Perhaps it's decades of conditioning, but I prefer several of the Tennessee Sour Mashes to even the premium and small batch KY Bourbons. Excluding all of Jack Daniel's bottlings which seem to carry a "sweet" after taste, the Sour Mashes carry both yeasty aroma and flavor, while the small batch bourbons err on the edge of harshness (at least to my palate).

My grandfather was an Old Fitz man, and that the first Bourbon I ever learned to drink to appreciate. In my teen years, the choices were price-driven, Old Crow and Ancient (Un)Age, but palate and pocket book soon made me: "A Dickel man bred, a Dickel man born, and likely a Dickel man dead."