Well, after a few years hiatus, Talking Bourbon is back. Life got in the way, COVID, work, family, etc. but rest assured, we still drank our Bourbon, among other liquors. Today we are tasting an old favorite, Weller Special Reserve.
This is the second review of SP; the first was back in 2016. As you can tell from the picture, Buffalo Trace has changed the bottle, and as with all Bourbons, the price has changed as well, gone up, way up. It is hard to see on the image, but the price on the old shorter bottle says $15.99 for the 750ml bottle. The newer one, when you can find it, sells for around $60 for the same size bottle. Is it worth the higher cost? we will find out.
Weller SP is the entry-level Bourbon bearing the Weller Name. It has the same mash bill as the Van Winkle lines, and like them, it is a wheated Bourbon, meaning they use wheat instead of rye as the secondary grain. SP is bottled at 90-proof and comes in a screw-top bottle.
One noticeable difference. The old bottle says it is a sour mash, but the new one does not, interesting.
NOSE
Matt: Lots of stuff going on here. I get vanilla, caramel, and brown sugar upfront. After that, a clean almost fruity aroma. Lastly, grain/corn and a slight smell of ethanol. Strange.
Todd: No ethanol here, but I get the sweetness, including the caramel, also cocoa, honey, and vanilla. I also smell both the fruit and the grain.
TASTE
Matt: I taste the sweet caramel that I smelled, along with a toastiness. behind that a little citrus, apple, and wet wood.
Todd: Again, I am not getting your last one, wet wood. Not one flavor stands out for me. I taste a nutty, oaky, fruity sweetness, but all very subtle. Even fainter flavors would be vanilla and caramel.
FINISH
Matt: Medium to short finish with more of the citrus.
Todd: Medium long with more sweetness, and in the background, just a touch of orange that may be Matt’s citrus.
OVERALL
Matt: I feel like it had a more complex nose than taste or finish. I feel like $60 is pushing it.
Todd: I agree with the first statement. However, I would pay $60 again for a bottle. I hope it is because I like it, not that it is just hard to find.
Nose: 4 out of 5.
Taste: 7.25 out of 10.
Finish: 3 out of 5.
Total score: 17.25 out of twenty barrels.
We were somewhat disappointed by this bottle, even though we gave it a decent rating. We both had fond memories of Weller Special Reserve, especially Todd, who at one time thought it was the best buy in Bourbon.
It is still a respectable price, yes it has gone up but so have all of them. If you see a bottle for sale, we definitely recommend buying it, as long as it is in the price range we mentioned.
It has been a couple of years since we had this Bourbon. Did our fond memories get in the way? Did we have expectations that no bottle could match? The only way to find out, drink some more.
Hi fellas. Did you taste them side-by-side (old bottle vs. new bottle) and could you tell much difference?
We did and we both like the older better. I also had a couple people do a blind taste of the two and they also picked the older one.
Maybe it has something to do with the old being a sour mash.