Fred Minnick continued his review of the 2025 Buffalo Trace Antique Collection by adding George T. Stagg to his tasting list.

This 15 year old, 142 proof hazmat bourbon is the highest-proof Stagg from the Antique Collection so far. Minnick says in his review that the whiskey geeks are after high-proof expressions at the moment, and distilleries are giving them what they want. The latest George T. Stagg is a perfect example, and Fred came into the tasting expecting good things.

Minnick describes the Antique Collection, which first launched in 2002, as “one of the most defining limited edition series in all of whiskey. Not just American whiskey, but all of whiskey.”

Fred is immediately impressed upon nosing the Stagg for the first time: “Like walking into a bourbon barrel warehouse. Just absolutely fantastic.”

He cites deep notes of caramel, peach cobbler, brown sugar and molasses.

He then takes his first sip and says, “Whew. It’s a 142 proof, and you feel it. That is really penetrating my tongue.”

However, he said it does not taste like alcohol — none of the nine-volt battery vibe. Rather, it entrenches his tongue and palate, and digs deeper into the tongue because of the high proof. Hazmat in the best of ways, in other words. He calls it, “incredible.”

“It is intense. It’s 142 proof and you feel it all the way through,” he says.

He goes back in for a second tasting to further practice his mindfulness technique and to see what flavors arise in the Stagg profile. What he gets is a cadre of sweet and spice, with the sweetness concentrated on the tip of his tongue and also at the back.

Here are some of the notes Fred finds in the 2025 George T. Stagg: Dried apricot, brown sugar, molasses, peach, fried dough and powdered sugar, jalapeno and pepper spice. The finish is long, so he adds a drop of water. That brightens the sweeter notes, making the brown sugar more prominent on the nose.

“I believe that little bit of water actually improved George T. Stagg,” Minnick says. “It is indeed still holding up, and it’s even better.”

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