Old Carter Very Small Batch 1-CO

COST: Around $200-$300 for 750mL bottle (I’m reviewing a sample)

AGE: Blend of 6-14 year old bourbons

MASH BILL: undisclosed

PROOF: 116

Old Carter is a non-distiller producer who sources select barrels across Kentucky to be blended for their small batch whiskeys. This particular sample comes from Very Small Batch 1-CO, which was released in 2023 as a small batch of only 739 bottles to commemorate Old Carter being sold in the state of Colorado. This batch is a blend of 6 to 14 year old Kentucky straight bourbons. I’ve never had an Old Carter expression before, but I’ve always seen them regarded as “good stuff.” Let’s see how it goes!

APPEARANCE: Dark brown, almost like a charred oak color (1.8), it looks rather thick with thin, slow viscous legs at first followed by a ring of fat, tear drop legs that take forever to fall.

NOSE: Lots of brown sugar, a little lemon zest and mint, seasoned oak, and spice. The spice comes across differently each time I nose this: smoked black pepper, cinnamon, and smoked paprika. My nose is tingled and numbed by the spice a little in the way smelling ground black pepper would.

PALATE: Brown sugar and an expressed orange peel kick things off followed by a growing spice and heat that takes me into the finish. The spice is a mix of ground cinnamon, black pepper, spicy tobacco, and charred oak. There’s a light note best compared to French vanilla coffee creamer that I pick up just as I start to swallow this and carries into the finish. The mouthfeel is not nearly as thick as it appears, but it rolls around on the palate effortlessly.

FINISH: This has a big ol’ bear hug that could rival most Booker’s batches. The finish is long, and provides a good balance of sweet and spice. I get notes of vanilla, chocolate with chili flakes, sweet oak, black pepper, and barrel char that ebb and flow for a good 45 seconds after the swallow. The spicier notes far outlive the rest, however. There is an astringent tingle in the back of my throat that lasts well over a minute making this seems like a significantly higher proof than 116.

RATING: 6.1/10

VALUE: 2.3/10 (this value is based on a ratio of the $/mL to the rating above compared to this same ratio for all other r/Bourbon reviews I’ve made and normalized to 10)

OVERALL: It was good to finally try an Old Carter expression. This had a lot of barrel character, but it didn’t provide anything that was memorable. This has a heat throughout that makes it feel like it is 15 to 20 proof points higher than it is. While it has robust and well defined notes, it is pretty standard bourbon with more emphasis on spice than sweetness. Overall, I would have been highly disappointed if I paid for a full bottle of this for the price that it goes for. I mentioned in the beginning that I hadn’t had a Old Carter expression before but have generally seem them regarded as “good stuff.” Based on this particular expression, I think “good” is the right word. It’s above average with the amount of barrel character that is easily picked up, but it leaves me wishing it had something to make it more memorable.

1 | Disgusting | ...I've not subjected myself to this level

2 | Poor | Balcones Lineage

3 | Bad | High West Double Rye, Jefferson's Ocean 28

4 | Sub-par | Weller's SR, Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select

5 | Good | Buffalo Trace, Sazerac Rye, Green River Wheated

6 | Very Good | Blanton's, Holladay Bourbons, Eagle Rare

7 | Great | Baker's 7yr SiB, PiggyBack SiB, 1792 BiB

8 | Excellent | Most ECBP batches, JD SiB BiB, High West MWND Act 11

9 | Incredible | Barrel Bourbon Batch T8ke, BBC DS #7, Four Roses OESQ

10 | Perfect | Found North Batch 08