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Old Weller Antique 107 Brand

Powerful wheated bourbon

2 787

@NozinanReview by @Nozinan

22nd Feb 2017

0

Old Weller Antique 107 Brand
  • Nose
    ~
  • Taste
    ~
  • Finish
    ~
  • Balance
    ~
  • Overall
    87

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Distribution of ratings for this: brand user

This year Old Weller Antique 107 was included in the Buffalo Trace (Antique) lottery that the LCBO held in January. Though I struck out with all the other offerings my family and I did win the rights to a few of these $35 “consolation prizes”. I’d heard good things about it, and I have minimal experience with wheated bourbon so let’s see what this is all about.

This expression is reviewed in my usual manner, allowing it to settle after which I take my nosing and tasting notes, followed by the addition of a few drops of water, waiting, then nosing and tasting. I don’t usually add water to bourbons but did so in order to fully explore it for this review. Interestingly, when I added the water, the swirls and ripples in the glass lasted for quite a while, even with gentle swirling.

The bottle was opened February 4, 2017, and is just over 2/3 full, gassed each time.

Nose:

Neat – On initial pour, soft caramel, vanilla, dust and oak. After a few minutes, some high pitched (the way I imagine them when @Victor describes them) fruity notes, corn syrup, some baking spices, the faintest hint of pickle juice. Despite the high ABV no spirity hint of alcohol on the note. Quite nice but a little soft. 22/25

With water – "warmer", strong vanilla, more powerful nose. Less fruity. Definitely more complex and more interesting. (23/25)

Taste:

Neat – First sip is quite powerful. Sweet, with a sharp alcohol nip. The oak is quite forward. I get caramel and vanilla, a little spiciness (or is that the alcohol?). Not that complex. 21/25

With water – Still spirity, a little thinner on the mouthfeel. Some mint or menthol on the development . A little more complex. (21.5/25)

Finish: Vanilla, dry, slightly astringent, and fades quickly 20/25. Less bitter with water. (21/25)

Balance: Overall it’s a balanced whisky, but neat, the alcohol is a bit overpowering. 21/25. With water it seems a little more cohesive. (21.5/25)

Score: Neat - 8 4/100 With Water: 87/100

Time-Adjusted Score based on Enjoyment: 87/100

This one settles down after about an hour in the glass. I would need to try it again without water to see if it does the same, but who has time to wait an hour?

This might be a good bottle to leave ungassed for a few weeks and see if the harshness tones itself down. Maybe the next time I pour it I'll do that.

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7 comments

@Robert99
Robert99 commented

@Nozinan I found that wheat is a strange grain in the way that it mellows rye and give some soft sweetness on a freshly opened bottled but, with time and air, it becomes spicier. So my guess is that the alcohol harshness may go away with time but it will become hotter with cake spices. Of course, I am talking about months of air...

7 years ago 0

m
masterj commented

I'm surprised to hear that this is a lottery item in some places. I started stocking up on 107 when I saw prices for Weller 12 hit the $80 mark a year or 2 ago. Now I barely see this in stock once or twice a month. I can still score bottles at retail but it's getting scarcer and scarcer. Shame really what this whiskey business is becoming. As time goes by I find my go to bourbon getting harder and harder to source. First Weller 12 became as scarce as Pappy, then EC12 went NAS, and now Weller 107 and even Reserve is disappearing. Enjoy it while you can! Cheers!

7 years ago 1Who liked this?

@CaskTime
CaskTime commented

Great review to read on my lunch break

7 years ago 0

@Victor
Victor commented

@Nozinan, your review makes me want to sample from your bottle of OWA107. I've only been through one bottle of 107, and that one was purchased in 2009, back in the 'good old days' when I could walk into a liquor store any time I wanted to and buy 5 bottles of Old Weller Antique 107 off the shelf for $ 20 each. My only consumed bottle even had the old label, which I believe was discontinued in 2008.

That one bottle was one of only a small handful of whiskies which required an adjustment from me. At first it was too intense for me (hard to imagine, isn't it?) , and for a good while I thought I didn't like it...then I could not get enough of it. I had adjusted to IT. Soon it went right near the top of my short list of favourites, especially if I were on a low budget. I have no clue as to whether current batches taste like that one beloved bottle of mine. I want to find out.

I do suspect that you will see a lot of shifting of the flavour of the whiskey over time with air exposure, and that that shifting will likely be to the good.

7 years ago 0

@paddockjudge
paddockjudge commented

@Nozinan, Time is on your side. Weller 12 gets better with time. @Robert99 mentioned the increase in spiciness and I must concur. I too suspect "that you will see a lot of shifting of the flavour" with your open bottle of OWA 107, exactly as @Victor has predicted.

7 years ago 0

@talexander
talexander commented

I did find the flavour improved a bit with time - unfortunately, I didn't give it enough time to really study the effects (ie. I drank it too damn fast).

7 years ago 1Who liked this?

@Nozinan
Nozinan commented

@talexander I'm sure my bottle will be around for more than a year, though somehow my bourbons empty faster than my Scotches (probably because there are fewer of them), so perhaps we can test the hypothesis together.

7 years ago 0