BT and Eagle Rare are both made from the exact same mash bill. They are identical in every way when the barrels are filled according to our tour guide. What makes them unique from each other is where they are stored in the rickhouse, and for how long. BT is stored mid-section of the rickhouse for 4-6 years while Eagle Rare is stored on the lowest level where it's cooler and ages for 10 years or longer.
Dead wrong buddy! BT is stored for 6-8 years-I know that for sure. To me that's the best buy. Yep, it's less complex than E.R. but for me personally it tastes better because it ain't so "heavily stuffed" with spices.
Eagle Rare is such a step above Buffalo Trace to me even though they're considered "the same juice." I remember the first thing I got out of Eagle Rare when I first poured it was vanilla ice cream and that has stuck with me. Just a shame it's so annoying to find near me, much less for MSRP.
Agreed Kenneth. It's a very good quality product for the $30-35 retail price. It would be a great gateway bourbon for folks to get into well crafted whiskey if only it were available.
Lately I have been doing back to back blind tastings of the bottles on my bar. My normal favorites are Rare Breed, Russell's 10, ER10, ECBP, OF 1920, etc. In recent blind tastes, Eagle Rare 10 has beaten all of the above consistently. ER 10 used to be pretty easy to get, lately it has become impossible to find. Truth, Eagle Rare is the best bourbon I have. I will buy it anywhere I find it, until I have quite a few backups.
Erin was in such a playful mood in this video! "Ooooooh cherry banana!!!" Haha. BT is semi readily available in my market (South Louisiana) and priced at $23. ER, you basically have to have a good relationship with a store in order to get one. Again, at less than $35 it is a good bottle to have! I REALLY wish there was a higher proof version of ER!! But overall I would buy it any chance I got. Great review today y'all!!
Prior to a few weeks ago, the last bottle of ER I purchased was in 2014. My tasting notes were "Blah. Never again." I saw some on the shelf at my local shop (a rarity) and picked up a bottle even though it's priced at $50 in the Atlanta market. I think the move away from a single barrel helps with consistency, and I liked this particular bottle, but at $50 I'm going to choose Rare Breed over ER every damn day.
Well said Doug. Whenever we start creeping toward that $50 price point, everything starts getting weighed against Rare Breed and Knob Creek store picks. The value is too good there and very little measures up. Cheers!
Just bought my first bottle of Eagle Rare two weeks ago. Enjoyed very much. BT has been a go to for awhile. I mixed 3/4 oz of BT and 1/2oz of ER with a single block. Found it it very interesting and tasty. A special occasion cocktail for me. Enjoyed the show. Cheers.
We've heard some of the Eagle Rare picks can be exceptional (our current one is awful but that's single barrel roulette for you). Definitely will buy one whenever we see one. Cheers!
Watched the three recent ER episodes in reverse order and believe it’s score ranged from 3 (Josh) to 6 (Erin)! Goes to show even our own palates change day to day! Great stuff 👍
Thanks so much Gregory! Having the same bottle in multiple matchups over time is something we were excited about as we knew our feelings could be different on different days. We didn't expect such a wide span though. Cheers and thanks for watching!
Have an open bottle of Buffalo Trace so poured a glass to watch this video. Pretty much agree that it's a decent pour but nothing exceptional. The finish is def lacking. I have a distinct preference for Eagle Rare but agree it's getting harder to find. The bottle I have on hand cost $41 but I bought it a few years ago. Both of these are lower proof than what I like these days. BT in particular would benefit from 100+ proof IMHO. Good review, I really like your system of setting up the blind pairings and then the blind tastings. Better than many blind tastings where the only thing blind is which bottle is in which glass.
Thanks Ferd. It's an incredible amount of work to do tastings like this, and obviously doesn't play into boosting channel metrics since we can never review anything in a timely manner due to the randomization, but we're about quality over quantity anyway. This is the way that's most fun to taste for us personally, and we hope that shows on camera. We appreciate you watching and commenting as always. Cheers buddy!
Love that you guys don’t want to “feed into the hype”. I wait for these episodes and love them!! Great job, great channel, and Eagle Rare is better than Buffalo Trace.
Never been a standard buffalo trace fan, theres just so many better for the price you can just grab off the shelf. Eagle rare is good, but russells 10 is better
ER over BT for sure! Not a fan of BT at all. I'm not seeing the RR 10 over ER. Maybe I got a bad batch as my bottle of RR 10 as it's got a funk to it I cant stand. It was a real let down.
I jump with on that. R. 10 is one of the greats. I always have one open and two spares in the pantry. Never know when a hurricane might hit or a war start. Or my wife uninvited, digs into my stash without asking.
