Old Forester Statesman and What the Top of the Rickhouse Tastes like

In this episode of Aussie Bourbon Lovers, we’re pouring the Old Forester Statesman — an elegant-looking bottle with a Hollywood backstory, but does the juice inside live up to the label?

We discuss:

• 🍌 Tasting notes ranging from banana lollies to wooden cheeseboards

• 🪵 Why the nose smells like fruit, cheese, and timber prep

• 🧑‍⚕️ A quick history of Dr. Forrester and the missing “R”

• 📉 Why this might be Dave’s least favourite Old Forester expression

Come for the flavour, stay for the platter metaphors.

🟠 Keywords: Old Forester Statesman, bourbon tasting, banana lollies, bourbon podcast, Aussie bourbon, bottled bourbon history, Old Forester tour

 

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Old Forester Statesman 01:30 Nose from this pour 02:40 Old Forester as a Favourite Brand 03:14 Tasting Experience and Flavour Profile 04:00 The mouthfeel and drinking experience of this pour 04:40 Bourbon that makes you feel like a cowboy 06:55 Old Forester Distillery Tour Insights 09:00 Final Thoughts on Old Forester Statesman

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Incredible flavours, even better stories.

(00:05):
One more, 10 minutes.
Aussie bourbon lovers, sharingbourbon with Australia.
Are we sitting to get moreclosely together or something?
Because you nearly punchedme when you opened that.
The Cooke had a lot of, I don't evenknow what a scientific word behind that.

(00:27):
You've been giving him very littlein terms of what's happening here.
Speaking of giving for someone verylittle, we're just going to look at it and
imagine that there's somethingin our glass, are we?
What are we having?Is it an odd edge?
We are having an old forester statesman.
Dave, it's got a- Great.
It's smelling good already.
This is-I can't even see it, but it's gota normal Old Forrester bottle, but a

(00:49):
beautiful Statesman written underneath it.
I really can't.Yeah.
Don't try to get the focus on it.
Let's cheers instead soI can get stuck into it.
Old Forrester All right.
We've been to Old Forrester in thedistiller experience in Louisville.
We have.And we've spoken about it before.
It was wonderful.
What's your favourite thing about...

(01:09):
Oh, my goodness, this issmelling good already.
Got right to your nose.
What are you getting on your nose?Oh, yeah.
I'm getting banana lollies, but not thatcrazy, intense,
howl-a-head banana lollies, but like,lovely sticky sweetness.
Like This is going to soundweird, but you know that?

(01:32):
That chopping board smell beforeyou put out lots of yummy fruit?
You just meant chopping board.It smells like a chopping board.
I know.
When you're puttingtogether a chopping board.
And I was like, the choppingboard, that woody smell.
But then you've got all thedried fruit and the cheese.

(01:53):
That's what it makes me think of.
I haven't spent much time puttingtogether a chopping board.
No, like a platter.
Yeah, okay.All right.
I get it.But it smells like the wood?
Well, it's got that woodysmell, but also fruity to me.
That's just the memory it gave me.
Was instantly like that nice woodenchopping board with the
fresh dried fruit and cheese.

(02:14):
The more I'm getting air on it, I amgetting a lot more wood on it as well.
Where did we begin?Old Forrester.
Why is it only spelled with one R?
Because they changedhis name at one point.
Out of respect, theydropped one of the R's.
Is that right?Do you remember why it was?
No.Because he died.

(02:34):
Out of respect for him dying, they gotrid of one of the R's from his name.
Dr. Forrester, is that right?Yes.
Yeah, he was a doctor because they stayedopen during Prohibition because they
had- This is before that as well, yeah.Yeah.
But when he died, they dropped an R fromthe name, and now it's Old Forrester.
It was the first ever bottled bourbon,and they talk a lot about that.
But Old Forrester is one ofmy favourite expressions.
Can I let you in on a secret aboutthis expression of Old Forrester?

(02:58):
The Statesman one?
Yes.Tell me.
I think it's my least favourite.
Least favourite bourbon or least favouriteout of the Old Forrester collection?
Oh, my least favourite is Old Forrester.Why is that?
Because Old Forrester is so good.They're very deserty.
This to nose has more of a Like I said,a woody, not as much as a desserty.
Stop just smelling it.Could you taste a bit, please?

(03:19):
Because this is the reason, and I thinkyou're going to say out loud what my
experience of it is, which is what'sthat experience for you in your mouth?
How are you finding thatwhen you drink that?
It tastes nice, but it feels weird.
Not weird.
It definitely leaves like a…
It's not smooth.

(03:41):
What does it feel like?
I don't know.
It's that woody feeling,like that expression I say when I
feel like I've licked the barrel.
I don't think you would lick a barrel.
But it tastes nice, but it just leavesIt's a different feeling in your mouth.

(04:02):
It's a bit thin.
To me, it has a little bit of a burn on itthat is a bit unusual, actually,
for Old Forest, certainly.
But bourbons we drink all sorts ofbourbons, an expensive
and inexpensive ones.
To me, the drinking experienceis my least favourite thing.
I agree with you, theflavour is pretty good.
Old Forest is one of myfavourites, but that's different.

(04:24):
It's not as deserty as how I woulddescribe it, not as deserty
as some of the others.Who talks about it?
Someone talks about this thing ofbourbon was- Someone who knows
what they're talking about.I reckon it was Maker's Mark.
I reckon it's Maker's Mark.
They were the first started talking aboutit, that Maker's Mark was that they were
trying to interrupt the idea that bourbonwas supposed to make you feel like a
cowboy and feel tough when you Youdid feel tough drinking this one.

