Booker’s “Apprentice Batch” 2023-02

I’d like to thank the Beam Suntory and their PR folks for sending this review sample along with no strings attached.

Booker’s.

It was my first taste of overproof bourbon, and I’ve been a big fan ever since. It’s just. so. good. So much so that I hardly ever buy it because I know it will be delicious. Now you may be thinking to yourself: “Eric, have you been drinking again before you start writing?” And sometimes, that would be a valid question, but tonight the answer is no. Due to the nature of running a site that peddles reviews, I’m always searching for something new to talk about, and with only the budget of a freelance designer and a dog sitter to work with, I usually try to purchase things that will get me content. So things that I know will be delicious but won’t provide content often get passed over. Especially if they are expensive.

One day, when I retire from writing, I’m going to do a barrel pick (using my wife’s money) and just enjoy the same thing for years to come. It will be a nice change of pace.

But suffice it to say I’ve always had a soft spot for Booker’s Bourbon, even through the major price increases of a few years ago. Sure, I hated the increase in price, but if I was being honest with myself, I hated it because Booker’s was so good and so inexpensive compared to its peers. So when the opportunity presented itself to get a sample of their most recent batch, I gladly said yes. Especially since we haven’t talked about it since 2020.

This batch is nick-named the “Apprentice Batch.” Here is what Beam’s PR folks had to say about it:

This batch pays homage to the beginning of Booker Noe’s distilling career when he first learned the art of making bourbon under the guidance of his cousin, Carl Beam. Booker started working at the Jim Beam Distillery in 1952, and shortly after, Carl became his mentor. Carl was in charge and didn't put up with any foolishness - he always made sure Booker was set straight. But even if Booker did mess around sometimes, he was a fast learner and was ready to be put to work, which quickly got him Carl’s approval. Two years after Booker started, Jim Beam purchased a distillery in Boston, KY to increase production capabilities. Carl and Booker worked closely together to get it up and running, and eventually, Carl handed the reins over to Booker. This is where he was able to experiment and master the bourbon-making process, and later on, the location was renamed the Booker Noe Distillery. Carl showed Booker the ropes at the distillery, but from there, he encouraged him to try things out on his own, which is when his work really started to shine. Booker’s apprenticeship under Carl helped him become the Master Distiller and legendary innovator he is remembered as today.

So there you have it. The batch is bottled at 125.5 proof and was aged for seven years, one month, and two days. The suggested retail price is $89.99.

Booker’s “Apprentice Batch” 2023-02

Purchase Info: This sample was provided by the producer for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $89.99.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $6.00

Details: 62-75% ABV. Age: 7 years, 1 month, and, 2 days.

Nose: Caramel, mint, cinnamon, and oak.

Mouth: Very hot, as to be expected, but also sweet. Strong notes of oak, chocolate, and cinnamon with an undercurrent of citrus.

Finish: Warm and long. Notes of peanut butter, chocolate, and oak.

Thoughts: This is very tasty, as Booker's usually is. Very hot, though. The product “Fact Sheet” suggests sipping this neat or with a few drops of water. However, I think it takes water or a small piece of ice well. Water amps up the sweetness in the mouth as well as the "Beam Peanut" note. It also tames the heat and allows for a more enjoyable sip.

Though the SRP is $89.99, I see that my corner liquor store charges about $100 for Booker's. Honestly, I'd probably pay that for this as a very occasional splurge. And as I say, every few years, when I get a sample, this reminds me that I really do need to pause looking for new things and just spend that money on something that I know will be delicious more often.

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Square 6 High-Rye Rye Whiskey & Square 6 Wheated Bourbon

I’d like to thank Heaven Hill for providing these review samples with no strings attached.

Hey, we’re back with the two newest releases in the Square 6 lineup. I’m not going to lie to you. I found the High-Rye Bourbon that we reviewed in the last post to be very disappointing. As far as I’m aware, I’ve seldom, if ever, disliked a Heaven Hill product, especially when it was something that was selling for almost $100.

