A couple of friends gifted me a bottle of the Bookers’ Batch 2025-01, a Kentucky Straight Bourbon, for my birthday this summer, and after a long week, I had a chance to enjoy this with a nice steak. The presentation is good: the bottle comes in a nice collector’s box of charred wood with the Bookers’ name on it and a plastiglass front panel. There’s a wee card in the package that tells the drinker this is named for Barry Berish, a former CEO of Beam that led the distillery through some dark days. On the back of the card is the master distiller’s (Fred Noe) notes, giving you the history of the batch — the percentages from what warehouses and floors. The whiskey is aged a bit over 7 years.
On opening, it had a nice strong oakey smell, and the color is a nice reddish amber. In a nice Glencairn glass, straight, the flavor is powerfully smokey and hot; with just titch of soda water, it mellows to a strong, light vanilla flavor with strong smoke and a slightly sweet aftertaste. There’s a reason for the almost overwhelming taste, neat — the batch runs 125.7 proof (62.85% ABV).
So is it worth it? I did a quick check on price and at $99 or so, definitely. It’s on par with most higher end bourbons, and when cut a bit, many Scottish single malts. (That hurt to type…)
The Black Campbell 