Taken: Neat in a Glencairn glass, rested about 15 minutes.
Distillery: James Beam Distillery.
Proof: 127.8. Non-chill filtered.
Age: 7 years, 2 months, and 29 days.
The distillery says, “ Booker’s “Storyteller Batch” is made up of barrels from four production dates that were aged in four different warehouses. The breakdown of barrel storage for this batch is as follows”:
26% came from the 6th floor of 7-story warehouse Z
14% came from the 6th floor of 9-story warehouse H
25% came from the 5th floor of 9-story warehouse G
35% came from the 5th floor of 7-story warehouse 3
Mash bill: 75% Corn/ 13% Rye/ 12% Malted Barley.
Price: $95.00.
Appearance: Golden caramel.
Nose
Crème Brûlée and brown sugar, pralines, macadamia nuts, and vanilla icing. There are a lot of herbal notes of mint, cloves, and fennel with lemon citrus brightness and cayenne pepper spice. With more nosing, I’m picking out apricots, baked apples, and a floral note hanging back there, which I can best describe as lavender. This nose is excellent and complex. The rich, sweet caramel flavors are so good that sometimes it’s hard to focus on anything else. More herbal, vanilla, and peanut brittle flavors come forward as the session continues.
Palate
The nose transfers to the palate with crème brulé, brown sugar, butterscotch, peanut brittle, vanilla bean, sage, fennel, peaches, apples, and oak. Cayenne pepper spice covers the whole palate with a creamy and viscous mouthfeel. I love that the complexities of the nose carry onto the palate with so many delicious, sweet caramel and herbal flavors.
Finish
Cayenne pepper spice fades but continues to linger all over the palate with rich toffee, peanuts, sage, baked apples, and vanilla. As the finish continues, oak tannins turn into mild leather with apricots and lemon citrus coming back around with a peppery spice still lingering all the way through this very long and excellent finish.
Conclusion
I love Booker’s because of the great and complex batches like this one which stand out from other Beam selections. Charlie’s Batch was another standout from last year. I loved Charlie’s Batch for the rich, smoky, dark caramel and chocolate mixed with upfront stone fruits and berries. The Storyteller Batch is the other side of the same coin with sweet caramel flavors of crème brulé, brown sugar, and butterscotch mixed with upfront herbal flavors of mint, sage, cloves, and fennel. The Storyteller Batch is turning out to be my all-time favorite Booker’s batch. Now I’m looking forward to what batches Booker’s has in store for 2024.
Rating: 8.7/10.
1 | Disgusting | So bad I poured it out.
2 | Poor | I wouldn’t consume by choice.
3 | Bad | Multiple flaws.
4 | Sub-par | Not bad, but better exists.
5 | Good | Good, just fine.
6 | Very Good | A cut above.
7 | Great | Well above average.
8 | Excellent | Really quite exceptional.
9 | Incredible | An all-time favorite.
10 | Perfect | Perfect.
