began serving cocktails made with brandy and his secret family recipe for bitters. Meanwhile down in New Orleans a number of saloons veiled as coffee houses began lining the streets of the French Quarter. Handy anyway? Here is Buffalo Trace's official statement on the man, the legend: Handy being the youngest of the bunch, but still coming in at a whopping 126.9 proof. As you can see from the fact sheet above, most of these whiskeys are age stated, with Thomas H. Stagg (GTS) for near retail this past fall, so at least look out for a GTS post in the future and I'll do my best to acquire samples of the rest. I was lucky enough to find THH and George T. who do you think I am? Even though I know where to find the rest of the set in the secondary market, there's no way I'll be paying over $450 for these bottles and neither should you. Handy (will be referred to as 'THH' going forward) and come back to the rest in later articles. The lineup for 2015 includes the following:Īs much as I would love to go into the history of the Antique Collection, its best to leave it up to professionals over at the Breaking Bourbon blog, they have done a tremendous job outlining the History of Buffalo Trace Antique Collection and even provided a great info graphic on this year's release below:įor this particular post, lets focus on the Thomas H. Since the BTAC lineup is only released once a year since 2002, it has become increasingly harder and harder to find, especially in the midst of our current bourbon boom.
A D is one star and a D- one-half of a star.Chances are if you are still searching for the elusive Pappy Van Winkle, you are also having the familiar struggle of finding any of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection or "BTAC", as affectionately called by whiskey enthusiasts. A C- is two stars.ĭ+ to D-: Below average whiskey. A B- is three stars.Ĭ+ to C-: Average whiskey. The best of the mass market whiskeys fit in this category, as do the bulk of the premium brands. Five stars.Ī-: A fine bottle of whiskey, representing the top end of the conventional, premium range.ī and B-: Good and above average. Above five stars.Ī: An outstanding bottle of whiskey, but lacking that special something which makes for a true masterpiece. A+: A masterpiece and one of the ten best whiskeys of its type. Some "premium" whiskeys really are quite terrible, while some mass market products are good enough to pour into a decanter and serve to the Duke of Edinburgh. The following indicators should be taken as only a guide and not a set of hard and fast rules. The Whiskey Reviewer uses a letter-based rating system, instead of the numerical 100-grade rating system. If your liquor store charges more, they are probably gouging you. The finish follows that outsized character, being big, warm, and prolonged. Toffee and vanilla blend with cloves and allspice, followed by a peppery bite at the end. That brought things under control, revealing a still bold, kicky, but more pleasant whiskey. It didn’t bite me, but it was certainly too big and bold, so I added my customary drops of water. The surprise came to me when I took a sip, because the nose didn’t offer any hint of the whiskey being too strong, but the flavor certainly did.
#THOMAS H HANDY SAZERAC PLUS#
The nose is floral, smacking of dried plums and sweet tobacco, seasoned with allspice and vanilla, plus a strong presence of earthy wood. In the glass, Handy 2013 has a bright orange coloring, a little too vibrant and too orange to be called amber. Last year’s Handy was a whopping 66.2% abv!
2013’s Handy is 128.4 proof (64.2% abv), which while strong, is a little lower on the alcohol than what sometimes comes out of the Antique Collection’s barrel proof whiskeys. Handy’s standard is to be a barrel strength, unfiltered rye whiskey, but not an especially old one (that is reserved for the Sazerac 18 Year Old) This year’s expression is, like last year’s, a six year old, but what came out of the barrel was a bit lighter this time.
Some years bring winners that become so overloaded with medals and plaudits as to risk tipping the bottle over, while others are merely very good. However, as limited editions, every installment is at least a little different from the expressions before it. It is one of two ryes in the Antique Collection, which after Pappy Van Winkle is arguably the most chased-after set of limited edition expressions in American whiskey. This particular part of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection is named for the proprietor of the Sazerac House in New Orleans, the place where the Sazerac Cocktail was “Americanized” by the replacement of the cognac with rye whiskey.
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