Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond Kentucky Straight Bourbon

VITALS:
- $24
- 100 Proof
- NAS (4 Years)
- Region: Kentucky

Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond is one of those bourbons that I've always felt I should have at least tried once, but never had. Not that it was really tearing at me, but I finally made it a point to grab this lower shelf bourbon so that, at the very least, I could remove that nagging need to be able to say that I've had it before.

The nose is somewhat traditional, with a light vanilla scent mixing with a light cinnamon spice. It also had a bit of oak to the nose, which was unexpected given its young age.

When I took my first sip it came across as pretty watery in texture. It has the viscosity of Beam white label, and, unfortunately, it also has the complexity of Beam White Label or lack thereof (Note: I have nothing against Beam White Label--it's just my measuring stick for what I'd consider your basic bourbon).

On the first pour I noticed that this bourbon lacks sweetness as well, and come across as kind of boring. While the nose had the traditional bourbon notes to it, the flavor seemed more reminiscent of an American Whiskey, a whiskey that has a mashbill that isn't quite made up of the 51% corn needed to be called a bourbon.

As the bottle had a chance to open up (I gave it a good two weeks), it did eventually develop a light sweetness and the corn seemed to come through a bit more. I'm assuming the two went hand-in-hand here. It was like the flavor of corn flakes with a small amount of sugar sprinkled over them, like the cereal I used to have to eat at my grandma's house (though I'd sneakily dump a pound of sugar in my bowl when my grandma wasn't looking).

Towards the back end the cinnamon from the cinnamon from the nose came through, adding a nice spice to that light sweetness. While I did not get any wood on the palate like I got on the nose, I did get a kind of Dr. Pepper flavor that lingered for quite a while, and at times that flavor seemed to turn into almost a black licorice flavor on the palate.

It seemed as if this bottle continued to get slightly better with each pour, as I found it boring and lacking in flavor to start, and at the end it was sweet and enjoyable. It also developed some complexity that I never expected at the start, introducing flavors toward the end of the bottle that were nowhere to be found at the start.

Grade: B-