Booker's Bourbon Batch 2019-04 "Beaten Biscuits"

Cinnamon. Pepper. Butterscotch. Honey-roasted peanuts. Alcohol-forward on the nose. Suggest a couple drops of water. Let it open up.

Nose: Oak, char, and ethanol. Plenty of barrel going on here. Brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, vanilla. Smoked paprika, ground chipotle, and black pepper. Red hots. Dusty corn. Chestnuts. Chocolate covered cherries. Mint and Gros Michel banana. Like all other Booker's editions, there's this signature buttermilk biscuit thing going on - funny given the name of this batch. It's this raw flour, buttery, creamy, lightly salty kind of thing that I personally find very appealing. Palate: Dense with brown sugar, dark chocolate, cinnamon, nutmeg, oak and char, smoked paprika, Luxardo cherries. Tannin is evident, though the palate here is so dense it's competing with a lot of other flavors. Fruit crisp but with a ton of extra baking spices added - apricots and peaches. Chipotle peppers. After your palate acclimates, the tannin shows up. Presents as high proof, though maybe not nearly the octane bomb you'd imagine. All the flavors here are maybe a little dense and hard to pick apart at first sip, though this is absolutely Booker's through and through. Once you acclimate and the glass opens up, There's a surprisingly good balance going on here - low, mid, and high palate notes all displaying quite appropriately. Finish begins with a prickly pop of ethanol on the tongue, and slowly fades away with bananas, mangoes, vanilla, and white sugar playing around, a slightly minty notes comes to the fore, and then everything settles into this pleasant fennel and bubblegum combo with a solid alcohol burn. Long finish going on here. Other notes: Booker's never disappoints. I do have my personal favorite batches, but I've never had a glass of this I didn't like. My personal favorite batch I've had so far is still probably the 2018-02, but this is a solid second. The punch here reminds me a bit of my bottle of Stagg Jr. - especially the hot cinnamon and dense brown sugar/nutmeg notes. If you're ready to step up to the proof, Booker's is always an excellent choice, and this bottle really steps up to the plate and delivers the kind quality I've come to expect.

I've been wanting a Booker's bottle for a while but never wanted to spend the bucks until I found one for $57.99 at Costco and I couldn't resist. Nose: Even from a distance I get a powerful vanilla scent, more than any bourbon I've ever nosed. Dark caramelized sugars, quite a bit of oak, and some leather and cigar in the background. Just a hint of boiled peanut. Flavor: Sweet caramelized sugars, dark and buttery, a little bit of leather, dried cherry, and quite a bit of cinnamon and clove. Punches way under the proof that the bottle indicates. This comes across closer to 105 proof. Finish: Long finish with that Beam nutty note that I always expect but it's less peanut and more buttery macadamia nut. Dark barrel char but not drying like I usually get from other Booker's bottlings. Spicy finish but not overwhelmingly so. Wow. This is the most balanced Booker's I've tried. They've all been delicious but all are either too heavy on the leather, too heavy on the sweetness to where it is a little cloying, or too heavy on the spice at the end. This one just hits all the right notes for me.