Booker's Bourbon Batch 2019-02 "Shiny Barrel Batch"

Wow. Simply wow. Intense flavor, intense burn. Lots and lots to pick apart. Lots of Carmel.

Booker's Shiny Barrel Batch is the second Booker's release for 2019. The barrels that are selected for each batch come from the center of the rickhouses and are bottled at barrel proof and are not chill-filtered. It is said that when Booker Noe retired, his one request to his son Fred was "make sure they don't mess with my Booker's." There's some conflicting information about when Booker's expression was first introduced. In fact, Booker's own website states that Booker Noe coined the term "small batch" and it was introduced in 1992. Yet, the last batch released in 2018 was a 30th Anniversary batch, which would put the first released year at 1988. The Bourbon Exchange site shows batches released as early as 1979, however. "Shiny Barrel" is an affectionate term given to barrels that get sampled the most by the rickhouse workers. As the saying goes, "the shinier the barrel, the sweeter the whiskey," the best barrels tend to be a bit more polished from the workers leaning over them to sample the contents a lot more frequently. Each batch of Booker's has a label on the bottle that gives the name of the batch, official batch number, age, proof and ABV. On the nose, Shiny Barrel packs a punch with dried berry fruit, familiar Jim Beam peanut note, charred oak, leather, and vanilla. The palate is big with the many of the same flavors found on the nose plus cinnamon brown sugar, toffee, and some heavy barrel char and a bit black pepper spice. The finish is fairly long and mouthwatering with chocolate, candied orange peels, and nutty all with a nice gentle warmth that spreads down the chest. This is a batch that does not disappoint!

Nose: Brown sugar, vanilla, oak, char. Buttermilk biscuits. Cheap dessert marischino cherries, peanuts. Cinnamon, clove, cumin. Slight eucalyptus and citrus oil hit in the very back. Palate: Brown sugar, vanilla, oak, char all show up. Warm buttermilk biscuits with butter. Roasted peanuts. Baking spices - cinnamon, clove, nutmeg. Prickly alcohol. Citrus oil shows up if you let it roll on your tongue for a while. Hot, but in a really appealing way.