Weller Blind Flight

Father & Son Edition

By Not Masters of Malt

August 12^th, 2021

THE CHALLENGERS...

Weller Special Reserve:

Often called "Green Label" bottled at 90 proof and the most commonly available of the lineup. MSRP of $22.99

Weller Antique 107:

Referred to as "Red Label" and bottled at 107 proof and the only other "available" bottle in the lineup. MSRP of $49.99

Weller 12:

The first "lottery" bottle in the lineup aged 12 years and coming at 90 proof. MSRP of $39.99

Weller Full Proof:

Non-chill filtered and going into the bottle at the same 114 proof that it entered the barrel in. Lottery bottle in Ohio with an MSRP of $49.99

Weller C.Y.P.B:

"Craft Your Perfect Bourbon" which allowed the community to pick all aspects of this bourbon including age, proof, and rickhouse location among others. Aged 8 years and bottled at 95 proof. MSRP of $49.99

This Flight Needs No Introduction:

But we are going to do it anyway...

In lieu of a typical review, we decided to do a little something different and complete a blind flight of five different expressions of Weller (we are noticeably missing the newest "Single Barrel" expression, but we are open to someone sending us a sample...) and seeing which comes out on top!

For this process, I labeled each glass with a letter A through E and assigned a letter to each of the Wellers, and then had my mom (thanks Mom!) mix the glasses up for both my flight and my dad’s flight. We drank through the samples from left to right, took some time to drink some water and eat some crackers and then drank the samples backwards from right to left. After that, we decided to rank each one. For my samples, I will give you a quick run-down of my tasting notes and then tell you how they ranked for both me and my dad!

Tasting Notes:

Sample 1:

Typical Buffalo Trace Cherry funk on the nose. This smelled like it had some proof on it. The palate was hot, especially for being the first bourbon of the day. This had a good cinnamon and cherry note with a long-ish finish to it.

Sample 2:

This sample was the darkest looking one of the bunch. This smelled sweeter, fruitier and more complex than sample 1, and those notes followed through to the palate. This didn’t seem as hot as the first sample.

Sample 3:

Appearance wise, this is lighter than 1 and 2 and the aroma is like a more muted version of sample 2 with the same hints of fruit and spices. The fruit is more pronounced on the palate in this one and tastes like it is higher proof.

Sample 4:

The Buffalo Trace funk is strong with this one! That medicinal cherry note I tend to get shows up strong, along with a lot of oak. This one smells like it is the oldest in the bunch. As for the palate, this had a strong note of caramel that I didn’t get in any of the samples and had the longest finish.

Sample 5:

Sample 5 had the sweetest smelling nose with hints of sweet red fruits and just a hint of spice. Along with the nose, this was also the sweetest tasting in the bunch, and a long-ish finish as well. Other than that, I didn’t have a real good feel for it.

-- Sample Order --

1. Antique 107 | 2. Full Proof | 3. CYPB | 4. Weller 12 | 5. Special Reserve

Rankings:

-- My Rankings --

1. Full Proof | 2. Antique 107 | 3. Special Reserve | 4. CYPB | 5. Weller 12

-- Dads Rankings --

1. Antique 107 | 2. Weller 12 | 3. Special Reserve | 4. Full Proof | 5. CYPB

Final Verdict:

That was a fun experiment I was able to do with my Dad! It is interesting that we both had the Antique and Special Reserve in our top 3, especially since for Ohio at least, those are pretty easy to find and cheaper than some of the others in the Weller range. As I said previously, they all were pretty similar, but I think what ended up standing out for me were the ones that had a higher proof. It just gave that typical Buffalo Trace note a little something extra for me. My Dad said to me after that if he did this again, he feels like his rankings would be totally different, and I think I agree with that, but that is the fun when you do blind flights!

Just wanted to give a quick shoutout to my Dad for letting me drink some glasses of all the Weller bottles he has. Thanks to my Mom for mixing the samples around for us and keeping track of what we were drinking, and thanks to Aaron for letting us borrow his bottle of Special Reserve so we could almost complete the Weller Infinity Gauntlet!