I have both of these but the eagle rare is better? So Russells 10 better I haven’t tryed that one and I’m new to This an I’m tryin to bourbon now. That’s my nex one (Russells 10) bro
I love your reviews. I love that your real reactions reflect your experiences on that given day. I am relatively new to Bourbons. There so many bourbons out there and the selections can be confusing and exciting. Confusing because of the number of options and exciting because you can find hidden jewels out there. Because I can't afford to buy them all I try to find ones I like and keep. I have watched a lot of reviews, tasted friends Bourbons and I always order a Bourbon I haven't tried before when I go out to dinner, I finally have found a core of Bourbons I really love. These include Buffalo Trace, Woodford Reserve and Woodford Reserve Double Oak and Eagle Rare. Eagle Rare is my personal favorite followed by the Woodford Reserve offerings and Buffalo Trace. I do have a few others including an offering by a distillery in Cumming Georgia (about 15 miles from me) called Legends - which has developed a filtering process that removes some impurities. It is surprisingly good. Keep up the great content.
Thanks so much, Michael! We always hope that our honest reactions to blinds are more informative than any pre-planned review ever could be, and we're always happy to hear that that translates. Eagle Rare and Woodford are definitely great. If you like Eagle Rare but have trouble finding it, be sure to check out Tin Cup 10 Year bourbon (specifically the 10 Year) and if you like Woodford Double Oaked then you owe it to yourself to try some Old Forester 1910 as well. Cheers!
I am going back and watching some of your old blinds to see how much things change. Sunday I was at a store in Oregon to pick up a Buffalo Trace ($25.95 available everywhere here) and a Maker's Mark Cask Strength ($59.95). When checking out I asked the clerk if Eagle Rare had gotten back into the system yet, she said "yes, do you want one?". And I did, $36.95. ER is one of my favorite go to bottles, currently have four on my shelf. Cheers
Here in Albuquerque Buffalo Trace shows up once in a while - I've seen it on the shelf once - and Eagle Rare is even more of a unicorn. But the one bottle of Buffalo Trace I've had was worth the $30 price. For those who like Buffalo Trace but can't find it I recommend Bluff Springs. It's only $25 here, and it fits what I remember Buffalo Trace tasting like. I look for Buffalo Trace whenever I'm in the store, just in case, but I'll happily buy Bluff Springs instead. And maybe one of these days I'll be able to try Eagle Rare. 🙂
BT here in EU is the cheapest bourbon you can drink neat. It's even way cheaper than legendary WT101. Not particularly a fan myself, but I grab it every time I wanna save money at the party where no one appreciates whiskey, yet I don't wanna get stuck with mixers. Eagle Rare on the other hand is one of my top 4 favorite bourbons, love from the first sip. I never judge whiskey by chill filtration, color addition, ABV, hype, price and other characteristics. All that matters if it hits my sweet spot. ER does exactly that.
Great review guys. Subbed! It’s weird, when I first tried these two I vastly preferred BT, but a couple months later now I like ER better… go figure. I like WT 101 better than both, but I still need to try Rare Breed. Can’t wait!
Thanks for the great review. My store (in the ATL area) had a limit of one bottle per customer of Buffalo Trace. Fortunately there was a 1.75L bottle there and I got it. The store later had Eagle Rare limit one per customer, so I snagged it. I generally agree with your analyses, and I’ll add i think BT is smoother than Wild Turkey 101. Both are ‘basic’ bourbons and mix well. Eagle Rare is better, especially for sipping and tasting, and is one of my favorite bourbons.
Interestingly enough, if Buffalo Trace were readily available on every shelf, it would likely be viewed in much the same way that Wild Turkey 101 and Bulleit are--solid mixer. Great comment IC86. Cheers!
Cannot believe, I picked up 1 of each at VA ABC this Morning. They have been absent for months. For $26 BT and $30 ER, they are excellent choices. ER is step up due to it is age.
BT to me just gives sugar water, ER is nicely oaked sugar water. Unfortunately my flight had bookers up front so the proof even with palate cleansing... just blew them out. I just got nothing from them. Most whiskey at least gives me something even after drinking a cask strength.
At retail ER is worth getting and a backup. At secondary I've got maybe a dozen I'd get under that price. When I started, I heard BT, BT, BT; it didn't live up to the billing. The best value to me is EHT small batch if you can find it at retail.
My first bottle of Eagle rare was great my last two was very disappointing. And my first bottle of Buffalo trace was ok but the last 2 great like liquid desert.