(04:46):
Because it had hurt you when it went down.
Yeah, but I feel likethis has got a little…
I'm sure it's not as rough as the old-But that adds to the statesman side of it.
Didn't you say it had something to do withit came out the same time
as the Kingsman movie?
Yeah, I don't know the specifics ofwhether or not- You just made it still up.
No, it's inspired by the Kingsman movie.I love those movies.
Can I tell you a little bit about it?
Because it's made from the barrels thatare at the top part of the rickhouse.

(05:09):
So that's the way they makethis expression, 95 proof.
So that's 47.5% or whatever that is.
And that's how they make it.
So it's the highest part, which means,theoretically, it ages the quickest.
Quickest.
Maybe that's why it's got thatlittle bit of a rough edge on it.
Maybe.
Maybe it hasn't had enough time to be abit It has that slightly more

(05:31):
mellow-Describe it as the delicious oldforested taste with a little
bit of a rough edge on it.It's a statesman.
It definitely has thatcaramel-iness and all that stuff.
And it's picked up some awards and stuff.
It's not that I don't like it, but it'sYou prefer the gentle or smoother ones
rather than ones that makeyou feel like a cowboy.
I'm not really going for the cowboy thing.

(05:52):
Yeah, but some people might be.
You asked me, is that oneyou can get in Australia?
Yeah.
I reckon it's probably the easiestI don't have an Old Forester yet.
In Australia, in my view, at least.I could be wrong.
Maybe.
Maybe we just have a glut of it orsomething, but I feel like
you can see it everywhere.
I do love the desertiness of an OldForester range, but this would be on the
end of the non-deserty end of the onesI've had, because I love Old Forester.

(06:17):
There definitely, to me,though, is still that sweetness.
It's like a, I don't know,almost like cinnamon, vanilla-y,
almost donut-y-ness or something to it.But it's just…
I don't even It's like a dry fruit.
It's like a thin finish.
You know how sometimesit's like a syrupy-It doesn't lose
that creamy, thick, smooth coat.

(06:39):
It's more of it.
You definitely get that woodyflavour, which is nice, but not…
I I prefer the deserty, rich ones.
If the Aussie bourbon fans who are tuningin want to experience some Old Forest of
Goodness, and some of the otherexpressions as well,
what can they do when they go to Kentucky?What can they do?
They can start by going Kentucky,going to a tour at the distillery.

(07:02):
You get to see them light things on fire.
One of the coolest, the most Disneyland ofthe- You really got to experience
them putting the barrel together and theylit it all up and then Well, there's
a real Cooper who works upstairs.Yeah.
It was like some of the others, they talkabout that stuff and they show you
bits of wood or barrels and tell you.

(07:23):
But at Old Forest, they show youthat stuff, which I really loved.
You got to go down and look at the Is itthe charcoal that they
strain it all through?
That's just dumping.They don't strain it through.
Dump it, yeah.
But then you got to see all of thatmessiness, I suppose, that's
behind the scenes, which is…Yeah.

(07:44):
I really thought you- Andthey sell great T-shirts, too.
Yeah, I thought you…
I knew you'd get T-shirts, but there'sanother part of the story you haven't
taken us to about Old Forrester.
Which one, Dave?
I feel like it'slow-hanging fruit for you.
Right.You could just tell us.
It's the Madesca.
Oh, yes.
I love them.
I think we talked aboutthem most of the last ones.

(08:05):
I don't mind.You want to talk about them again?
Well, you do, don't you?
No, I talked about them last time.Okay.
Well, so when you do the tour at OldForrester, it's not uncommon on a tour at
a Burberry Distillery that they'll havea-They often do the tastings with
lots of different yummy things.
Yeah, a particular handmade chocolatethat's special to that distillery.
Old Forrester have what they call aMadesca, which I don't think

(08:26):
I've ever had anywhere else ever.
I think it's specific to that region.
It's a cross between a smoreand a chocolate and a caramel.
It's like a- It's chewing, marshmallowy,caramely, coverage chocolate.
Yeah, it's delicious.
And it goes really well with Old Forester.
Just as we've been talking about it, I'vebeen a little bit transported
to that tasting room.

(08:47):
When you're on one of your work trips andI wasn't there, I made you go
back and get more, didn't I?
You did, actually.You did.
In fact- I came back with afew bags of chocolate in your- You've
recently been trying to convince me to doanother one of those work trips, and I've
had to resist because he was soinsistent about me going on this.
There was a conference so close.I know.
You could have topped up oursupply of the ones we can't get.

(09:11):
What a remarkable problem we have.Amazing.
Terrible.So what do you reckon?
Do you reckon Aussie bourbon trials shouldget out and get themselves a
bottle of this just to try?
It's terribly expensive, maybe 60 bucks.Yeah.
It definitely is a good introduction.
But if you like this, you're going tolove the other Old Forrester expressions.
And you can get the 80 proof OldForrester, which is in a a stubbornier

(09:34):
bottle with a white label, which is reallythat's now you're into what I think
it was like real Old Forester.
And then you get through the other.
I definitely give this one a go,especially if you want to be a cowboy.
Here's to cowboys.And statesmen.
Cheers.Thanks for listening.
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(09:57):
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