Brian’s Eagle Rare 10 Year Review
originally reviewed 19-December-2017,
amended 14-November-2019
EAGLE RARE 10 YEAR REVIEW:
Eagle Rare … I am always pleasantly surprised with this bourbon. A regular on my shelf, it never disappoints, but my grasp often passes it by as I reach for a new found bottle or another regular. At under $35 for a 10 year old bourbon, with as many subtleties one could wish for, it is hard to beat its value. Consider keeping one in the bunker for when “new to bourbon” friends drop by for a dram.
EAGLE RARE 10 YEAR VITALS:
– Made in: Kentucky, USA
– Distillery: Buffalo Trace Distillery
– Classification: Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
– Mash Bill: unpublished but believed to be Buffalo Trace mash bill recipe #1:
Corn=75%; Rye=<10%; Malted barley=15%
– Casks: New charred oak; Char #4
– Barrel Entry Proof: 125
– ABV: 45% (90 proof)
– Price: $33.95 USD in Idaho
Learn more at https://buffalotracedistillery.com/
ENJOYMENT METHOD:
For the evaluation, I shared the juice neat from Glencairn glasses with my daughter and fellow Whiskey for the Ages reviewer Hannah.
Check out her review for this bourbon here!
NOSE:
At first draw, Eagle Rare does not seem a particularly complex bourbon – a simple dryness with only a touch of mellow alcohol. Then, a dusting of well blended allspice peeks in among the vanilla and a welcome sweetness of brown sugar and caramel. But the aroma becomes much more interesting as air affects the juice. Careful nosing brings in dusty corn and light fruit blossoms, apricot fruit leather, warm ginger, and fresh caramelized apple with a touch cinnamon. The sweetness train continues with strange but not unwelcome circus peanut candy, caramel corn, honeycomb, and toffee. This is a solid and earthy bourbon in which traces of toasted almonds and pine nuts play hide and seek in the hazy barrel char of each waft.
PALATE:
In the mouth, Eagle Rare offers up a warm bite with just a touch of alcohol heat and the dryness detected on the nose becomes dusty corn. Allspice, with extra cloves and ginger expose the dark fruit of figs, currants and prunes and maybe a little blueberry which meld nicely with warm-from-the-oven Dutch apple pie. There is also a surprising but palatable element of bittersweet chocolate which blends nicely with light vanilla and molasses. Still, in the end, there is plenty of earthy leather to go along with chestnuts roasting over a seasoned bourbon barrel fire.
Balance, Body, Feel, and Look:
Eagle Rare 10 Year Old is solid and well blended. It is smooth and full, offering the throat only a little tickle. The liquid coats the Glencairn then gives up a nice inverted crown which drops into long clinging legs.
FINISH:
Wow … the finish may be one of the longest I’ve experienced. Absolutely no aftertaste – just a mouth and upper throat warming blend of herbal tobacco, ginger, pepper, caramel, and earthy, polished leather. Upon swallowing (with no bourbon in my mouth) I can feel dark fruit’s acidic tannins and sweetness, but not taste it. Very complex. Only at the end does the empty Glencairn give up Eagle Rare’s tenure in the barrel with a day’s work of new sawn sweet oak.
RATING: 90/100
Will I seek out this whiskey in the future? Yes
Click to read Brian’s scoring process.
Click 90/100 to access other whiskies with this score.
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