Booker's Little Book, Chapter 1, Straight Blended Whiskey

There's a rumor that July Fourth happened two weeks ago. Just in case that's true, I should probably continue with American whiskies this week as a late celebration.

My local friend, A.S., gave me a sample of the first Booker's Little Book more than a year ago. I did not realize at the time that this wasn't just another Booker's bourbon. In fact it's a blended whiskey, like Kessler, but (allegedly) better. Per Mr. Minnick, the whiskey is a mix of 4 year old bourbon, 13 year old corn, 5 year old 100% malt and 5 year old rye.

"Little Book" was Booker Noe's grandson's nickname, even though Little Book's actual name is Fred, like his father, and he's grownup, meanwhile they're treating the word "book" like a thing with pages so each chapter is a batch. If you follow. This whiskey is of Freddie's design, his first.

Owner: Beam Suntory
Brand: Booker's
Type: Straight Blended Whiskey
Distillery: Jim Beam Distillery
Location: Clermont, Kentucky
Blend: 4 year old bourbon, 13 year old corn, 5 year old 100% malt and 5 year old rye
Batch: "The Easy"
Alcohol by volume: 64.1% ABV

(thank you to A.S. for the sample!)

NOTES

At first sniff, it noses like a first-fill bourbon barrel Speyside single malt, then it shifts paths towards something closer to America. There's barrel char, cherry lollipops, gummi bears, paint VOCs and halvah. It sounds like a mess but it works. After 30 minutes it's picked up grilled corn, multigrain pancakes, vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce notes.

The palate is neither as hot or peanutty as I'd expected. The heat reads more like chiles than ethyl. It's very salty and floral. Notes say, "A mix of young corny bourbon and oversteeped sencha." Okay then. It improves after 30 minutes, gaining fresh ginger, lemons, honey, oranges and umami notes.

It finishes salty/brothy. More of that oversteeped sencha. It also has honey, oranges and barrel char. It gets woodier with time.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Little Book batch 1 is better than most of the Booker's bourbon batches I've tried. It also doesn't cook the esophagus like Booker's bourbons do. I wouldn't call it the most coordinated or balanced whiskey but it's fun and (another terrible adjective warning) interesting. I would drink this again, though maybe not on these 95ºF days, and try to parse out how its elements work together or against each other. Though this release had a suggested retail price of $60, the Little Books now go for $125 in Ohio, so I will avoid hunting down a bottle.

Availability - Mostly sold out
Pricing - probably $100 and higher

Rating - 83

Bourbon and Rye Day Friday: Baker's 7 year old versus those two batches of Booker's at 107 proof

I've always liked Baker's better than Booker's bourbon. Named after Jim Beam's grandnephew, Baker's has always been bottled at 107 proof and at 7 years of age. I do hope those two factors remain in future Baker's bottlings, but who knows. In addition to the recent Booker's announcement, Beam removed the 9yo age statement from Knob's Creek this year, took away the 8yo statement on Jim Black a year before, and OGD 114 may be disappearing next year. So what awaits Baker's?

Well, it awaits a Taste Off here. I took Booker's batches C05-A-12 and 2015-06, proofed them down to 53.5% and let them sit for a day. Then I lined them up next to Baker's batch B90-001 (a batch number that hasn't changed for several years) to see what worked best at that ABV.

For stats on Booker's batches C05-A-12 and 2015-06, see their reviews.

Baker's 7 year old 107 proof, batch B90-001
Owner: Beam Suntory
Brand: Booker's
Type: Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Distillery: Jim Beam Distillery
Location: Clermont, Kentucky
Mash Bill: 77% corn, 13% rye, 10% malted barley (probably)
Age: 7 years
Batch: B90-001
Alcohol by volume: 53.5% ABV

Nose
Baker's @ 53.5%abv - Brown sugar, caramel and limes. Hints of roses and cucumber skin. Play-Doh. More toffee pudding with time.
Booker's C05-A-12 @ 53.5%abv - Flowers, paint, oregano, sawdust and a little bit of hazelnut.
Booker's 2015-06 @ 53.5%abv - Orange oil, pine needles and sap, floral soap. Hints of vanilla and simple syrup.
Winner: Baker's, just slightly over 2015-06

