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Old Grand Dad 114 Bourbon (National Distillers, 1981) Review

Old Grand Dad 114 Bourbon (National Distillers, 1981) Review

In 1980, the product development team at National Distillers was searching for a solution to their declining Old Grand Dad bourbon sales. The products they had (an 86 and 100 proof version) were already quite good, but because of the glut, they weren’t selling enough. They figured they could take two different routes – find ways to cut costs by proofing down their bourbon or create a more premium product. They ended up choosing the latter.

Old Grand Dad 114 is born

The idea for a more premium product started with the concept of bottling at a higher proof – 114 to be exact. This was outside the norm for bourbon producers at this time. There was a sort of unspoken agreement among distillers to not produce whiskey above 100 proof. Brown-Forman had once said they never bottled above that in an effort to prevent large amounts of public drunkenness. Plus, a higher percentage of alcohol might scare away potential consumers who viewed high-proofed liquor as too strong for their tastes. So care was taken on the label to try and persuade the consumer that the high-proofed product on the inside was “smooth” and “mellow.”

National Distillers also needed a new name to make the product stand out on the shelves while also signaling that it was a more premium whiskey. The first one they came up with was “Great Grand Dad Kentucky Bourbon.” The higher proof (114) was printed on the front label while the rear label declares it as being “straight from the barrel.” I chuckled that they also added a blurb about how a little bit of water was added in to rinse out the barrel. No producer would say that these days, but back in the 1980’s I suppose it was a way to reassure the consumer through truth in advertising.

For whatever reason, the product development team completely threw out the name and packaging the following year. A new squat bottle shape would take its place. The first releases in 1981 wore a neck label that included the words “Special Selection.” Later that year, the words were replaced with “Barrel Proof” under the number 114 The proof on the front label was also changed to block letters.

Old Grand Dad 114 typically came in an ornate box or tube. Some special (holiday?) versions even came with two rocks glasses. Advertisements of the day declared it “The Most Expensive Bourbon in the World.” The back label says that each bottle is so unique that it bears its own lot number. In the collector world, little is known about why the lot numbers were chosen except that they went from 1 to 18 and seemed to repeat as needed. Even in the final years (late 80s, early 90s), there were still Lot 1 and 18 being produced.

A quick note about the bourbon – it was distilled from a “high rye mash bill” recipe that used 63% corn, 27% rye and 10% malted barley. That recipe may have been slightly altered over the decades from its origin, but it was the one that National Distillers used last. The still proof may have been around 130 or so and the barrel entry proof was suspected as being 112 according to an excerpt from Aaron Goldfarb’s book “Dusty Booze,” even though a little birdie told me that Beam’s barrel entry proof for it now is around 115 proof. The barrels were advertised as being charred for 45 seconds which puts it somewhere between a Char Level #3 (35 seconds) and a Char Level #4 (55 seconds).

Credit: Dusty Booze by Aaron Goldfarb

The bourbon in OGD114 was likely a blend of barrels aged anywhere from 10 to 12 years – possibly longer. Early labels claimed it was bottled at “barrel proof” but I think there was some wiggle room with that labeling. The rear label on the first iteration (Great Grand Dad 114 I spoke about above) is proof that there was some amount of water added into the mix. Regardless, Beam would eventually remove the terminology entirely.

Jim Beam buys the Old Grand Dad brand and things begin to change

All of this leads us to the year 1987 when the Old Grand Dad brand – along with Old Crow, Old Overholt and Old Taylor – was purchased by Fortune Brands. I’ve also seen it was referred to as “American Brands.” Whichever name you prefer, Jim Beam fell under their umbrella of companies they were “doing business as.” National Distillers sold them those four brands, the Old Grand Dad Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky and large quantities of barrels.

Out of all those brands, it was only Old Grand Dad that was made to the same standards as before. The other three brands were filled with bourbon and rye whiskey seemingly from the reject bin at Clermont and left to rot away on the bottom shelves of liquor stores nationwide.

Many enthusiasts will disagree with the statement that OGD is made the same way as it was before the takeover. They will point to the flavor profile being different and the its quality decreasing. This article written by Chuck Cowdery seems to debunk that. He says that every time he had talked to Beam about it, they claimed to have kept it as close to the original recipe that they could and by using the same yeast.

