Old Weller Antique 107 Brand

Thanks for the review. This one must have a wide degree of batch variation, as I would not have guessed this is the same wheater I have in my cabinet at all...Your last sentence aptly describes how I feel about OWA’s 12 Year Old sibling...

@OdysseusUnbound Yeah I don't get it. I know it's supposed to be baby Pappy and all but it's not all that wonderful (to me anyway.) I guess they've done a good job of making it 'rare' so people want it even more. And I'm sure it's hard to keep up with the crazy, rabid demand as well which may lead to greater variation.

@casualtorture No one who drinks Pappy Van Winkle ever refers to Old Weller Antique 107 as Baby Pappy. Not only are Van Winkle Bourbons the hand-picked, probably 1% or so of the barrels, but OWA is now about 6 years old, whereas the youngest Van Winkle is 10 years old. The name "Pappy Van Winkle" begins with a minimum of 15 years of age. Barrel selection is a decisive difference, as is age.

As to your bottle I'd have to drink from it to have an opinion. Without question there is a lot of variation in the wheated bourbon coming out of Buffalo Trace Distillery. I can tell you from my experience that there is a lot of variation between batches of all of the Van Winkle Bourbons also. Pappy Van Winkle 15 yo from Buffalo Trace does not taste like Pappy Van Winkle 15 from Stitzel-Weller. And I have consumed two consecutive releases of Van Winkle 12 yo Special Reserve 'Lot B' from 2011 and 2012 which were remarkably different from one another.

Could you have a 'bad' bottle or batch of Old Weller Antique 107? Sure, it is possible Chances are very good, though, that even if it is a sub-par batch, that he whiskey will improve with air exposure.

@Victor I don't want to speak for @casualtorture but I believe he was noting the frequent references to W.L. Weller 12 as "baby Pappy" or "poor man's Pappy". Now I obviously can't comment as I've never had any Pappy, and I'm still (impatiently) waiting for my Weller 12 to improve. It's gone from "bad" to "average-ish", but I'm determined to wait until March/April 2019 to revisit it. My OWA, however, has been excellent right from the get-go. I'd gladly re-purchase several bottles from this batch, and if I could go back in time, I would have purchased all 6 bottles that I stumbled upon in the Midland LCBO.

@OdysseusUnbound my experience with Weller 12 yo and Old Weller Antique 107 is almost identical to your own, as I believe that I have commented before. @cherynifer and I were lone Connosr voices in the wilderness for a long time in our alienating experiences with Weller 12 yo. Welcome to that club. But be VERY patient and you will probably be rewarded.

Where my experience with OWA107 differs from yours and others is that the only bottle of OWA107 from which I have drunk (and not yet completely finished) was a bottle I purchased in about 2010, with the old label (now 2 labels ago) and the old 7 year age statement. That bottle was the only one on the shelf like it at the time I purchased it. That bottle was a real trip. It was too intense for me to cope with at first, before I fell swooningly in love with it. So, yes, I'd like to see what the more recent batches of OWA107 taste like. One thing I know I love--107 proof is a great strength for a bourbon.

On the subject of some referring to Weller 12 yo as "poor man's Pappy", these are understandable attempts to get close to the Van Winkle profile when Van Winkle is not available. But the bottom line is always the same: when the pick of the litter has been removed from the litter, what's left from the litter from which to choose is not the pick of the litter.

@Victor well said