Palate
Baker's @ 53.5%abv - NOT HOT. More savory than sweet. Smaller notes of wood smoke and toffee. Larger notes of mint, dark cherries and ginger.
Booker's C05-A-12 @ 53.5%abv - Bitter, floral, salty and nutty. Black pepper and root beer. Grows nuttier with every sip.
Booker's 2015-06 @ 53.5%abv - Less bitter than C05. Salty. Lots of toasted (grain and oak) notes. Wood spice.
Winner: Baker's

Finish
Baker's @ 53.5%abv - Mild. Tangy and salty. Subtle maple and corn sweetness. Black pepper.
Booker's C05-A-12 @ 53.5%abv - Bitter. Hot. Dry as hell. Fouls up the palate.
Booker's 2015-06 @ 53.5%abv - Not bitter. Warm. Ginger.
Winner: Baker's, just slightly over 2015-06

With 5 additional drops of water
Baker's - The nose is slightly more floral, nutty, narrower. The palate gets a spicy rye edge to it, along with vanilla frosting. Holds onto the savory note. The finish is similar to the palate.
Booker's C05-A-12 - The nose gets more desserty (sugar and corn syrup) with a side of barrel char, then out of nowhere it's all peanuts. The palate gets very sweet. Otherwise it's bitter, nutty, and full of floral soap. It finishes nutty, peppery, perfumy and bitter.
Booker's 2015-06 - The nose is very corny, like polenta. Then vanilla, Play-Doh and molasses. The palate is mild, with small notes of vanilla, caramel, ginger beer, and sawdust. Nuts and sawdust in the finish.
Winner: Baker's, again 2015-06 isn't too far behind.

MORE WORDS
That Baker's was the overall winner didn't come as a surprise to me, but there were two revelations. Firstly, Booker's 2015-06 wasn't that far off in my esteem when proofed down, and if I were to consider how it registers at full proof, it's probably about even with Baker's. Secondly, I wasn't terribly thrilled by any of these three whiskies. I thought I'd be doing a whole writeup about how awesome Baker's is, but......it's perfectly fine bourbon, nothing more. Though it does tend to be cheaper than Booker's in bars, I'm in no hurry to buy another bottle of Baker's any time soon.

Booker's batch C05-A-12 is flat out fugly when proofed down. I think that kind of broke my spirit. My palate is still messed up from it, 7 hours later. Don't be surprised if this is the final BARD Friday of 2016. BARD Friday will start up again in January. In the meantime, there are a couple of other spirits I have in mind for the last two Fridays of this year.

(Note: the two Booker's ratings will not change)

Baker's 7 year old, batch B09-001
Availability - All US specialty retailers, as well as many non-specialty retailers (depending on your state)
Pricing - $40-$60
Rating - 83

Booker's, the billionaire's bourbon, batch 2015-06 Noe Secret

In 2015, Beam Suntory announced they were starting a line of men's lingerie, called Booker's Secret. Like Versailles (in Kentucky) is pronounced the way it's spelled, this lingerie is also pronounced the way it's spelled, correctly. Likely this underwear didn't originally have anything to do with the bourbon brand, because you don't want your bathing suit area anywhere near barrel proof bourbon. Take a fella's word for it. Perhaps it was another one of the late Booker Noe's entrepreneurial brainstorms. In any case, the lingerie brand failed because Beam priced its products too low, ultimately leading to their wildly successful 2016 decision to double the price of Booker's bourbon. The lingerie line's demise was commemorated in the naming of this particular bourbon batch, No(e) Secret.

Owner: Beam Suntory
Brand: Booker's
Type: Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Distillery: Jim Beam Distillery
Location: Clermont, Kentucky
Mash Bill: 77% corn, 13% rye, 10% malted barley (probably)
Age: 6 years, 8 months, 7 days (seriously)
Batch: 2015-06 Noe Secret, the sixth release in 2015
Alcohol by volume: 64.05% ABV

NEAT
The nose starts off with a solid combo of honey, cinnamon and lime juice. Then pears, anise and barrel char. With about 20 minutes of air, it develops vanilla and carob notes. The palate leads with a serious quantity of The Beam Peanut Note®. Loads of sugar, but much of it has a peachy fruitiness. Ethyl, cinnamon red hots candies and cherry hard candies. Brown sugar and a mild bitterness. It finishes with ethyl heat and wood spice. Burnt peanuts, black pepper and tangy citrus. Never gets too sweet.

