Revisiting: Jefferson’s Presidential Select 20 Year

JEFFERSON’S PRESIDENTIAL SELECT 20 YEAR
Batch 1, Bottle 0986, UK release (2016)

MASH BILL – Unknown

PROOF – 94

AGE – 20 years

DISTILLERY – Bottled for McLain & Kyne (sourced from an unnamed distillery)

PRICE – $242 (includes shipping from the UK)

WORTH BUYING? – All things considered, very much yes.

Uncorked and tasted in The Year of No Buying (The what? 🔗 here.)

I bought this bottle back in 2020, immediately after opening and tasting another bottle of the same release. It was that good!

The first bottle had been an early pandemic splurge, a very indulgent “self-care” purchase imported from the UK. For an excellent Kentucky bourbon aged 20 years, exported and then re-imported, the price wasn’t at all bad. Certainly not cheap, no matter how I might spin it to make myself feel better. But good, all things Bourbon Boom considered. So as I sipped that first glass of that first bottle, I clicked away online and ordered up this second bottle before the whole lot could sell out—which it did within the week!

Three years later, I finally opened the second bottle. An old friend was visiting from out of town. She and I met in 1996, the year this bourbon was distilled. I figured that made it a worthy toast for our 27-year friendship. It was bottled in 2016, so after first reminiscing about what we were up to in 1996, we then recounted 2016 (an eventful year!), and finally what we’d been up to so far in 2023. Bourbon as time travel machine. And a great way to catch up with an old friend.

I will admit that as I uncorked it, I worried quietly to myself about whether it might not be as impressive as I remembered. Tastes change. And those early pandemic days, when I’d uncorked the first bottle, had thrown all my senses up in the air. So many “normal” things in life seemed suddenly strange. Appreciations and perceptions shifted rapidly in response to an uncertain world. Might all this have influenced for the better my experience of this obscure and costly bottle on that late, dimly lit, stay-at-home night?

Nope. I loved it again. My friend’s summation of it was a slow, gravelly Ooooooh. Eloquently and succinctly put, I thought. But of course we were drinking, not formally tasting. Also we were traveling down memory lane. Despite the dreaded 2016 being a rough stop on that stroll, it was an enjoyable evening with a good friend and this always makes a bourbon taste better.

So here we are for a proper formal revisiting, two weeks after uncorking and five pours into the bottle. These brief notes were taken using both a simple brandy glass and traditional Glencairn.

COLOR – dark burnt oranges, like a late sunset or a fire on the horizon at night

NOSE – layers of rich sweet oak, cherries both baked and fresh, apricot preserves in a fruit crumble, dark caramel in a fresh baked cinnamon roll

TASTE – makes good on the promise of the nose, adding oily orange zest, soft oak tannin, light rye spice, and a mild prickly warmth, all with a simultaneously syrupy and gritty texture

FINISH – warm, syrupy, with residual grit from the oak and rye spiciness, the sweet notes fading first and leaving the drier oak and herbal notes to linger longer

OVERALL – Damn…

This is the real deal. Almost the cliche of what one might expect a great old-timey bourbon to taste like. It has the oak, the fruit, the candy, and warmth, the roughness, and the decadence.

If you told me this was an Elijah Craig 23 Year Single Barrel, I’d believe you. There is a similar balance of oak and fruit at work, although my memory of the latest EC23 I enjoyed is that its fruit notes leaned much more into the orange zest aspect than this Jefferson’s does. It could be both are Heaven Hill. I can’t know. But I still have some of that Elijah Craig 23 left and a side by side is certainly in order.

In any event. Today this rich old bourbon is even better than I remembered it from that first bottle back in 2020. With older bourbons, there’s that risk of the oak obliterating the other flavors. But when they manage to come out balanced, there’s just nothing else like them. They feel rustic and regal at once. Royalty that make the forest their home.

In the off chance you happen upon a bottle of this 2016 UK release, as long as the price is still three digits and you have the means, do it. I am going to savor this bottle, no doubt whatsoever.

Having cracked this in honor of an old friend, that shall define its use for me. I will bring it out whenever old friends come by, to celebrate that indescribable understanding that only time grants us. What better way to toast such friendships than with a bourbon that has put in its time as well, and lasted!

Cheers!

That Elijah Craig 23
side-by-side I mentioned…?

I’ve been housesitting, and so my supplies are often on different sides of town. I brought a sample of this Jefferson’s 20 with me to where the Elijah Craig 23 currently resides, to compare them.

Woah. Very similar. The colors are virtually identical, with the Elijah Craig tinting just a hair darker. Then on the nose, they share the exact same sweet and rustic oak notes. The dry, herbaceous rye notes are also the same, as are the subtler fruit notes behind them—now coming across as dried cherries and strawberries. With time and gentle pulling, in a reverse of the colors, the Jefferson’s nose veers a touch darker and the Elijah Craig brighter. This is only by close comparison, and with patient scrutiny.

For tasting them, I sipped the 90-proof Elijah Craig 23 first. Very like the nose in every respect, with a thin syrupy texture and an overall brightness and slightly sweeter impact than its nose. Then from the 94-proof Jefferson’s 20 I got an even thicker and sweeter arrival, which carried through across the palate and into the finish. The Jefferson’s is very like the Elijah Craig overall, only slightly richer in texture and more pronounced in taste. The differences here on the taste are more easily noted than on the nose or color.

Well now. If this Jefferson’s Presidential Select is not from Heaven Hill I’d be shocked. Bottled in 2016, it was distilled in 1996. The Elijah Craig was bottled in 2018, making it distilled in 1995. So if they were each indeed born on Heaven Hill, they are very close siblings.

I love them both. But if I had to choose—which I don’t—I’d go with the Jefferson’s for its thicker texture and one-notch-richer flavor punch. And even though it was exported and then re-imported, it was cheaper by $30! Wha-?!

This has been a fascinating journey for sure. Cheers—to good old friends, and good old bourbons!