van winkle bourbon

[scotnt73]

My wife and i have decided to set up a small home bar area so we can have a drink in the evening once or twice a week. she likes wine and we are going to spend a bit letting her try several "expensive" bottles of wine.

im a bourbon drinker. i like makers mark but i havent tried any of the more expensive bourbons. ive been doing some research and allot of people say that the van winkle line of bourbons are up at the top of the premium list. my question for the high end bourbon drinkers is this:
1)ive read that the 12 year van winkle is better than the 15 year though not as good as the 20 year. theres a rarer 23 year one as well. being that im a novice bourbon drinker would a 23 year old bourbon be wasted on me? should i try the 12 year first-ie do i need to develope a pallet?

luckily expensive bourbon isnt really that expensive comparative to wine and such so a 300$ bottle of bourbon that that will last me 2-3 months is close to top of the line which isnt bad at all. i just dont want to spend 300$ if i wont be able to tell the difference from the 12 year 35$ bottle.