WITH WATER (~53.5%abv, Baker's level)
The nose becomes more floral and picks up a hint of maple syrup. Anise, caramel and a slight malty note. With time, sawdust takes over. The palate is bitterer, though it's not a deal breaker this time because it reads more herbal than it usually does. There's a mild sweetness, ginger, mint and chili oil. It finishes with wood, heat and more sweets (cherry candy), but none overwhelms the others.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
At least this babe can swim, unlike the batch from yesterday's review. The nose remains the best part, neat or proofed down, again. The palate is serviceable with or without water. And the hot woody bitterness is a full step lighter than any other Booker's bourbon batch I've tried.

This is the first batch I'd actually consider buying, though at the $40-$45 end of the spectrum. It would be probably be a lot of fun in Old Fashioneds or high proof Sazeracs. Still, if Beam doesn't magically raise the quality when the price goes up, then I won't be missing anything when I ignore it on the top shelf.

Availability - This batch might be lingering at some retailers, though probably not for long
Pricing - Booker's in general can still be found for $40, though it averages around $60 countrywide (Note: This is before the price increase hits.)
Rating - 83

Booker's, the billionaire's bourbon, batch C05-A-12

There seems to have been two versions of batch C05-A-12. One is the bottling I'm reviewing today, aged 7 years 1 month and weighing in at 65.0%abv, possibly specific to the US market. Then there's one that's aged 7 years 5 months, with a 64.25%abv which I've seen on European sites. If any of you brilliant bourbon boyos know the story behind that, please weigh in via the comment section below.

Here's what I've gleaned from the internets about this batch.
--The 'C' means it's from Beam's Clermont distillery and/or warehouses.
--The '05' refers to the year this stuff was distilled and barreled, as in 2005.
--The '12' represents the number of dead rats they found in the barrels when blending this batch. There were actually 11 and a half, but because Booker didn't "do decimals", the company rounds up.
--The 'A' stands for Anthropophagus, the Joe D'amato classic wherein George Eastman eats a fetus and then his own intestines. A metaphor.

Bottle shot

Owner: Beam Suntory
Brand: Booker's
Type: Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Distillery: Jim Beam Distillery
Location: Clermont, Kentucky
Mash Bill: 77% corn, 13% rye, 10% malted barley (probably)
Age: 7 years, 1 month
Batch: C05-A-12
Alcohol by volume: 65.0% ABV

NEAT
Berry and cherry candy on the nose. Walnuts. OAK. Chambord. Floral perfume, little bits of vanilla and caramel corn. Very berried on the palate too, like lollipops. Chili pepper heat. Bell peppers too. Very sweet and grapey. A hint of peanuts. The most controlled wood content I've experienced in a Booker's, though that's not saying much. The finish goes corny. Some tart fruit in the back. Sweet and smoky. And here comes the burnt bitter oak note I always find (and wish I didn't) in Booker's.

WITH WATER (~53.5%abv, Baker's level)
The nose gets more floral and more vanilla-ed. Hard toffee candy. Salt water taffy. The water has washed away most of the fruit in the palate. Feels woodier and hotter. Oooh, and bitterer. Medicinal. Maybe some hard cheese. The finish is bitter, woody, saccharine.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
I'll start with the positives. This is the best Booker's batch I've had thus far. The neat palate is palatable, but the nose is by far the highlight throughout.

As mentioned in the notes, I always find an off-putting hot bitter wood note in Booker's that's dialed up to a degree I haven't found in any other major (non-crafty) high proof bourbon, nor any other Beam product. When neat, this batch avoids this note until late in the finish. When proofed down it fills the finish and sneaks into the palate. In fact this batch tastes awful when water is added. It's decent when neat and the nose never fails. But I still can't see myself even paying the old price for it when Beam has other better cheaper products.

Availability - This batch is probably long gone
Pricing - Booker's in general can still be found for $40, though it averages around $60 countrywide (Note: This is before the price increase hits.)
Rating - 81 (neat only, proofing it down drops it ~20 points)

Two paragraphs on Booker's bourbon

Hmmm......just glancing at current international business and political news and......oh look, the Western world has officially entered the GREED IS FUCKING GREAT AND PEOPLE ARE FUCKING* SHEEP era. Of course, the world whisky industry has been in that mode for at least four years now, and I don't see any chance of it stopping until there is no world whisky industry. In the most recent occurrence of customers-be-damned behavior in the whisky world, Booker's bourbon will see its retail price double. The online bourbon community had some feelings about it, to put it mildly.

