Table Of Contents
The Details
| Rating | 90 |
| Style |
Bourbon American Whiskey Whiskey |
| Produced In |
Kentucky United States |
| ABV | 46.5% |
| Availability | Limited |
| Price | $65.00 |
| Reviewed By | |
| Reviewed | 2025-02-06 |
Old Forester The 117 Series: Extra Old Review
Since 2021, Old Forester’s The 117 Series has churned out special bottlings to both honor the distillery’s past while pushing the envelope on innovation. Generally released about three times per year, the 375-milliliter bottlings are (mostly) distillery-only affairs. Past editions have included experimentations with secondary cask aging (rum and Scotch come to mind) as well as extended aging, specific warehouse environments, and barrels picked for their high evaporation loss (a.k.a the angel’s share).
The latest 117 Series release is actually a repeat: Extra Old, which we saw most recently in February 2022.
The whiskey begins just like Old Forester’s “regular” 1910 Old Fine Whiskey, a bourbon that undergoes secondary cask maturation in lightly toasted, heavily charred oak barrels. That whiskey is supposedly inspired by a real distillery fire way back in 1910. According to the brand, some aged whiskey ready for bottling was transferred to a second, new oak barrel so it could be easily moved away from fire damage. Over 100 years later, Old Forester 1910 pays homage to that supposed original, accidental double barreling.
If the “double oaked” nature of the expression sounds familiar, it’s reminiscent of sister brand Woodford’s Double Oaked and Double Double Oaked expressions. (To be clear, the barrel types used for the secondary aging are quite different between the brands.)
While we don’t know the exact length of time Old Forester 1910 spends in the second barrel, the Extra Old has a secondary maturation of 18 months, according to the company. In late 2022, Old Forester also released Extra Extra Old, which spent 24 months in the second barrel.
The jury is out on when or if we’ll see Extra Extra Old again, but one “extra” will have to do for today. The bourbon is distilled from Old Forester’s standard mash of 72 percent corn, 18 percent rye, and 10 percent barley.
Let’s see how it tastes.
Old Forester The 117 Series: Extra Old: Stats and Availability
The 117 Series has recently seen a price increase from about $60 to $65 for a 375-milliliter bottle. Limited quantities of this expression are available at Old Forester Distillery in downtown Louisville, and some will be available for shipping to Kentucky, New Hampshire, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Washington, D.C. Additionally, a number of “select” Kentucky retailers will also be carrying the bottle. A word to the wise: These normally go quickly.
Old Forester The 117 Series: Extra Old Review
As with all of VinePair’s whiskey reviews, this was tasted in a Glencairn glass and rested for at least five minutes.
Nose
The nose kicks off with a medley of rich, dark, cooked fruit: bananas foster, poached pears, sour apple, and — most pronounced of all — chocolate covered cordial cherries. That banana stays fairly consistent throughout, but it never crowds out the other fruity notes. In that way, it reminds me of the (quite good!) 117 Series Bottled-in-Bond release from late 2023.
Finely dusted cinnamon wafts in shortly after, along with sourdough toast for a bready element to pair with the sweet fruit. Grape must is a surprising and latent note among the early aromas, contributing a little funky tartness to an already complex lineup.
Oak is heavily present, and it’s impossible to deny the impact of barrel char here; I keep peeking down at my glass hoping to spot a fleck or two floating in the whiskey. Alas, visible chunks have been filtered out, at least from my sample. What’s left is a strong, robustly charred scent of oak, more campfire ember than classic wood sugar, evoking molasses or brown sugar burnt ends. There’s classic Old Forester here, with cooked, caramelized, and semi-burnt notes dialed up.
Taste
The 117 Series: Extra Old clocks in at a relatively modest 93 proof, but the mouth feel is far thicker than most bourbons under 100. That viscosity helps conjure up early flavors like brown butter and very dark toast topped with cinnamon sugar. They’re definitely there to begin with, only bolstered by a whiskey that takes its time gliding across the tongue.
A little beyond the buttery components comes lots of fruit: rustic cinnamon-spiced apple sauce, and chocolate covered dried blueberries. Cured tobacco and cherry liqueur make an appearance, though perhaps less forcefully than the nose implied.
The midpalate is altogether a little more sour than expected, but not lip-puckeringly so. The entire experience is reminiscent of fruit preserves on extra-dark toast, where tart fruit meets charred bread at an even juncture.
Finish
While The 117 Series: Extra Old boasts a composed finish, the final act is only somewhere between short and medium in length. Sweet jam, dark caramel, cooked banana, and toasted oak crescendo before quickly losing a bit of oomph compared to a captivating palate. It’s also the only part of the experience that had me yearning for more proof to (in theory) help those flavors linger with more impact.
That said, berry jam and apple butter hang on for long enough to invite another sip, and there’s nothing that falls particularly out of balance here.
Old Forester The 117 Series: Extra Old Rating
90/100
Recap
Old Forester’s latest Extra Old release accomplishes the brand’s stated goal. Namely, it’s a deeper, richer, woodier version of the 1910 expression, with a pronounced influence of barrel char — but not going so far as to become an oaky soup. It’s surprisingly fruity and complex without getting bogged down in wood tannins, perhaps a testament to careful curation of secondary casks. This release is likely extra appealing to fans of the brand, especially since it makes an ideal addition to a sampling lineup across Old Forester bourbons.
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