Most of the Jefferson’s non Presidential Select Bourbons have been pretty good. I’ve been impressed with them but admit that Four Roses Small Batch and Evan Williams Single Barrel are much better and cheaper. The JPS 17, 18 and 25 were all 3 pretty solid but boy are they expensive. I grabbed Ocean because I’ve heard about it, not because I’ve heard good things. Supposedly they hyper age this Bourbon for 3 years @ sea which is supposed to mature bourbon faster. If it was worth the effort, everyone would be doing it so given that Jefferson and Brewdog are the only ones doing @ sea anything, I was skeptical.
I paid $79 and after 3 days, the bottle is almost empty. Not because it’s good. The good stuff sits around a while as I savor it but this is basically on par with a $40 bourbon, maybe $30. It has a bit olive brine / salt, a lot of caramel, some table sugar and a lot of tobacco up front. It’s not winning any awards on flavor and the price is pretty outrageous. I’ll finish it but won’t be picking up another any time soon. i can get 4 bottles of EW Single Barrel for this price.
Just a head’s up info wise for you. Only the first release of this bourbon was aged for 3 years at sea. The following releases, including the one you sampled, used already matured bourbon (roughly 7 years old) which was then put on the ship for 6-8 months for finishing. And I agree, definitely not worth the price.
Thanks John and that unfortunately, means that the value (MSRP) is even less so. all I knew about Voyage 1 was that it was a very small release. What a bummer but thank you for sending the info.
No problem, thanks for the blog. I enjoy reading your info/reviews and seeing your crazy beer/bourbon hauls.