George T. Stagg, or GTS for short, is a yearly release by Buffalo Trace and part of the BTAC set that comes out each year.  It is a barrel proof bourbon aged around 15 years. Because it’s barrel proof, each year can deliver varying proofs.

Below is a helpful list of all the GTS releases by year with their corresponding proof. Using the proof is an easy way to identify which year of GTS you’re looking at. Alternatively, you can look on the bottom of the back of the bottle for a laser code for recent releases to locate the first two numbers after the letter to verify the year as well.

Retail for GTS is around $119 but typically you find them on the shelf at much higher price points. These bottles can fetch over $500 on the secondary market and even higher for the older or more coveted releases such as some of the hazmat years (140+ proof).

A lot of veteran bourbon hunters were not pleased with the 2019 release. It was the lowest proof (116.9) in the history of GTS and just wasn’t what enthusiasts have come to know from the GTS of past years.  I tend to fall into that line of thinking myself with the 2017 release being my favorite from the past few years. But I also haven’t had the privilege of tasting some of the older ones.