Jefferson's Ocean Voyage 24 vs Voyage 28

 

Jefferson’s Ocean Voyage 24 – Blend of Bourbon Whiskeys – 90 proof – NAS (rumored 6-8 years) – Late 2021 Release

Appearance: Amber, thin in appearance.

Nose: Caramel, orange zest, light oak

Palate: Caramel, butterscotch, and some orange citrus. This has a thin mouthfeel and doesn’t coat the pallet very well.

Finish: Caramel, some woodiness, a mild hug that lasts 8 or 10 seconds.

Rating: 4.9/10


Jefferson’s Ocean Voyage 28 – Blend of Bourbon Whiskeys – 90 proof – NAS (rumored 6-8 years) – Mid 2022 Release

Appearance: Basically, looks identical to Voyage 24: Amber in color and thin.

Nose: Mint, expressed orange peel, some mild sweetness.

Palate: Mint and orange peel dominate. There’s a slight burnt sugar sweetness. This has a very nice mouthfeel. Very buttery and fully coating.

Finish: A mild sweetness and char and it just kinda disappears. No hug whatsoever.

Rating: 3.0/10

FINAL THOUGHTS: These are two pretty comparable voyages. From everything I could find, they are basically the exact same thing except for the route each voyage took (see pics). So, I think this was actually a pretty neat comparison. Voyage 24 was a classic bourbon profile to me, whereas Voyage 28 was a little different. I usually like “different,” but in this case, Voyage 28 was so monotone that I couldn’t stand it. It needed complexity. I loved the mouthfeel of Voyage 28 versus 24, but Voyage 24 had just a little bit more going on for it on the nose, pallet, and finish; while it wasn’t unique, Voyage 24 was familiar and had more layering than voyage 28 did.

The glaring flaw of Voyage 28 is just the lack of complexity and how one dimensional it was, and on top of that, that one dimension was minty-orange zest…which I just wasn’t digging. I’d probably have rated higher if it was a vanilla/brown sugar + orange in there rather than the minty orange that stood out.

With Voyage 24, I was tempted to even just call “good” and give it a 5.0. However, I didn’t buy these bottles. When considering the price of these bottles, Voyage 24 just isn’t deserving of being something higher than a 4.9 because there’s a whole lot of bottles you can pick up with nearly this same profile for 1/3 of the price of this one.

All that said, I like the experimentation Jefferson’s is doing with the Ocean series. It’s fun. I 100% agree it’s gimmicky due to what they charge for a bottle, but it is still fun. If their bottles were even in $40 range, I’d probably even seek them out for that price. But at $80-$90 a bottle, I just wouldn’t spend my own money on them.

BEHIND THE BOTTLES:

Voyage 24 was a new experiment for the Jefferson’s Ocean: Aged at Sea line. Rather than traveling to hot and cold locations, these barrels were exposed to the most extreme hot and humid conditions they could be by keeping them on boats in the Caribbean Ocean with an average temperature of ~94°F and reaching a max temperature of 124.52°F. Additionally, the containers holding these barrels were loaded as high as they could be on the ship which resulted in more sloshing due to bigger impacts of yaw and pitch as the boat rocked along its voyage. Lastly, the high humidity should not be overlooked here! High humidity generally results in a loss of ABV. The initial thought for most people is this would be a bad thing. BUT, unless you’re trying to make a high ABV whiskey, it actually might not be a bad thing to loose some ABV due to humidity if you’re planning on diluting it when you batch it out. That’s because it will naturally loose ABV while retaining the flavor, whereas when you dilute it during botting, you’re also diluting the flavor. Since this is bottled at 90 proof (as are all Jefferson’s Ocean voyages), this likely means that it had to be diluted less than Voyage 28 (unknown what the entry proof or proof before bottling was for these two voyages, but it’s a fair assumption to make). This means that Voyage 24 SHOULD be more flavorful because it was likely diluted less at bottling.

Voyage 28…not a whole lot is shared. I think it was attempted to try and keep it in a hot region of the world, but I think it still got a lot more variation in temperature and humidity than Voyage 24 did (otherwise they would have promoted the hot, humid conditions more I think). Additionally, not much is mentioned about storms or “sloshing” or any of that.

So, all that said, I think comparing these two definitely shows what the high heat, humidity, and ability to move the distillate around more in the barrels can do.

1 | Disgusting | So bad I poured it out.

2 | Poor | I wouldn’t consume by choice.

3 | Bad | Multiple flaws.

4 | Sub-par | Not bad, but many things I’d rather have.

5 | Good | Good, just fine.

6 | Very Good | A cut above.

7 | Great | Well above average

8 | Excellent | Really quite exceptional.

9 | Incredible | An all time favorite

10 | Perfect | Perfect