Baker's Single Barrel Bourbon 7 Year

Bakers 7 year, but this bottle is aged 8 years 6 months. Nose features a healthy amount of cherry, some vanilla bean, corn dust, campfire smoke, and a hint of bubblegum. A very faint nose for a 107 proof whisky. Palate opens up with caramel and cherry. As it turns to the mid-palate it smoothly transitions to cinnamon and oak. So far nothing to write home about. The finish...oh my god the finish! HUGE savory char flavor; I mean like the thick charred crust on a well done grilled ribeye. Proof also hits here with some prickly alcohol heat. The finish is of ungodly length, with the charcoal and ethanol almost blending into a mint long after the other notes fade (over a minute) Coats the tongue and settles in and hangs there with along with the flavor achieves a drying effect which invites you to take another sip. Hands down the smokiest bourbon I have ever had, almost edging into Scotch territory. Since I love char/smoke, I also loved this bourbon. At $57, I feel I got what I paid for big time. This being a single barrel product, I hope I didn’t just get a honey barrel. As it stands, a rebuy and a recommend. Edit from 9/26/20 - Grabbed another bottle, this one aged 7yrs 0 months. Everything is as above except take the oak down a notch and dial up the sweetness a notch. And it’s even BETTER. Only paid $50 for this one. Bonus! 4.25 on this bottle. Edit #2 Just picked up another bottle on 9/17/21 aged 7 yrs and 3 months and this one is literally perfection: peanut brittle, barrel char, and baking spices in perfect harmony. Can’t stop drinking it. 4.75 on this one!

Neat - sweet, oaky, Rocks - calms the sweetness, Burns, but mellow, not remarkable