W.B. Saffell, Where Have You Been?

In all fairness, I started writing this one a day or so before my strokes and never got around to finishing it.

So the other day, my brother hit me up and wanted to try to find a bottle of Buffalo Trace for his collection. Fortunately for him, I knew of a place that had several currently sitting on the shelf.

So when I got off work, I picked him up and we headed to my favorite store, Woodruff Liquors.

When we got there, my brother quickly scoped out the Buffalo Trace and grabbed a bottle. When I was looking through the other bourbon offerings, I noticed a bottle of Bond and Lillard. I keep seeing it everywhere, but haven't made the decision to buy it yet.

I picked up the bottle and noticed that the juice looked super thin and din't think it would be for me.

I started talking to the owner about it and he told me that he had something better for me in the back. When he came back, he handed me this bottle of W.B. Saffell. He went on to tell me that it was an older version of the Bond and Lillard and was a much better pour.

Upon first inspection, I thought the bottle looked really cool and I needed it for my collection. Even if I never opened it, which was likely since I prefer to have a collection to a selection. I'll be honest, I was a little apprehensive to spend sixty dollars on a 375ml bottle.

I had never heard of this bottle. I just knew that I had to have it and I would need to do some research on it.

I decided to grab the W. B. Saffell and also picked up a Redwood Empire Pipe Dream Cask Strength while I was at it.

Upon returning home, I began researching the Saffell. When I did, I saw nothing but praise for the juice inside. One person even compared it to "nectar of the gods". After reading all of this praise, I decided to crack it open and see for myself what all the hype was about, and I'm glad that I did.

As I began researching this bottle, I discovered that Eddie Russell was directly involved in its production, which aids to its similarity to Wild Turkey except with more layers, in my humble opinion.

On the nose, it smelled how I imagine the fields of Elysium would smell, with notes of caramel, honey, graham cracker and of course toasted oak.

As for the taste, Vanilla, slightly oaky, cinnamon and nutmeg with a dry spice cream soda finish.

I have discovered that the 2023 batch varies significantly from the 2018-2019 batch, as those had more darker notes. 

This is still a great bottle and worth every penny.