Heaven Hill touts the Evan Williams Experience as an “Artisinal” distillery. And I can see that logic with it only being able to produce a barrel of distillate daily. And honestly, the High-Rye bourbon tasted like an early craft whiskey. Unfortunately, they priced it like one as well. We used to call that the “craft tax.” You’d pay too much for sub-par whiskey because the small guys didn’t have the economies of scale to buy enough product to get the lowest prices for their ingredients or the cash flow to let it age out to the point of smoothing off the rough edges. Heaven Hill has no such issue here. Sure, at a barrel per day, they will never have a lot of the whiskeys. But if it isn’t on the same level as your other ultra-premium whiskeys, is it worth watering down your brand by pricing it like one of them? I honestly don’t know. I just yell into the void on the internet. But from my chair, I wouldn’t have done it that way.

Anyway, I’ll start out with a spoiler. The next two do, in fact, taste better than the High-Rye Bourbon. I even liked one of them. Though even then, I certainly wouldn’t pay $90 for it.

Square 6 High-Rye Rye Whiskey

Summary of the Press Release: On October 18, 2022, Heaven Hill Distillery introduced the Square 6 High-Rye Rye Whiskey, the second craft product of its series launched from the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience. This exclusive Rye Whiskey features a mashbill with 63% Rye, 24% Corn, and 13% Malted Barley, distinguishing it from their traditional Rye Whiskey mashbill. Bottled at 95 proof, it boasts intriguing notes of black tea, sweet honey, fig, molasses, allspice, pepper, vanilla, and cardamom. Limited in quantity, the Square 6 High-Rye Rye Whiskey is available at the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience and select Kentucky retailers for $89.99.

Purchase Info: This sample was provided at no cost by Heaven Hill for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $89.99

Price per Drink (50 mL): $6.00

Details: 47.5% ABV. Mashbill: 63% Rye, 24% Corn, and 13% Malted Barley

Nose: Cedar, cotton candy, and cinnamon.

Mouth: Cinnamon candies, cola, mint, ginger, and vanilla.

Finish: Medium length and warm. Notes of cedar, mint, cola, and ginger.

Thoughts: Not bad. It certainly isn't my favorite rye, but I wouldn't turn down a glass, either. Overall this straddles the line between "I Like it" and "I'm neutral on this." In such cases, I usually round up. And I’m doing so again here. There are definitely interesting notes in there that help bump it up. I really like how the cola notes play with the mint and the ginger. Overall, this is an interesting take on rye, a category big Kentucky distilleries rarely innovate in.

Square 6 Wheated Bourbon

Summary of the Press Release: On June 13, 2023, Heaven Hill Distillery introduced Square 6 Wheated Bourbon. This is the third product in the Square 6 line that was developed at the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience in Louisville. This new bourbon is a blend of two distinct wheated mashbills, one with 74% corn, 16% wheat, and 10% malted barley, and the other with 68% corn, 20% wheat, and 12% malted barley. Bottled at 105 proof, the Square 6 Wheated Bourbon offers rich aromas of caramel, vanilla, figs, bing cherries, and oak, with a palate featuring sweet confectioners' sugar and walnuts, and a finish highlighted by walnuts, oak tannins, baking spices, cinnamon, and cola. Artisanal Distiller Jodie Filiatreau and the team at Evan Williams Bourbon Experience craft one barrel of this unique bourbon daily, constantly refining the hand-crafted pot still process for each recipe. The limited release of Square 6 Wheated Bourbon is available at the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience and select Kentucky retailers for a suggested retail price of $89.99.

Purchase Info: This sample was provided at no cost by Heaven Hill for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $89.99

Price per Drink (50 mL): $6.00

Details: 52.5% ABV. Mashbill: a blend of two distinct wheated mashbills, one with 74% corn, 16% wheat, and 10% malted barley, and the other with 68% corn, 20% wheat, and 12% malted barley.

