Eagle Rare Bourbon is one of the most beloved and sought-after American whiskeys on the scene. The elixir from Kentucky is often hailed as the best of the best by those in the know. And I’m here to tell you — it really does live up to the hype.
Of course, there isn’t just one Eagle Rare Bourbon out there. There are four. Each of the four Eagle Rare expressions is made at the iconic Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky. All of the versions of the brand are made with the same mash bill (Buffalo Trace’s famed Mash Bill No. 1, a low rye bourbon mash). Incidentally, that’s the same mash bill as Stagg, E.H. Taylor, Buffalo Trace Bourbon, and Benchmark.
What sets each variation of Eagle Rare apart is age. The ages range from 10 to 25 years old. And that extra time in the barrel has pretty dramatic effects on what’s in the bottle. I’m not going to get into a debate about whether older is better because that completely misses the point of batching and building a flavor profile to match a specific expression of whiskey (no matter what the age is).
That all said, there are some major variations in flavor among these four whiskeys — which is great because they are, by all measures, the same whiskey at the base level. I’m going to give you my professional opinion on which is the best with my tasting notes. Then you can decide which Eagle Rare deserves a spot on your home bar cart. Let’s dive in!
ABV: 50.5%
Average Price: $13,999
This whiskey ups the Eagle Rare game in two ways. First, this is “double” aged, meaning that the whiskey spends 20 years mellowing in Buffalo Trace’s warehouses — or twice as long as standard Eagle Rare. That makes the barrels that go into this expression super rare. The second aspect is the decanter. The crystal decanter has two eagles, one as a stopper and one that is blown into the bottom of the bottle. It’s a striking bottle and only 199 were produced.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose on this gently draws you in with mellow hints of cherry liqueur, dry cedar tobacco boxes, rich vanilla pods that feel oily, and a buttercream toffee candy that’s more sticky than brittle. The nose then leans towards a woody spice matrix of cinnamon sticks soaked in cherry syrup next to a slight note of anise that’s more absinthe green than licorice dark.
Palate: On the palate, very dark cacao dust opens up our taste buds as dates soaked in floral Earl Grey create a base for a moist and very sticky toffee pudding with a small dollop of the silkiest vanilla ice cream you’ve ever had.
Finish: The spices in that date-filled cake slowly rise after the sweet mid-palate veers into a soft and velvety finish that echoes with the woody spices but not the heat from them. The very end leaves you with this dry cedar box that once held allspice berries, anise, and cinnamon but now holds a very dry leaf of cherry-choco tobacco.
Bottom Line:
This is the most oaky whiskey on the list. And there’s no getting around that that is an acquired taste — not a refined one. There’s a lot of tannic woody bitterness on this one that is hard to get past without a drop of water or a single ice cube. Once you let this bloom in the glass, it’s a masterpiece. It gets creamy and luscious with a signature Buffalo Trace vibe that’s sweetly delicious and subtly aged. You just have to work to get there, and that’s why this is at the bottom of the list.
ABV: 50.5%
Average Price: $550
This year’s Eagle Rare ended up being 19 years and three months old (the “17 Years” on the label denotes the youngest barrels used for the brand overall). This year’s release was distilled and barreled back in the spring of 2004 and then left to rest all those years around the Buffalo Trace campuses in warehouses C, I, K, M, and Q. Once the barrels were batched, the whiskey was proofed and bottled as-is otherwise.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose is like eating a moist and perfectly balanced Black Forest cake while walking through an old barrel house and out into a fallow fruit orchard with fall leaves crunchy underfoot and rain barely misty the air with hints of cinnamon cake, smudging sage, and sweetgrass rounding things out.
Palate: Orange cake and salted caramel lead on the palate with a sense of dark chocolate tobacco moving the mid-palate toward dry roasting herbs and a touch of nuttiness.
Finish: Cinnamon sticks and nutmeg pop up on the finish with a hint of vanilla buttercream and eggnog before the spices dry out with a sense of mince meat pie and old leather tobacco pouches.
Bottom Line:
I struggled with the top three of this list. On a different day, this might as well be number one. While I love this whiskey, I have to admit that it’s classic and not quintessential. This is the whiskey I pour when I want a perfect example of Kentucky bourbon that’s 100% straightforward and delicious. I’m not going to say it’s exciting though or goes beyond purely and truly “classic”.
ABV: 45%
Average Price: $47
This might be one of the most beloved (and still accessible) bottles from Buffalo Trace. This whiskey is made from their very low rye mash bill. The hot juice is then matured for at least ten years in various parts of the warehouse. The final mix comes down to barrels that hit just the right notes to make them “Eagle Rare.” Finally, this one is proofed down to a fairly low 90 proof.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Old leather boots, burnt orange rinds, oily sage, old oak staves, and buttery toffee draw you in on the nose before a sense of old fallow fruit orchards with falling leaves hints at old brick barrelhouses in the distance with a whisper of dried apple.
Palate: Marzipan covered in dark chocolate opens the palate as floral honey and ripe cherry lead to a winter cake vibe full of raisins, dark spices, and toffee sauce before deep and earthy barrel warehouse vibes arrive with a sense of the cobwebs, mold, and ancient wood takes over.
Finish: The end has a balance of all things winter treats as the marzipan returns and the winter spice amp up alongside a hint of spicy cherry tobacco and old cedar wrapped with smudging sage, old fall leaves, and bourbon-soaked oak stave from decades ago.
Bottom Line:
This is quintessential Kentucky bourbon. Yes, this wins points for price and availability. Hey, you can actually get this one! But that’s not the whole story. This is really good bourbon from top to bottom. It takes you on a journey and feels way more than average. Cards on the table, this over a big rock is the perfect pour of bourbon whiskey.
ABV: 50.5%
Average Price: $9,899
Eagle Rare Straight Bourbon is made from Mash Bill #1 at Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky. That’s their low-rye mash bill, and that’s all that’s known about the juice. That whiskey was then left to rest for nearly two decades in a warehouse before being moved into Buffalo Trace’s new state-of-the-art Warehouse P facility. When the whiskey hit 25 years old, something magical happened to the barrel and it was ready for bottling.
The single barrel was proofed down to Eagle Rare’s 101-proof and otherwise bottled as-is, yielding only 200 bottles. The bottle is also a collectible with a hand-hammered sterling silver eagle wing wrapped around a hand-blown crystal decanter. That striking bottle comes in a custom display box that opens like an eagle’s wings.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose hints at old oak staves resting in a musty warehouse before veering toward stewed cherries with hints of clove and nutmeg next to salted dark chocolate shavings and rich powdered sugar icing cut with bourbon vanilla and light pipe tobacco essences with a whisper of fall leaves and orchard barks.
Palate: The rich vanilla gets buttery and creamy with an almost eggnog vibe thanks to the spice on the lush palate has dried cranberry, brandy-soaked cherry, and dried figs lead to rich toffee rolled in dark chocolate and anise before getting cut with a touch of earthy tobacco pulled from fresh black dirt.
Finish: The finish hugs you gently with warmth tied to winter spice barks soaked in apple cider cut with black cherry as the dirt takes on a warehouse must with gently sweet oak staves mingle with a whisper of whole black pepper and clove buds over creamy dark orange spice cake.
Bottom Line:
This is the mountaintop of Eagle Rare. What’s amazing is that this turns a corner after 20 years and by 25 years it hits this point of beautiful creamy lightness that’s almost … fresh. This is the bottle of Eagle Rare that’s not classic or not quintessential — it’s genre-defining. It’s also f*cking delicious.