For those of you who are Booker's fans—though I am not amongst your number—I understand your frustration. Suntory has done a crap job with many of their brands for some time now. I'm sorry to see this habit bleeding over into American whisky. But for those of you who keep raving about what a great business maneuver this is, all I have to say is...Who cares? Seriously. Who cares if it's great corporate strategy? Do you have considerable financial investments in STBFY? Are you an employee of Beam Suntory? If the answer to the previous two questions is "no", then why do you feel the need to cheer this avarice? This price bloating has no positive effect on your life, but will have very negative repercussions on your purchasing power, and (if you even are a whiskey fan you may want to be concerned that this) will have more destructive long term effects on the bourbon industry than whatever short term gains Suntory may hope to achieve. Or maybe you just want to see the whole whisky industry collapse. I wish I could join you in that endeavor, but I can't. There are millions of people employed by these companies and peripheral industries. When the whisky boat sinks, it ain't the corporate officers who drilled the hole that suffer. It's the blue-collar workers who don't have a lifeboat.

In honor of this latest cheerful news, I will review the following whiskies this week:
Wednesday - Booker's bourbon, batch C05-A-12
Thursday - Booker's bourbon, batch 2015-06 Noe's Secret
Friday - Baker's 7 year old bourbon

*adjective or verb?

No Whisky Consumer is Ever Really Powerless, and a review of Booker's Rye

It sucks when you can't afford the thing you like.  It sucks worse when you feel powerless over this inability to purchase your desire.  Thus the commodification and premiumisation of whisky sucks.  It sucks the simple pleasures away and replaces them with the reminder that you are impotent in the face of large outside forces.  You feel anger because the stuff you like has been taken from you.  So you react.  Either you buy things you can't afford anyway.  Or you rage about these offenses against mankind on the corner of every online avenue.  Or you recognize that, damn, you've become emotionally dependent on an inanimate object, and that the people and systems that created this thing do not care about your existence.  And then you're left trying to figure out how you got to this point.  But rather than confronting this personal issue, you find it much easier to complain about prices, publicly swear you're not going to feed the market animal, and then quietly continue to buy whiskies at many times the rate at which you'll consume them.  Trust me, you'll be angry again.  Very soon.

This is my review of the new limited edition Booker's Rye, now selling and selling out for over $300.  Many many thanks to The Whiskey Jug for this sample.

Owner: Beam Suntory
Brand: Booker's
Type: Straight Rye Whisky
Distillery: Jim Beam Distillery
Location: Clermont, Kentucky
Mash Bill: known only by a dead man, apparently
Age: 13 years
Batch: 1
Alcohol by volume: 68.1%

REVIEW:
There are so many dessert elements in the nose: toffee pudding, vanilla pods, almond croissants, milk chocolate, and toasted coconut.  Then there's something in between creamsicles and orange sherbet.  Puffs of wood smoke here and there.  Occasional moments of old oak framing the spirit.  Sometimes there's a hint of maple.  The palate leads with caramel sauce.  In fact its texture is almost as thick as caramel sauce.  Roasted almonds.  Tart raspberries and tart cherries.  Maybe some sour fruit candy.  Again, some wood smoke.  Rolos infused with cayenne pepper in the finish.  More of the caramel sauce, with tart berries and cherries.

COMMENTARY:
What do you pay for when you buy a whiskey?  Are you buying the story?  Are you buying the packaging?  Are you buying the exclusivity?  Or are you just buying the fluid in the bottle?

We put our trust in the producers that the information on the label is correct, that the whiskey is X years old, so-and-so abv, that it's "Straight", that it's bottled-in-bond or a single barrel.  These are regulated by a government unit, but it's an entity that can't even get its own rules right when approving alcoholic products.  And that's just the label.

Then there's the story.  Story is essential, or so a revered whisky writer said publicly to a group of craft entrepreneurs a couple years ago.  So story is what we continue get, from both the little guys and the big guys.  Sometimes (if not the majority of the time), there's no truth behind the story.  Rather than take one element of a product and exploit its indispensable nature, many companies support the marketing approach of The Complete Lie, horking up a sticky web of effluvium to capture revenue.

But sometimes the tale may be true.  Booker Noe probably did make this one batch of high-rye rye whiskey before he passed away, taking the recipe with him.  Maybe this is legitimately limited and scarce.  Does that thrill you enough to entice you to pay triple the price of what you'd normally see for a pre-pubescent rye?  And speaking of the listed age, there isn't much 13yo rye out there to begin with, so does that get you to pay considerably more than you would for an 8yo rye?  I'm not talking about market forces.  I'm talking about the human behavior behind those forces.  I'm talking about we, the micro.