Nose: Strong oak notes, along with fruit and cinnamon.

Mouth: Cedar, mint, cinnamon, and fresh lumber.

Finish: Medium length and warm. Notes of fruit, mint, cinnamon, and chocolate.

Thoughts: First thoughts? Not bad, not great. Expanding a little on that thought: it is not objectively bad, but it's not for me. As usual, in such cases, I'm giving it a neutral rating. But, like I said, it just doesn’t align with my palate. However, it is not nearly as tasty as I would have expected from Heaven Hill.

And heck, there might be people who want to spend the money on something different and end up liking it. I wouldn’t look sideways at them for that. I’m not the type to yuck anyone’s yum. That said, I'd definitely see if someone is pouring it in a Louisville bar before heading over to the Evan Williams Experience to buy a bottle. That goes for all three, in fact. I can see the Square 6 line being polarizing. And it would be terrible to drop a hundred bucks on a bottle if it turns out you don’t like it.

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Square 6 High-Rye Bourbon by Evan Williams

I’d like to thank Heaven Hill for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

Have you ever wanted to see a group of people roll a whiskey barrel down Main Street Louisville? Well, if you were in downtown Louisville in May of 2021, you just might have gotten to do just that. According to the 2021 press release of tonight’s bourbon, Heaven Hill Distillery President Max Shapira, Artisanal Distiller Jodie Filiatreau, Artisanal Distiller Emeritus Charlie Downs, Louisville Tourism President & CEO Karen Williams, and Louisville Tourism Chief Operating Officer Cleo Battle celebrated the release of the first batch of Square 6 by rolling a barrel of it down the street.

Ok, so what is Square 6? Because if you are like me and haven’t visited the Even Williams Bourobn Experience in the last couple of years, you might not be aware.

In May 2021, Heaven Hill Distillery announced the launch of Square 6 Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, the first bottled Bourbon produced at their artisanal distillery in the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience. The Square 6 name pays homage to the original plot where Evan Williams built Kentucky's first commercial distillery in 1783, sharing the same block as the current Evan Williams Bourbon Experience. The High Rye Bourbon, distilled and cared for by Artisanal Distiller Emeritus Charlie Downs and Artisanal Distiller Jodie Filiatreau, features a unique mashbill of 52% corn, 35% rye, and 13% malted barley and is bottled at 95° proof with a suggested price of $89.99.

I became aware of this release when Heaven Hill kindly sent me samples of all three Square 6 releases to celebrate last month’s release of a new addition to the Square 6 lineup. Now, pretty much everything produced by Heaven Hill is at least good, right? So there is no way that this could be a less-than-pleasant experience…right?

Square 6 High-Rye Bourbon

Purchase Info: This was kindly provided by Heaven Hill for Review purposes. The suggested retail price is $89.99 for a 750 mL bottle.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $6.00

Details: 47.5% ABV. Mash bill: 52% corn, 35% rye, and 13% malted barley.

Nose: Wood shavings, cedar, raisins, and chocolate.

Mouth: Cinnamon, nutmeg, raisin, cedar, and mint.

Finish: Medium length and warm. Notes of cinnamon, malt, nutmeg, mint, vanilla, and leather.

Thoughts: When you think of Heaven Hill bourbon, this is not what you think of. This tastes much more like a craft bourbon than one made by one of bourbon's largest producers. And I don't mean that as a compliment. This tastes like an early craft bourbon from before the industry found its footing. I am not a fan…at all. I think this is the first dislike rating I’ve ever given a Heaven Hill release. I’m shocked. But, hey, your mileage may vary. I’m not a fan of malt whiskey, especially when combined with the American Straight Whiskey aging process. And this had a lot of malt notes that just aren’t translating well for my palate. I also dislike raisins. A lot. So that isn’t helping either.

