Eagle Rare 10 Year Old Single Barrel

Don't be surprised if your bottle of Eagle Rare 10 YO opens up A LOT with air time. I was a little bored and not too impressed with my bottle of it UNTIL it took about 6 or 8 months of air, and then it just blossomed. If you manage to keep your bottle and watch it for a year you may be surprised at how much it changes. There is a ton of change that takes place in many bottles AFTER the first few weeks after they are opened.

Also, I have found that Eagle Rare 10 SB to be one of the very easiest "first bourbons" for malt drinkers to like. I will bet that if you keep that bottle for 6 months that you will be very surprised at what you will think of it then.

It's weird just after i wrote this review i topped up my glass (to a third glencairn glass, the old glencairn which is smaller). I then let the bourbon set 10 mins with no cap then i put the cap on for a few hours came back to it, and all i can say is you were right about it! The Bourbon has already improve significantly. I've come to know from experience with many whiskies over a relatively short time, how much air can change whisky and how "closed" some can be, making oxidization a very necessary process before making an assessement on the spirit. I am going to continue sipping this but when i am at a third down i am going to decant half of it ( a sixth) into a small flask and let the rest oxidize in the bottle for a few weeks, then do a final tasting. But i am impressed by how fast and by how much this has improved, it shows you've done this before, i was very surprised (noting i already had quite a bit of practice with oxidization with a many whiskies) i am bumping the mark up a tad now, and maybe more later we'll see! cheers!

did a check up yesterday and the changes are pretty substantial to say the least.. These are additional atributes to the ones written above, gained from the oxygen in the bottle and the natural process of bottle maturation that occured.

Nose: Big lemon juice note, freshly squeezed lemons, there was barely a hint of it before but now theres no escaping it.

Palate: The palate gains red berries and baking soda.

This bourbon gains another point from this development

Keep in mind that this offering is a single barrel expression and differences, profound differences, may be occur from barrel to barrel. I have yet to detect the heavy char, but pretty much all the notes that you have listed, and more, are evident in the bottles that I have tapped. You didn't comment on the mouth feel, which I believe is a big feature of this whisky. Extremely smooth exit and finish for 100 proof whiskey. Some bottles/releases are sweeter than others.

Opened a bottle today and it is chock full of charred oak.

I haven't yet had any Eagle Rare 10 SB with heavy char. That seems like a pretty delicate bourbon to have heavy char. For me heavy char is usually not a good idea, and becomes too much for a lot of whiskeys. The grades of char go, I understand, from No 1 to No 5, the heaviest. I probably prefer all products have no more than No 3 char, middle of the road. The microdistilleries often use the heavy charring to try to kick-start getting the maximum wood into a spirit only aged maybe a few months to, say, one year. I do not think that it works well, most of the time, because heavy char can be very distracting when you can taste it.

@paddockjudge @Victor: It seems the bourbon goes through slightly charred oak barrels (couldn´t find the info on the website though) because now that an adequate amount of air has gone in the bottle it seems the charred oak note has taken the backstage, very much so.

So it seems it has something to do with oxidation as well as some batches having varied barrels in terms of charring. As i said it's my first eagle so it might be this years batch being more charred than usual. This is a lovely bourbon once it dissipates, a super juicy and dominant lemon juice note clings from nose to palate, delicious! @Victor: I think the fact that i reacted to the char was in part that it was quite a lot of it (at first) but i am also a newbie to bourbon coming from scotches, rum and tequila. So a big charred-oak note will always impress me. i give the char-note before the air got in the bottle: 4 and after: 1

Eagle Rare is on average about $3 less expensive than Buffalo Trace in Massachusetts but in New Hampshire it is the complete opposite? I do not understand that one! My first bottle of ER was excellent bourbon that I really enjoyed. I would like to recommend another Buffalo Trace product in the $40 to $43 range that I believe you will really enjoy: E.H. Taylor Small Batch, in my tastings preferred to the more expensive Blantons and Rock Hill Farms also from the Buffalo Trace distillery.

Victor can you help me to better understand oxidized bourbon. These things are on my mind: Will my bourbon turn bad if not finished with in a certain time? Should I store my opened bottles in the fridge. How can oxidized bourbon improve? thanks

@Fiver67, good topic for a private discussion. I've sent you a buddy request.

Will keep a lookout for E.H Taylor then, thanks for the tip Fiber67!

Fiver67* i seem not being able to write today