If you want to get your hands on this year’s coveted Birthday Bourbon from Old Forester, you need to act now.
The annual release will not be available at the distillery. The best chance you have of being able to buy a bottle of Old Forester Birthday Bourbon is through an online sweepstakes running from Aug. 15-21. Anyone who wins the opportunity to buy a bottle through the sweepstakes must then purchase and pick it up at the Old Forester Distillery in Louisville between Sept. 5 and Dec. 14 for $199.99. A few bottles will indeed be available nationally, but good luck finding those (and at that price point).
As a reminder: Old Forester has been around for over 150 years and is considered the first bourbon to be sealed in a glass bottle — it’s also the only bourbon to exist before, during and after Prohibition, and it’s the founding brand of drinks giant Brown-Forman. The Birthday Bourbon is an annual release to celebrate founder George Garvin Brown’s birthday on Sept. 2.
Why This Year’s Old Forester Birthday Bourbon Is Unique
We had a taste and spoke with OF’s Master Taster Melissa Rift about what makes the 2023 release so specialThe Birthday Bourbon releases all hail from one day’s production from a particular year; this year’s release is 12 years old and comes in at 107 proof. Hand-selected by Master Distiller Emeritus Chris Morris and Master Taster Melissa Rift, with aid from Assistant Master Distiller Caleb Trigo, the liquid came from 209 total barrels.
“Twelve years of maturation in Warehouses G and L has produced a rich and unique flavor profile perfect for this sought-after annual release,” Trigo said in a press release.
During a very brief tasting of the liquid at this year’s Tales of the Cocktail, the flavors we wrote down were “spice cake, buttercream and particularly caramel apple.” We should have an expanded review of the 2024 Birthday Bourbon release coming soon.
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