But am I anything more than superficially part of the 'we"?  Whisk(e)y pricing doesn't make any sense to me.  People buying whiskies at five to ten times the rate they consume the stuff doesn't make any sense to me.  People piling up credit card debt to buy things just to keep up with the cult doesn't make any sense to me.  I can't relate to any of this.  It's been years since I felt the ache of this consuming addiction, and I don't feel like I'm missing anything by not committing to the chase.  Does this make me a bad whisky blogger?  Does this make me unreliable?  Am I no longer part of the club?  Frankly, my dear, I don't give a fuck.

Booker's Rye is one of the best ryes I've had, comparable to the finest of Willett/MGP and Buffalo Trace.  While its nose is tremendous, its palate is merely awesome.  While I usually have issues with overbearing oak in whiskies half its age, that's not the case here.  The oak merges and heightens the well-matured spirit.  What a treat!  Would I buy it for $300?  No.  Would I buy it for half that price?  No.  But, though I've never paid $100 for an American whiskey, I would probably break that rule with this one.  The scarcity and the story do not move me as much as the whiskey itself does.  So I could recommend it at $100.  If the backstory affects your wallet's emotions and enhances your buying and drinking experience enough to pay thrice that amount, have at it.  But don't get angry when the next rye with a three-act structure enters the market with a $400 tag.  Especially if it's another rye by the same company.

Availability - Primary market? Good luck with that. Secondary market? Aplenty.
Pricing - $300 is the floor, there is no ceiling
Rating - 92

NOT Single Malt Report: Booker's Straight Bourbon, batch 2013-6

Here's the other unexpected review I got to do during Thanksgiving weekend.  I've had Booker's a couple of times and found it to be good (though very hot).  My brother-in-law likes the stuff and often has a bottle on hand.  So, here's batch 2013-6, sampled from mid-bottle.

Owner: Beam Suntory
Brand: Booker's
Type: Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Distillery: Jim Beam Distillery
Location: Clermont, Kentucky
Mash Bill: Standard 15% rye (probably)
Age: 7 years, 6 months
Batch: 2013-6
Alcohol by volume: 62.95% ABV
Bottle code: L3255
Thank you, Andrew!

NEAT
It has the color of maple syrup.  The nose starts off with nothing but tree things (forest, sap, charred pulp).  Gradually a corn syrup note evolves, as do rock candy and hard caramel candies.  Then toasted sesame oil and dry soil.  It almost burned my nose at first sniff but then softened up with air.  The palate shows candied smoky oak, caramel-covered tree bark, sea salt caramel sauce, and cotton candy.  Lots of candy corn too.  Smaller notes of used french fry oil and black cherry syrup arrive later.  It's not complex, though the delivery is intensely hot.  The hot finish has a big note of smoky char.  Then some burnt corn and bananas meet a green woody bitterness.

I'd never added water to Booker's before but I gave it a try here...

WITH WATER (around 46-50% abv)
More nuts and caramel appear in the nose, as do lemon peels, horseradish, and celery seed.  Maybe some sherry-ish prunes.  The palate gets sweeter, with richer caramel and toffee.  Some vanilla and cherry lollipops as well.  The green woody bitterness starts to appear here.  The finish is sweet too, with lots of sugar, corn syrup, and cherry lollipops.

One thing I've noticed about Booker's is that its ethyl burn is more intense than bourbons with higher ABVs (specifically the BTACs and Elijah Craig BP).  Perhaps that's due to its younger age or it has something to do with warehouse climate.  Beam shows its pride in the high ABV by using multiple decimal places in its listing, but more alcohol doesn't necessarily mean more flavor.  For instance, I find their Baker's product to be more vibrant than Booker's even though it is bottled at a lower abv (53.5%) and at about the same age (7 years).

Adding water improved things with this batch.  When neat, the nose is hot oak juice.  With water, it starts developing a wider variety of characteristics.  When neat, the palate is hot and simple, though better than the nose.  With water, it becomes richer.  The finish ain't great when neat; water softens and sweetens it up.  That's why I'm going to recommend adding water to this batch.  I still want to recommend Baker's over Booker's overall, but I won't do so until I try them side by side.

Availability - Most US liquor retailers

Pricing - $45-$65

Rating - 79 for this batch (with water only, 5+ points lower when neat)