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For last year’s advent, 4 out of 20 bottles that were entered were “dusties.” I’ve previously mentioned that a dusty would be defined as any whiskey (or liquor for that matter, I guess) that was produced in the 1990s or earlier. These are a treat and are almost always given a much higher score than a more contemporary bottle.
Just to quantify what I said a little more clearly, I’m going to lay out previous Advent years, which dusty bottles were entered and what they ranked when the whole thing was done. Trust me, I’m going somewhere with this:
2020
- A Wild Turkey 8/101 from 1992 placed 2nd out of 24 bottles
- A Beam Bottled-in-Bond bottle (1961 to 1970) placed 19th out of 24 bottles
- An Echo Springs from 1958 (4yr, 84 Proof) bottle placed 21st out of 24 bottles
2021
- There weren’t any “true dusties” entered, but the closest one came to it would be a Jefferson’s Presidential Select 18yr Bourbon (Batch 7) from around 2011 which took first place out of 17 bottles entered. That bottle contained some of the last stocks of wheated bourbon made by Stitzel Weller.
2022
- a Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit (Pewter Top) from 1997 took first place out of 16 bottles
- A Maker’s Mark Black Label from 1992 took third place out of 16 bottles
2023
- While not technically a “dusty,” a 2006 Wild Turkey Master Distiller Selection (14 Year) bottle took 2nd place out of 14 bottles. I mention this only because it contained bourbon made during a period of time where Wild Turkey was still using the 107 barrel entry proof, distilled it on the old Wild Turkey still and might have possibly had some of the distillate fermented in the last cypress wood fermenting tanks.
- An Old Grand Dad Bottled-in-Bond bottle from 1960-65 took 4th place out of 14 bottles
2024
- A Cabin Still (Stitzel Weller) Decanter from 1972 (90 proof, Duck’s Unlimited Edition) won first place out of 20 bottles
- A Wild Turkey Kentucky Legend (Donut, 119.4 Proof) placed 3rd out of 20 bottles
- An Old Forester Personalized Bottle from the 1960s placed 6th out of 20 bottles
- An Old Forester Bonded Bourbon from 1988 placed 10th out of 20 bottles
The reason I bring these stats up is because I think that the guys were expecting a lot more dusties to be revealed at this point. After all, it’s been proven that if you want the best chance at winning the Advent (and the coveted decanter prize), you should enter a dusty bottle.
Today’s bottle seemed likely that it would be another dusty based on the group’s guesses. Here they were:
10 out of 15 participants guessed today’s bottle was a dusty. The most common guess was from National Distillers, but the exact brand was disputed (a guess for each of the main ND distilleries – Old Crow, Old Taylor or Old Grand-Dad). The second-most guessed dusty was a tie between Old Forester and Wild Turkey with Stitzel Weller getting one vote.
Not that the tasting notes list provided much more clarification, but here it is anyway:
Whatever bottle it ends up being, it had a large amount of us saying that its main profile notes were butterscotch, vanilla, oak and chocolate. Other notes included spices/baking spices, cherries, caramel and a bitter/drying sensation. Backup singers for this bottle included Funky notes, honey notes, cinnamon notes and fruit notes.
Anything coming to mind? In retrospect, seeing the butterscotch and chocolate notes standing out, it makes sense that this was a wheated bourbon. Wait, did somebody enter another decanter?
December 16th Reveal
Yes they did. It was Mark with a Bottled-in-Bond decanter full of Stitzel Weller
Shockingly, for a bottle that’s 10 proof points higher than the Stitzel-Weller bottle that Tim entered last year, this one didn’t move to the top spot of our rankings. In fact, at the time it was revealed, it was only ranked 5th out of 12 bottles. This has been a hard Advent Calendar for all the bottles that would have normally done well in previous years. And we’ve still got 4 more reveals to go!