All in all, I’d skip this one if your palate aligns with mine. But if you think it sounds tasty, see if they offer samples at the distillery or if they have it at one of the many bars down the street before you drop a hundred bucks on a full bottle.

Stay tuned for reviews of the other releases in the Square 6 line in the coming days. They do get better…

Did you enjoy this post? If you want to support the work going on here at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch (tasting journals, stickers, pins, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com.

Jefferson’s Reserve Bourbon, Revisited and a Giveaway

This bottle of Jefferson’s Reserve was provided by the producer for review purposes with no strings attached.

It has been one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six days since I last reviewed Jefferson’s Reserve. At that point, in order to find content, I was working my way through the various releases of brands like Jefferson’s. Basically, those that had “good, better, best” product line-ups. My thoughts at the time were flattering. I enjoyed the pour even though it didn’t really fit the “stereotypical” bourbon flavor profile. I called it a “change-of-pace” bourbon.

The article I wrote was, for the most part, a defense of the brand being open about being created from sourced whiskey, which was still—somehow—a relative rarity five years ago. And people were still up in arms if you were a bottler instead of a distiller. These days, of course, most of the brands you see on the shelf are sourced, and I’ve found that a high percentage of them are fairly open about it. I’d like to include a comment from a reader about the article here because John summarizes my thoughts in the article better than I did in the article itself.

Great write-up and I share your sentiments regarding the criticism Jefferson's receives in some bourbon-centric Internet/social media outlets. I have personally never had an issue with their sourcing. My only quibble with Jefferson's is I feel their pricing is too high, but that is a quibble I have with other whiskeys, and is a bit like complaining about the tides rising and falling. The point that carries the day for me is I have never been disappointed by any pour of Jefferson's in the past, I have found them all to be enjoyable and unique.

Now, I hadn’t planned to revisit Jefferson’s Reserve until their PR agency reached out to me and offered me a chance at a media kit containing a few goodies and a couple of bottles of whiskey. One of the bottles was Jefferson’s Ocean Rye, which I'd recently reviewed, and the choice of either Jefferson’s or Jefferson’s Reserve. When I noticed that I’d last looked at the Reserve five years ago, in 2018, I decided to take them up on it. I figured branded goodies are always nice giveaways. (See below the tasting notes for more on that.)

Plus…free whiskey.

So let’s see how it tastes, shall we? Is it still a “change-of-pace,” or has it fallen in line with more typical bourbon flavor profiles in the last five years?

Jefferson's Reserve

Purchase Info: This was provided by the producer for review purposes. It sells locally for anywhere from $52.99 to $65.

Price per Drink: $3.53 to $4.33

Details: 45.1% ABV

Nose: Bubblegum, mint, vanilla, and cocoa.

Mouth: Cinnamon, mint, vanilla, oak, red fruits, and bubblegum.

Finish: Warm and on the longer side of medium. Notes of bubblegum, honey, cinnamon candies, and oak.

Thoughts: This is a lot better than I remember. In the past, I've gotten some rather strange notes from Jefferson's core products. This has none of that, and I am very pleasantly surprised. I’ll be enjoying the heck out of the rest of this bottle. I love a good bubblegum/cherry/almond note, especially when paired with a nice spice note. I’m a fan.

Giveaway

Hey, remember in the previous post when I mentioned that I was having trouble keeping track of all of these new bourbon releases? And how I’d usually ask the person in the liquor department what was new or selling well so that I could pick it up for review? Well, I’m trying another tactic. I’m asking you! Have you picked up a new or under-the-radar bourbon or rye brand that you loved (or hated, I mean, those can be fun too)? Nominate it for review on BourbonGuy.com. In return, you’ll be entered into the giveaway for the branded goodies sent to me as part of the Jefferson’s Bourbon media kit.

You can enter the giveaway using the form below. You may enter once per day. There will be one winner chosen at random. That winner will get the Jefferson’s Bourbon ball cap and Jefferson’s Bourbon deck of playing cards.

