Here’s a comparison I was excited to do! I was lucky enough to get a bottle of a Single Barrel Old Forester store-pick, and I was curious how it stacks up against its 115 proof sibling!
Fancy Glencairn likes that blue label. Let’s see if she can pull off a win today!

1920) $59, 115 proof, “at least 4yrs old”.
-The Nose is light and sweet with stone-fruit, spice and oak notes.
-The Palate start somewhat hot, but caramel and vanilla sweetness with that OF banana note quickly take over, then the baking spices of nutmeg, cinnamon and clove come in, and finally some stone-fruit appears.
-The Finish is medium and also initially sweet, but moves into more rye-spices, and a pleasant heat.
Overall I really enjoy the flavors of this bottle, but it is a little hot, and a couple drops of water really helps the fruity sweetness open-up.

Single Barrel) $89, 127.1 proof, 4yrs old.
-The Nose is strong, with leather, cinnamon, brown sugar, and sweet-corn prominent.
-The Palate is hot, but a couple drops of water really helps open it up. There are massive brown-sugar notes, along with caramel, vanilla, slight banana, and then baking spices, and some stone-fruit.
-The Finish is medium-long, initially brown sugar, then more black pepper and rye spice.
Overall this is very comparable to the 1920, but with a little more heat, more powerful flavor, more brown sugar, and less banana.

VERDICT) This comparison reminded me just how good 1920 is… If I take price into account I would buy the 1920 every time over the single barrels. However, strictly on taste, the Single Barrel wins today. It’s just MORE than the 1920, and I do like that there is less of the banana notes that I typically get from Old Forester. Fancy claims another victory today!

What do you guys think?