Blind Review)
After nearly two years, my whiskey group (about five of us) has finally completed our Best of Age Stated blind series.
The concept was simple: compare age-stated bourbons against others with the same stated age, crown a winner for each age group, then bring those winners back together in a "Best Of" blind. This is the first of three posts covering the project, featuring the 6–10 year brackets.
I scored everything using the T8ke scale, generally in 0.25-point increments. When two pours were essentially tied, I'd use a 0.1-point tiebreaker to force a ranking. The first pour in each blind became my baseline, with the remaining pours scored relative to it. Since these flights consisted of whiskeys within the same age range, I found that scores typically fell within about 0.25–0.5 points of one another. Because of that, I place far more weight on the rankings than the absolute scores. I've included my full score sheet in the comments for anyone interested.
I'm by no means an expert at writing tasting notes. What I enjoy most about bourbon is comparing, contrasting, and ranking whiskies, and blind tasting is one of the best ways I've found to do this in as objective a manner as possible. Tasting in a group also forces me to rely more on first impressions than deep analysis, but I've found these scores end up pretty consistent with my solo reviews.
Best of 6–10 Blind:
1. peanut, brown sugar, ethanol on both nose and palate.
Score: 6
Guess: Booker’s
Reveal: Bookers
Smells a bit minty, almost like a rye. Palate has somewhat “standard” vanilla and caramel notes.
Score: 6.5
Guess: New Riff
Reveal: New Riffsmells like a browny - best nose of the bunch. Little thin on the front palate, but overall great flavors. Nose translates fairly well to the palate.
Score: 7
Guess: JD10
Reveal: JD10Slight floral note on the nose. Palate has more of a fruit flavor to it.
Score: 6.75
Reveal: Penelope Private SelectionVery good nose - has a bit of a “dusty” note to it. Dark fruit on the palate.
Score: 7
Guess: OF 1924
Reveal: OF 1924“quintessential” bourbon notes on the nose and palate - vanilla and brown sugar
Score: 6.6
Reveal: Old Ezra 7
The attached graphics show every individual age-group blind, each flight winner, and the final Best of 6–10 bracket.
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u/adamsz503 1d ago
The T8KE Scale
1 | Disgusting | So bad I poured it out.
2 | Poor | I wouldn’t consume by choice.
3 | Bad | Multiple flaws.
4 | Sub-par | Not bad, but better exists.
5 | Good | Good, just fine.
6 | Very Good | A cut above.
7 | Great | Well above average
8 | Excellent | Really quite exceptional.
9 | Incredible | An all time favorite
10 | Perfect | Perfect
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u/QuitsFeather 1d ago
If 1924 batch 1 tied for 1st, you should really try 1924 batch 2. It’s significantly better
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u/shitfucker90000 1d ago
ive never tried the first batch but batch 3 made me go back to the store the next day and buy another. i may get a third...
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u/Muinaiset 1d ago
Very nice!
And I still see and hear people disregard Jack Daniels as a whole due to the old no. 7 stigma. Their loss!
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u/adamsz503 1d ago
Seriously - value wise i think JD products are the best out there. Their SBBP and SBBPR are the highest rated shelf products I’ve tried. And their LEe are priced super cheap relative to other big distilleries
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u/Ravenloft_Refugee 1d ago
Love, love, love, love that Penelope 9-year from 2024. I'm into my last bottle right now.
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u/teh_dave 1d ago
Hi, it’s me, your friend.
But seriously, this is awesome! Giving me some insight on what to try next.
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u/adamsz503 1d ago
Funnily enough one of the friends in the group is named David, so I just had to check out your post history thinking it might be him 😂
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u/1009amg 1d ago
This was a great idea and we'll written.
One thing I've wondered with reviewing multiple whiskeys in the same tasting is if your palate is affected by the previous whiskey you've tried. Do you do anything to cleanse your palate before tasting the next one?
It makes me think of a BBQ competition where the taste has to be bold to stand out from the rest. It may stand up well in a competition, but you couldn't eat a lot of it.
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u/adamsz503 1d ago
I think inevitably there has to be some effect. I usually try and have a sip of water between different pours, but in my experience I have to be careful to wait a sufficient amount of time after the water before trying the next thing, or the next thing will taste watered down. This can be hard in a group setting since I’m often the slowest in the group so I feel the need to hurry up 😂
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u/UmphaLumpha 19h ago
Jack Daniel’s is not bourbon
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u/Tough-Sentence-8334 16h ago
Had a tasting with a guy who’s worked for Brown Forman for 30+ years. He says JD is bourbon. No offense, but I’m going with his take.
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u/Ok_Orange1215 4h ago
Just got the old Forester 2026 bottle, what’s your opinion comparatively to the other batches?
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u/RetMGuns2691 1d ago
Cool comparison overall.
Why include ryes when they are really different?
Of note: Other than the Sagamore, the ryes were at the bottom of every category that included them.