I have both and to me, they both taste the same except everything is magnified on ER, which I love. Unfortunately, I'm down to my last bottle of ER and I can't find it anywhere anymore so that bottles not going to open anytime soon. It'll have to be just BT for now.
When I was trying to get into bourbon, I bought a bottle of Old Forester 1870 and it didn't really do it for me. Then I bought a Dickel 8 year and thought that maybe I'm just not a bourbon drinker. Then someone brought a bottle of Eagle Rare 10 to our monthly poker league tournament and I was like... hmmm, maybe I do like bourbon? I'm still exploring. I have bottles of WRDO and Cooper's Craft that I'm sipping on right now (along with a bottle of ER) and have bottles of OF 1910, WT Rare Breed, and (I sheepishly admit) Blanton's waiting in the wings. I'm hoping that my palate will allow me to stay in the sub-$60 range, though I admit to paying $90 for the Blanton's. Above $60-$70 a bottle and I start thinking about how much good stout beer (my first love) I could buy instead for that coin.
Both Buffalo Trace and Eagle Rare are jumping in price, but if you can get it at a regular retailer such as Walmart or a warehouse store then you can get it at or close to the targeted MSRP which would be close to 25 dollars for Buffalo Trace and just above 30 dollars for Eagle Rare. Unfortunately, if you only have liquor stores that carry the products, then expect BT to be in the 30 to 40 dollar range and the ER to jump real high to 70 to 100 bucks. If either bottle jumps that high, there are tons of better quality competitors at equal or the lower the same price. At that point, you might as well look at cask strength bottles in the 40 to 80 dollar range that will overwhelmingly punch the lights out of either product with a jump in flavor.
Unfortunately for me I can't find Buffalo Trace or Eagle Rare @ my local ABC Store. I have to order it online to get it, it stinks but hey that's life!! Cheers
I am new to the Burbon hobby, I never actually enjoyed any alcohol drinks before, but Wild Turkey 101 tasted just so much better than anything else I drank when I was younger, and I didn’t understand why, but now I do. Anyway, I can’t help but notice how much my impressions of these same burbons are the same as yours, especially when it was said “diet fruit”. Buffalo Trace has this aftertaste that’s rivaling the 80s and 90s diet drinks that destroys the initial sweetness. I did something that you may want to try. I have a bottle of Old Forrester 100 proof, but it hits like it’s 130 proof, I mean the burn is overwhelming. I have to let ice melt into it before I can begin to enjoy it. So, I put in one shot of Old Forester and one shot of Buffalo Trace, and I’m in burbon heaven. If you’re bored one day, try it.
That diet drink aftertaste isn't something we've heard many folks talk about, but it's definitely there for us with some Buffalo Trace products. Glad we're not the only ones!
I love both but I prefer Eagle Rare here in Colorado Buffalo Trace is getting easier to find Eagle Rare very hard to find I've bought it around $69 yes that's high but I felt worth it 🥃🥃
Here in California I now see Buffalo Trace for 25.00 to 40.00 dollars and Eagle Rare for 70.00 to 80.00. I did find a bottle of Eagle Rare for 39.00 at a small liquor store last week. I would not pay more then 25.00 for Buffalo Trace or more then 40.00 for Eagle Rare
I wish I saved multiple bottles of BT and Eagle Rare. They are very rare to find in Ohio and I havent seen them since 2018. Luckily I have a BT bottle my cousin gave me but it is a very special occasion pour since i wont see them ever again.
Well if you ever find yourself in Nashville near the end of the month on a Wednesday or Thursday then plan yo hunt around and stock up. Or make friends in California. We hear they’re flush with Buffalo Trace out there.
Had to wait to get a couple of glasses out b4 the watch. Parliament Funkadelic is probably before y’all’s time, but…”I want my funk funded up!” Erin was working on catching up to like 5 Josh faces with the BT palate on this one. The bourbon familial relationship is so amazing given your pre-reveal nose back and forth. The Erin double thumbs up have been loosening up in the last few weeks! Totally doesn’t feel like a first pour of the night video.
This is why blind tastings matter. Your palate picks up different things on different days, but if we weren't blind, grape would be the first thing we'd be searching for in Eagle Rare. Blind though, sometimes we get it and sometimes we don't.
BT is just so so so much more available to me at retail so I’m buying that one. ER may be better but in my area it is so rare to get it at retail and secondary pricing is min $80. So no thanks.
It was so hard to find whiskey's I liked when staying in Virginia. Now that I'm back in California it is easy to grab these bottles and not just one per customer.
