EAGLE RARE 17 Year Old

EAGLE RARE 17 Year Old is one of the five bourbons included in the award winning Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, Eagle Rare 17 Year Old Bourbon is only released yearly in extremely small quantities. Smooth and sophisticated, this elegant bourbon ages for 17 years and through 17 hot Kentucky summers to result in an award winning (Best American Whiskey and Best Bourbon 13-20 years – World Whiskies Awards 2012) blend. If you love the smoothest of bouquets and finishes, this is definitely one to try.

This rare bourbon ages in oak barrels for nearly two decades and is only available in small quantities once a year, every fall. Sip this polished, well-aged whiskey to appreciate why patience is such a virtue. The fragrant aroma has almost a wine-like character with hints of almond, cigar boxes and cinnamon. The delicate and dry mid-palate tastes of leather, vanilla and tobacco. This bourbon lingers, finishing with hint of leather and toffee.

This fabulous 17 year old Eagle Rare Kentucky straight BourbEAGLE RARE 17 Year Oldon whiskey was distilled at Buffalo Trace in Spring 1988 and specially bottled for the prestigious Buffalo Trace Antique Collection in Fall 2005.

As part of the annually released Buffalo Trace Antique Collection (BTAC), Eagle Rare 17 (ER17) is a bit of an outlier. Unlike the chill-filtered, 90 proof ER17, the other bourbons in the collection (George T. Stagg and William Larue Weller) are each unfiltered and barrel proof. Rounding out the BTAC are the unfiltered, barrel proof Thomas H. Handy Rye and the Sazerac 18 year old Rye, the only other offering that is both chill-filtered and cut to 90 proof.

More, of course, does not mean better. The ER17 gets short shrift in comparison to the other four members of the BTAC. I think it’s a very polished, well-aged whiskey that should be evaluated on its own merits.

Tasting Notes