Jim Beam Bonded Number 12 Formula

Nose: Oak, honey, vanilla, caramel sauce, popcorn, cherries. A very fresh and well constructed nose. It's sweet, approachable and honest. Palate: A sweet and mild arrival with brown sugar and soft rye spice. Seed-cake and fennel seed, peanut brittle, a hint of sweet licorice, vanilla, mint, sweet corn and a little tobacco. There's a slightly candyish nature to the palate, but it's not sickly. Finish: Short. Sweet and woody caramel flavours. This is an odd one, and I’ve not been able to find out much about it. Jim Beam Bonded has been around for a while and has gone through a lot of label changes and bottle shapes, but the profile has remained fairly stable. It’s always had a hefty, tannic and raw edge with peppery notes. However, this “Bonded Number 12 Formula” is nothing at all like that. It has a soft and honeyed presentation – still with good weight, but it’s much easier. If anything, it is more similar to the Signature Cask 12 year old, however in this case the whisky is not 12 years old – Number 12 Formula is just a marketing name and it does not have the class of the Signature Craft. This may have been an Australian-only release, I don’t know. I picked up a few bottles a couple of years back and just finished the last of them. Unfortunately it seems to be no longer available. It was briefly replaced by the standard modern label Jim Beam Bonded, but that is now also unavailable here. I suspect it was withdrawn because being a bonded whiskey it had to be exported at 50%, and that was too expensive to import given Australia's ridiculously high excise rates. It's a real shame because this was a good mid-shelf bourbon that was enjoyable neat as a sipping whisky and also made a great mixer. If you see a bottle anywhere don't hesitate to grab it. “Above Average" : 80/100 (3 stars)