Why do people like Eagle Rare over Buffalo Trace? There's a few reasons people will buy the Eagle more. The bottle is slightly more expensive, harder to find, and it is better looking. The Eagle Rare whiskey could be equal or worse tasting on average than the Buffalo Trace and it would still outsell it, simply because it is regarded as more of a luxury item. The Buffalo Trace distillery's promotion of Eagle Rare is good enough to make it scarce in many regions.
That was in our blind sample pool as well. Interestingly enough, it popped up just a few filming sessions later. That video is slated to come out January 6th. It should be a good one and also be very interesting to see how the same pour can strike someone similarly or differently on different days.
I agree with Erin on the BT. With all the hype it gets, I thought I should try it again. A friend of mine has a bottle, so I had some at Thanksgiving. I found it to be flat and had a bitter finish. I'm not a fan, I would but just about anything before BT. I liked the ER, but still think that there are better options. For a similar age, I would reach for Knob Creek 9yo or Russell's 10yo before ER. I've seen both of these on the shelf in Colorado, about 26 for BT and 36 for ER. When you talk about how fun it is to blind them, I get that, sometimes by the time I get to the living room, I forget what I poured in the kitchen. I'll take a sip and go, wow this is good what did I pour, LOL. Thanks again, cheers.
Knob Creek 9 year definitely needs to make an appearance on the channel. It’s probably the best value on the market, although the proof point can be a bit daunting for newcomers. That said, it would be our preference over both of these. Great comment Matthew!
Interesting video. In your December 7 video, you called Eagle Rare 'a good whiskey, not a great whiskey' and 'it tastes like a $30 bottle of whiskey'. Now.....2 days later 'I don't know - $100'. Guess it shows how our palate can change from day to day.
It was definitely a $100 nose with a $36 palate in this video. The video we’ll release on January 6th features Eagle Rare popping up again. It’s Glass One and Glass Two is Russell’s 10 Year. It’s very interesting how palates can differ day to day. We just put interesting matchups into our blind pool but the unintended benefit of seeing how bottles hit differently on different days has been a very pleasant and welcomed surprise.
If you are new to bourbon, first lesson is you don't "drink" bourbon, you "sip" bourbon. That said and you comprehend the difference in enjoying the experience, start out at 100 proof or slightly above. If that seems too " hot" then add a small ice cube or a very small amount of water to lower the proof. Add water or ice very sparingly and sample as you go till ya hit tha "sweet spot".
Spot on advice, James. We think most folks would get a lot of versatility out of 100 proof bottles (and above) if they'd be willing to follow your advice here. We tend to stay at 100 or above ourselves for that very reason. Great comment and thanks for watching!
You two are definitely a top 5 whiskey-tube channel. Keep up the great videos! I hope your channels explodes like bourbon junkies! Cheers y’all! Also: how do I get my wife into bourbon so we can drink together like you two? She always says it’s too sweet or too strong or too “woody” lol.
We really appreciate that! If you check back through our video catalog we did make a video about how to get your significant other into whiskey. It'll be due for a refresh in 2022 but all the content still holds we feel. It's a ton of fun sipping with your spouse (but we are obviously highly biased).
Wanna post actually before I see these results as I don’t want to be influenced. I have both as well and I know there are some who don’t care for either but the Eagle Rare I currently I have open is fantastic and it’s in my top-3 current daily drinkers right now along w/ FAE-02 & Michter’s. I’m getting a Single Barrel (SiB) Eagle Rare this week and can’t wait to try it compared to these 2 in your video. I also am not ashamed to say I still like BT but for me, I’ll reach for my Eagle Rare everyday of the week if I’m asked to choose. Love your channel and of all the husband-wife teams on YT, I prefer you 2 with The Bourbon Van a very close 2nd & It’s Bourbon Night a distant 3rd for me.
That’s incredibly flattering to be mentioned in the same breath as those other channels. IBN and The Bourbon Van are both awesome and we count ourselves lucky to be able to call Phil and Julie friends. We really appreciate the kind words LJ!
Hey "Flashdance" :)! Love the the look. Love the channel :)! A bright and refreshing exploration of whiskey not yet infested by the "Echo Chamber" of talking heads that run as a common theme all throughout the other channels.
Totally get the “flatness” on Buffalo Trace. Eagle Rare is like marginally better Buffalo Trace. I’m glad that the grape/fruit note isn’t really my jam (see what I did there?). I’ll stick with Knob Creek and Elijah Craig.
I had the same experience with the beefalo trace, flat one note, don’t know why it is recommended. I felt like perhaps there was something wrong with my taste buds.