An easy way to tell if you have a bottle of National Distillers or a bottle from Jim Beam

For a few years after 1987, it was generally believed that the bourbon inside of OGD114 was still made from those original barrels distilled by National Distillers. Beam even kept many of the National Distillers employees on the payroll to help keep brands like OGD true to form. However, 1991 is when the brand underwent another label change and the origin of the bourbon inside became more muddled.

Straightbourbon.com (which was the internet’s earliest source of bourbon information) had many posts from users who began to notice a difference in Old Grand Dad’s taste in the late 90s and early 2000s. This led to a few pieces of information on how best to identify an ND bottle from a Beam bottle by looking at the UPC bar code on the rear label. If the first five numbers start with 86259, you have a bottle made by National Distillers. If you have a UPC that starts with 80686, it was made by Beam. This is important to know because Beam continued to use the older gold leaf labels for export versions that look a lot like the National Distillers ones.

The bottle I am reviewing today is a Lot 7 bottled in 1981. It’s a tasty treat and I have my good friends Steve and Andrew to thank for this opportunity. I sampled this neat in a glencairn.

Tasting Notes

Nose: This could be one of the most butterscotch-forward bourbons I’ve ever drank. It’s simply everywhere every time I sniff. It’s followed by soft oak, mild varnish and light cigar wrapper scents. For fruit, I don’t find any sort of cherry or citrus (as are typical with most bourbons these days), but instead something close to buttery blueberry muffins. There is also loads of vanilla and a little bit of camphor.

Palate: The soft texture on the mouthfeel has me thinking that I’m drinking a wheated bourbon from Stitzel-Weller. I tried this blind once and was shocked when I learned it was actually a high-rye mash bill. If this liquid wasn’t so expensive, you could probably consume an entire bottle without thinking you drank something alcoholic at all. There are more butterscotch flavors for sweetness followed by antiqued oak and light varnish notes. Vanilla wafers pop up and so does a creamy sort of flavor. The fruit notes are absolute classics with that telltale blueberry note (impossible to find in bourbon) and blackberry note (the king of fruits to find in a bourbon). The fruits taste like they’ve been preserved in hard candy form, but are fantastic.

Finish: The vanilla notes on the nose and palate now turn into more of a whipping cream after taste. It pairs beautifully with the butterscotch note that never leaves. The fruit notes remain constant with the blueberry, blackberry and now a little bit of candied apricot. The oak and light cigar wrapper notes help to remind you of the age this bottle is probably packing. There’s not much else out there that can rival this. In some ways, it tastes like a dusty Blanton’s despite the 20+ proof point difference.

Score: 9.4/10

It’s hard to improve on the perfection that OGD114 has. What’s odd is that for its time, this was about as high of a proof that you can get – yet it never tastes a point over 100. The refinement of the liquid seems like it’s a different kind of spirit entirely. You just can’t find this much richness and flavor in a bottle that drinks so low in proof.

If you read my tasting notes, then you’ll see my remarks on how this has the characteristics of a dusty (1980s) Blanton’s. The blackberry notes, the softness of the liquid and even the bottle’s ability to lose volume over the years (even though the cork hasn’t been removed!) are strikingly similar. I’m not telling you that they are equals, just that if you’ve never had a chance to sample dusty OGD114 and are worried you might not like it, find a pour of an mid-to-late-80’s Blanton’s and see if you like that profile first.

Final Thoughts

As bourbon enthusiasts grow and experience their first dusty whiskies, many will settle on one or two and declare it to be their favorite. More often than not, it’s with Wild Turkey. But for me, I’ve always been a fan of the National Distillers products – particularly Old Grand Dad. The Bonded versions have the high-rye, fruity flavors I love while 114 serves up the biggest butterscotch bomb of all time. It’s hard to believe they come from the same source, but that just means there’s more to love.

If there’s any way you can find a way to have a pour of your own, I hope you take it. There is so much to love inside of these OGD114 bottles and when you have your first taste, it’s hard to ever look at modern-day whiskies the same.

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Jason Gerace

Thursday 16th of January 2025

What a great write up. Thanks, as always.

BJ MARCHESE

Tuesday 14th of January 2025

I AM 75 AND I REMEMBER MY DAD ALWAYS HAD OLD GRAND IN OUR HOME

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