This is a bottled in bond, prohibition era medicinal rye whiskey, distilled prior to Sept. 8, 1917 by the Philadelphia Pure Rye Whiskey Distilling Company bottled by the Dougherty Company. And remember, it's "For Medicinal Purposes Only: Sale or use for other purposes will cause heavy penalties to be inflicted."
Did you land here looking for the value of Gibson's Ancient Special Reserve Rye? If your bottle looks something like the pic above, it might be worth a pretty penny.
I really love the nose on this. It's got leather and cologne and some wood. The palate is deep with that spicy sandalwood note that I associate with these old Pennsylvania ryes. It's also got some hops like notes that remind me of Charbay whiskeys as well as some cocoa. The finish in minty with wintergreen.
For as long as this stuff has been around, it's really retained a tremendous amount of flavor, and is my favorite of the Pennsylvania ryes I've been able to taste.
A nice toffee-bourbony nose, with a skunky-paint quality I keep finding in older bourbons. And I love that quality. Does it come from 50+ years of bottle aging? Or is it the way stuff really tasted back then? It's hard to know... anyhow, also a little cocoa and extinguished campfire. Tinge of pool water and cheap pork hot dog.
Hey that's a good palate! Kinda weird with a rather gripping finish... herbal/greenish tinges... altogether quite good and drinkable stuff. After openig up a lot (25 mins), that skunk-paint quality diminishes quite a bit. And I like that quality! If you buy a bottle of this, don't let it open up. (Dumb joke, sorry). I'm not sure that you're missing anything here, but I do like it a lot and if it were on shelves today, I'd seek it out.
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