You're definitely not alone. There's a lot of hype behind the brand that would have people believing that their products are head and shoulders above the other brands on the market, but that's simply not the case. It's one flavor profile in a wide world of flavor profiles out there, and it's definitely not everyone's cup of tea.
Bottle to bottle, random shot to shot, the standard BT has been better on average than eagle in my experience. I have had a shot of eagle at a restaurant once that was amazing but never found it on that level ever again. While older and more nuanced, a lot of times Eagle just tastes dirty and boring while at least the Buffalo will be fruity fresh and is blended to taste a certain way. Bourbon nut that works in the liquor stores in my area agreed BT is the better of the two.
We tend to fall in the same camp historically, and know many who would agree as well. Very odd that it was *this* lopsided in this particular matchup, but that's how it goes sometimes (especially in blinds). Cheers and thanks for watching!
Don't sweat it too much. It's a good sipper with a great aroma, but there's always Russell's 10 Year, Bulleit 10 Year, and Tin Cup 10 Year that are all reasonably comparable.
Can you find Eagle Rare on the shelf regularly at Cork Dorks Midtown? Quite a store. ER would be my pick but neither are stellar but just ok for the price if you pay MSRP.
Cork Dorks is awesome for picks and high end bottles, but Eagle Rare is a back room special ask *or* random midday drop there and at all the other stores in the area.
Eagle rare is now $75 here.. its getting up there in price and I'm probably gonna stop buying it because many are others in that price range are better. Not opening my last 2 bottles. Because I'm sure it's gonna be $100 here in no time
Congrats and the score! And yep, a 14060M circa 2008 and acquired from a time LONG before the current mess with that company (that quite frankly puts me off-not a modern day Rolex fan at all).
@@stuffandwhiskey haha yeah it’s pretty bad, i’m on a waiting list for the 124060…better off getting an organ transplant than waiting for a rolex at this point and i’ve been waiting for close to 3 years
Josh here. Our channel is more like a play-by-play sports announcer leading the conversation (me, the whiskey nerd) with color commentary to add some much needed personality (Erin, the social sipper who couldn’t care less about being nerdy about whiskey). That’s why we talk the way we talk. It’s not for everyone, but it works for us. That’s either for you or it not, and that’s okay either way. Either way, cheers and thanks for watching.
Of course Eagle Rare is better than BT. It's aged TEN YEARS. Whiskey is better with some aging. But, remember, it's basically single barrel not batch. So, bottle to bottle can have some variation. Some bottles are better than others.
Interestingly enough, while “more age = more better” is the generally accepted truth, we haven’t found that to bear out in our blind tastings with any level of consistency. Based on track record, the 8-9 year range of bourbon seems to hit our palates best. As with anything, it’s personal preference though. Cheers and thanks for watching Lee!
😂😂 gotta love blinds for that surprise factor. Eagle Rare definitely benefited from recency bias and the association with the rickhouse smell here. It’s popped up a few times since in other head-to-heads and those might be of interest to see how it came across a little further removed from the distillery visit. Cheers and thanks for watching Jim!
ER is so much better than Buffalo Trace. I always keep Buffalo Trace on my bar because it's cheap and easy to find around here, strangely enough, but every time I have it I'm severely underwhelmed. There's something about it that doesn't hit my pallet. I'm always impressed about how good ER is every time I have it, although I mostly give all the bottles I find to my Dad since it's his favorite. I did have a Buffalo Trace store pick that was delicious, but I currently have an ER store pick from the same store and it's outstanding. Guess who is getting the 2nd bottle I bought of it for Christmas?
Love that Bo! Way to hook pops up. Picks of either of these are some of our favorite easy sipping “fun” bottles even if our current Eagle Rare pick is strangely awful.
Why can't you just say this one tastes good, and this one tastes like crap, way less confusing to consumers 🤨 don't need to know what every ingredient tastes like 🤨
We speak to our experience and try to make that helpful. There's a lot of channels out there that do shorts where it's a much more bite-size "quick impressions" review.
To the dude. Go back and look how to described the flavor of glass one vs how you graded it. When you talked about the flavor you talked about how the smells did not carry over to the palate but when grading you talked about how the flavor carried over to the palate. Which is it?
Delete the video, do not disgrace yourself, you are trying to compare two completely different whiskeys - one is an elite drink, the second is a cocktail swill.
The more bourbon tasting videos I watch, the more I realize nobody knows what the hell they are tastinf. "I taste CARDBOARD" "I taste CANDY!" "I taste DIRT" Ok... whatever.
We've certainly no experts, but even the experts can't tell you what you'd taste. It's all about what it reminds you of, which is a very personal experience.
