Old Forester 1924

Straight Bourbon • 10 Year • 100 Proof

Hello guys Toni B here, I’ve been looking to get this bottle since January when Old Forester usually drops the 1924 each year. This is now the third year they have released it. I tried the first two releases myself and thought they were good, but not really wow great in my opinion.

This year though there has been a lot more buzz around the bottle. A big reason people were excited about it is because it uses the same mash bill style that Old Forester uses for King of Kentucky. That bottle gets a lot of hype every year and like always the secondary price on that bottle is nuts.

Anyway here are my thoughts after opening it.

As soon as I popped the bottle the fruit smell came out right away. In the glass I get a lot of dark fruit, mostly cherry, along with brown sugar and some vanilla. After it sits for a bit I start picking up more oak and even a little leather. It smells richer than I expected for a 100 proof bourbon.

On the palate it was honestly more than I expected and caught me a bit by surprise. The fruit really stands out here. I get a lot of cherry and darker fruit notes. There is also some dark chocolate, toasted pecan and a bit of cinnamon spice. The mouthfeel is excellent and probably my favorite part.

The finish is good but not amazing. I think the finish is the only thing that hurts this bottle a bit. It fades a little quicker than I would like. At the same time I understand it since it is bottled at 100 proof. 

Personally I think the sweet spot for bourbon is usually somewhere around 110 to 115 proof, so a little more proof might have pushed the finish further. The fruit notes on this are really good though and I honestly wish they stayed around longer.

Overall I think this is a fantastic bourbon. The fruit profile and the mouthfeel really stand out and it feels like a step up compared to the first two 1924 batches I tried.

I’m sure some people here will disagree and probably be a bit harsher with their scores, but in my opinion this batch is fantastic and easily the best 1924 release so far.

The bigger issue for me is availability. These are pretty limited and already getting harder to find. Because of that some stores are starting to charge those dumb allocation prices which makes the bottle a lot less accessible for what is supposed to be around a $115 to $120 bottle.

Curious what everyone else thinks about this year’s release. Has anyone compared it side by side with the earlier batches?