Comments on gillmang`s review of W L Weller Antique

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Comments on gillmang`s review of W L Weller Antique

Unread postby forumadmin » Tue Feb 17, 2009 11:57 am

This is an automatically created topic for discussion about gillmang's review of W L Weller Antique.
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Unread postby gillmang » Tue Feb 17, 2009 11:57 am

I feel I have quite a history with this brand, in that I bought it regularly when it was still Stitzel-Weller (D.S.P. 16) production and recall well that rich honeyed taste it had. It might not quite have reached the heights of Old Fitzgerald but it was pretty close and had the house characteristics. When it started to be made at Bernheim (rebuilt Bernheim now owned by Heaven Hill Distilleries) it was still good but I feel it acquired a fruity note, a prune-like taste which was attractive and distinctive. In 2007 I bought a bottle which was a private bottling for a liquor store on Bardstown Road. A gold sticker stated that this Weller Antique was 9 years old and from D.S. P. 1 (Bernheim). This led to me think that even though in the late 90's Buffalo Trace acquired the label from Diageo, it was still selling make from Bernheim no doubt acquired with the purchase. The bottle I just bought reviewed above seems to lack that fruity note and it cannot be of course younger Bernheim whiskey (younger than 9 years) unless Trace is contracting out production to Bernheim for this brand, but that is not likely. I think what may be happening is the Bernheim inventory is gone and the stuff going out is all-Frankfort produced. Whatever the explanation, I find the current Weller just superb, as good as the "estery" one but in a different way. It is interesting to speculate whether the joint venture concluded by Van Winkle with Buffalo Trace some 7 years ago or so has anything to do with the current character of Weller Antique, if so the influence is a welcome one. Or maybe you can put what I am thinking in a cocked hat and Frankfort has been putting out Weller Antique for some time and just reserved special barrels from Bernheim for those private bottlings. Whatever the case, it is a fine whiskey, and comparatively so inexpensive.

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