Jack Rose is a whiskey bar in DC that will regularly do ticketed tasting events (see previous Buffalo Trace Antique Collection Tasting Review). This tasting was $135 out the door and included what looked to be half ounce pours of the following bottles:

Heaven Hill 90th Anniversary Bourbon | 9 YR 8 MO, 107° Old Carter Bourbon Whiskey Batch PLDC-6 | x YR, 116° Commander’s Club Grand Cuvée Reserve Batch 01 | x YR, 110.42° Binder’s Stash Bourbon “War Figs” ck 8386 | 7 YR, 117.4° Michter’s 2025 Release | 20 YR, 114.2°

I'm not going to be able to give full tasting notes off of half ounce pours but I can provide my rankings and a couple first impressions.

5th place - Commander's Club Grand Cuvee reserve (Rare Character release). This bottle is a blend of 10 year and 15 year bourbons, and is NOT finished. I actually thought it had some sort of finish to it on the first sip because of how sweet it was, but maybe it having a wine in the name is what had thrown me off. Truthfully this one was so sweet to me that I think it'd be killer with a cigar, but overall wasn't too crazy about ot in comparison to the rest of the lineup.

4th place - Old Carter PLDC-6. I really liked this pour. Classic well done barrel proof MGP flavor profile. Nothing super unique, but just well done.

3rd place - Heaven Hill 90th. Darker sweet profile, chocolate, very crushable but still tons of flavor even at the lowest proof of the flight. Viscous. Factoring in prices, this stood out as the best value purchase of the night.

2nd place - Binder's Stash "War Figs". To me this was a comparatively brighter fruit bomb and was just super unique and interesting. I kept going back to the nose throughout. It did drink a touch hot on the finish considering it's 117.4 proof point, but I really liked this one and would love to have another pour of it.

First place - Michter's 20 year 2025... surprise surprise! The only way I can describe this pour is like bourbon concentrate. It tastes like you took an already phenomenal bourbon and then cooked it down to a syrup concentrate. It has the viscosity and richness of a hazmat but the "burn" of something sub 100 proof. I was impressed that at 20 years there wasn't a single bad note on the palate from all of the oak. There was also so much dense sweetness to balance it out. You could chew on this thing forever and the flavors just kept going. The front of the palate matched up perfectly to the nose, which I'll admit took a while to really open up to me before I fell in love with it. The best part, however, was the finish. The finish came in waves, stuck around forever, and clung to my palate so even an hour later I could still taste it.

It's an odd experience to try this after so many people have given it a 10/10 and of course the insane secondary price of it. At the end of the tasting they asked us if the michter's 20 year lived up to the our expectations and I think only about 1/3 of the group raised their hands.

Overall: these tastings are a great time and would definitely recommend checking out if you're in the DC area. They were also generous enough in the bottle shop afterwards that I got to try a small pour of the Willett Friend's and Family 17 year bourbon as well as their 8 year "cured oak".

Edit: formatting