And now we come the third and final bottle of Booker’s Bourbon that I purchased on our recent Kentucky trip…Batch 2025-01, nicknamed “Barry’s Batch,” in honor of former Beam Chairman and CEO, Barry Berish. The batch was made of a blend of 4 production dates, aged in 5 different warehouses, with the youngest whiskey being 7 years, 2 months, and 4 days. It is bottled uncut and unfiltered, weighing in at 125.7 proof (62.85% ABV).
This batch of Booker’s was notably lighter than the other two, presenting as a beautiful, bright amber. The nose was lighter, as well, with hints of vanilla and a slight fruit sweetness. Taking a sip, I got the immediate sweetness on the tip of the tongue…light notes of caramel and cherry, along with just enough vanilla…then it turned more fiery due to the high proof. I got more of a drying sensation in my mouth from this expression than I did from the other two, which were about the same proof. It made it feel like there was more of a baker’s spice note in the mix, along with cinnamon in the fire at the end. The finish was delectably long.
I paired this pour of Booker’s 2025-01 with a suitably high-end cigar, the Davidoff Escurio 10th Anniversary, which features a leaf of Dominican tobacco aged in used bourbon barrels. The interplay of sweet and spicy from both cigar and bourbon was excellent.
Of the three Booker’s expressions I’ve tried in the past few weeks, this is definitely the “least” for me, with the 2024-04 “Jimmy’s Batch” being my favorite. While this was my least favorite of these three, though, it is still miles better than most other bourbons I’ve had the pleasure to try…and from now on, I would buy just about any batch of Booker’s with the expectation that it will be some level of amazing.
