Weller Antique 107 – (Review)

Info Shots

• Price: ~$28.99 (2023)
• Spirit: Whiskey
• Proof: 107 (53.5% alcohol)
• Noses (smell): Strawberry Jam (it’s weird and I know, was the only one), Brown sugar and Oak, Smells sweet with wood fragrance. Think a Creme Brulé burnt sugar smell.
• Palate (taste): Fruity forward with oak after taste. Mild harshness
• Age Statement: No Age defined.

Distiller information

Background

Weller Antique 107 is by without a doubt one of those bourbons that you well and truly know if your in the world of bourbons and whiskey. You either heard it in passing, comparisons against other bourbons or usually the preverbal “Got any Weller” at the store. But if you haven’t heard of this brand or bourbon let give some context for start as the rest of the review won’t make sense without it, especially the conclusion.

Weller is a brand that falls under the umbrella of Buffalo Trace, a company that has major stakes and products within the Spirits world. They are in turn part of a corporation known as the Sazerac Corporation who owns a lot of brands that you may be familiar with. When I mean a lot of brands, I mean a stupid amount of products that surpasses the numbers of 200’s. I’m not going to list them all, but I will list a few with a link to the rest if your interested.

• Sazerac Products:
  • Buffalo Trace
  • 1792 Bourbon
  • EH Taylor
  • Stagg
  • Pappy Van Winkles
  • Sazerac Rye
  • Blantons
  • Wellers
  • Fireball Whiskey
  • Caribou Crossing
  • Rockhill farms
  • Benchmark
  • OFC
  • Eagle Rare
  • 99 Proof
  • Goldschlager
  • Margaritaville Tequila
  • Old Charter Whiskey
  • Parrot Bay Rum
  • Rain Vodka
  • Platinum Vodka
  • Stirrings Cocktail Mixes
  • Bowman Brothers
• https://www.sazerac.com/our-brands/sazerac-brands.html

With that in mind I believe your going to see a pattern about those that are highlighted in red. This is the brand that distributes the largest number of highly allocated whiskies known throughout the industry, the communities, and public masses. They operate nearly to the same level as MGP Ingredients Corporation that both produces and distributed product for those various brands and labels it shadows. As far as operations goes for either of the corporations go for the public is anyone’s guess as that honestly a trade secret for either corporation that will never see the light of day.

For Weller Antique 107, just know that it is a Buffalo Trace product that is produced by this distillery and distributed by both Buffalo Trace and Sazerac Corporation. It is a wheated bourbon that could be compared to something like offerings such a Makers Marks. It is described as having the following flavors from the product page:

Sweet and unusual floral notes and coupled with vanilla. The taste is very well balanced with sweet fruit notes, strong vanilla undertone and sharp spicy tones, with a cinnamon finish.

https://www.buffalotracedistillery.com/our-brands/w-l-weller/w-l-weller-antique.html

This is further described by their own words as the following:

A wheated bourbon with a full-bodied flavor and a balanced palate. Old Weller Antique is bottled at 107 proof, offering a complex taste and bold finish. It’s certainly a recognizable member of the Weller label, with its own unique characteristics to compliment the high proof.

https://www.buffalotracedistillery.com/our-brands/w-l-weller/w-l-weller-antique.html

With all out of the way, we now must move onto the review

Temperature

This bourbon is a very nice. Its oaky and fruity. Beyond this there not much else, it’s not complex, but this is very long in both departments. During my initial smell it reminded me of a homemade strawberry jam my aunt used to make when I was growing up, and oddly enough I swore that same strawberry flavor was present during this sitting. You get the wheated characteristics that are like that of Makers Mark, but they are cleaner/more refined.

For the category of $20 – $30, it is a one of the best, if not the best bourbon, that we have at this price point currently. That is what this bourbon is. Not complicated, well rounded flavors and good for the everyday person to enjoy. The problem is when we get to the conclusion.

Conclusion

There is a reason this is hunted, but for both the right and wrong reasons. For the right, it’s a very nice and an easy drinker if you can find it for the MSRP (at the time $30 dollars). The wrong is when we include the secondary market where these hits well over 100 dollars and honestly this bourbon shouldn’t be allowed to get there.

The issue with this is that its allocated and priced at a category that is in leagues of Makers Mark, Wild Turkey 101, 1792 Small Batch or even Elijah Craigs. It’s the likely hood of you finding this bottle at MSRP that makes this an issue. All of this is due to it being highly allocated as you’re not going to find the availability when compared to the previous listed above. I hear all the time people only going into stores looking for just Weller, Blantons, <insert any buffalo trace product>. I myself have seen a few bottles in the wild and usually they are way over sticker price where some were over $200. This bourbon is not a $200 bourbon and you should not be paying anything close to it for that. There are far better options at that point, that you might as well go light your money on fire and watch it burn for that price

Now let me get back on track. This is still a very good bottle when we consider it closer to the MSRP, and for the value it really hard to go wrong with one of these and should be in everybody’s bourbon collection at least once in your life. However, I don’t think this bottle deserves the hype or hunt when resold for over this MSRP. When we review this at a price that reflects the secondary market or higher than the MSRP of $30 dollars, we see this having to compete with bourbons in either of those price ranges. Especially when we approach the $100 dollar amount there are far better bourbons with more characteristics and complexity than that of Weller Antique 107.

When we compare this with the MSRP category it hands down beats out everything in that category. However, when we compare it to the secondary market category, the story flips like a coin. This bottle is a double edge sword for us to review, as this falls within different categories for whoever buys it. We recommend it if it’s close to the MSRP we found our bottle at, but if you choose to buy this at secondary market price, we highly recommend looking at anything else in the $50 – 150 ranges. For us there are much better options that are available any day of the week when we compare secondary but will gladly buy a case if given the chance at MSRP.