[JJinID]

Originally Posted by murphyb74

A group of us (five guys) got together in Wells, Maine for our fifth bourbon tasting. The first was in 2005, the second in 2015 - and once a year since then. We do a double-blind tasting, scoring individually. Then at the end of the night, the scores are tallied, the double-blind codes decoded, and the winner revealed. We had ten bourbons this year, ranked 1 - 10. As with other years, one person's #1 could be another's #10. Usually the winner will have a lot of high marks. Here are this years results:

1 Henry McKenna Single Barrel 10 year-old, bottled-in-bond
2 (tied) Larceny Kentucky Straight Bourbon
3 (tied) Woodford Reserve Double Oak
4 High West American Prairie Bourbon – Utah
5 (tied) Elmer T Lee Single Barrel
5 (tied) Wiggly Bridge Small Barrel Bourbon – York, ME
7 Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon
8 Willett Pot Still Reserve Bourbon
9 Yellowstone Select Kentucky Straight Bourbon
10 Elijah Craig Barrel Proof (131 proof!)

To be fair, the Elijah Craig was the only barrel-strength bourbon in the group and the high proof put many off as it is pretty hot (all bourbons are tasted neat, with a little water added later if you wish). The Elijah Craig Barrel Proof is very good with water or ice.

Thanks for sharing - a fun read. I've done this a few times with my friends as well. I'm a bit surprised that the Willett came in as #8, as I like that one (plus the bottle is cool), and I would rank the Woodford not quite that high. I'm not surprised that the Henry McKenna 10 Year BIB came in first though - for the $$ it is very, very good!