Good Luck! You have until Thursday, July 21st, 2023, to enter (you need to "log in" so I can receive your email address to notify you if you win, either login method gets me that).

Did you enjoy this post? If you want to support the work going on here at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch (tasting journals, stickers, pins, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com.

Buy some of my creations at BourbonGuyGifts.com

For a few years now, BourbonGuy.com has been supported in two ways. One is by generous one-time gifts through Ko-Fi, Venmo, or PayPal. These are amazingly gratifying to receive because when I get them, I know that someone did it just because they want to support my writing.

But the other way that the site is supported is through my Etsy store: BourbonGuyGifts.com. I make a lot of fun bourbon-themed items. A lot of these, like stickers, came about because I felt the need to flex my creativity in a way that was unconstrained by clients. (I love to be creative. I just get burned out doing it to promote other people’s companies.) But others came about because I wanted something for my own home and realized that it was just as easy to have multiple produced at the same time.

So if you’d like to support the ongoing mission of BourbonGuy.com to share the love of bourbon and show that you can be frugal while doing it, keep reading and see if you find something that you can’t live without. This is only a selection of the items I’ve made for sale, but they are my favorites.

The first item that I want to show off is the thing that got me interested in making an online store in the first place. My wife needed a tasting journal in which to keep the copious notes that we make in preparation for each week’s publishing schedule. She decided that she wanted something that laid flat, but was more fun than the spiral bound school notebooks that she’d been using and tasked me with creating just such a thing. Enter the wood-bound BourbonGuy tasting journal. Initially these were entirely printed on my home laser printer. But these days, I have the wood covers pre-printed from by the wood supplier. It makes for a more consistent product. It has consistently been the biggest seller on the store and I still love it. It measures 8.5” x 5.5” and is available for $14.

I informally call this piece the Kentucky Skyline. I made this as test of my laser engraving machine and loved how it looks. The frame and bottles are birch plywood and the black background is glossy black acrylic. The front nameplate is customizable with up to 35 characters. The one hanging on my wall just says “Kentucky Bourbon” on it. It measures 11.8” x 5.9” and is available for $59

At Christmas, I designed a line of Bourbon-themed ornaments. It’s not Christmas now, but I am getting a ton of “Christmas in July” emails right now so what the heck. At this point there are three designs, each cut from birch plywood and hung from ribbon. They are all about 3 inches across and are available for $14.50 for the set of three.

For something a little more timely, I have a couple of Pride-themed items as well. Both are statements of support for the LGTBQ+ community. I have the sticker above for $5 (includes free-shipping) and the 9” heart shaped engraved wooden wall-hanging (below) for $44. Both feature the phrase: “I like my Bourbon straight but my friends can go either way.”

If you want something small and fun, get a bourbon-themed sticker pack. Each of these were digital “doodles” that I did because of a sale at the printer I use for stickers. All are about 3 inches across and you can either buy them individually for $5 each or get all four as a set for $10. Stickers come with free shipping.

I’ve also made a couple of posters. One is a list of the cocktails that I like to make on the regular, including one of my own creation. The other is of the original Bottled-in Bond Act of 1897. The cocktail poster is 20” x 30” and is available for $25 plus shipping, and the Bottled in bond poster is 24” x 36” and is available for $40 with free shipping.

Of course, that is just a handful of the items I’ve made that I sell to help support the site. I’ve also got keychains, coasters, pins, and a sticker of a Penis-shaped super hero that my 30-year-old daughter drew on my whiteboard one day (I made the stickers for her, and she gets the money from those). Of course, there is one last thing to promote. This isn’t explicitly bourbon-themed, but I stick a label version on every package I send out because I really do hope that you all have an amazing day!

Did you enjoy this post? If you want to support the work going on here at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch (tasting journals, stickers, pins, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com.