Jim Beam Single Barrel Bourbon (95 Proof)

Wow! What's there not to love here? Beginning to end prepare yourself for a rapturous experience. The nose is complex, with oak and vanilla melding with caramel and cinnamon spice. The palate is sweet and delicious, with each of the aforementioned flavours perfectly complimenting one another. The finish is very smooth and spicy, inviting you for more. Sip and love!

There's nothing quite like a little bit of day drinking. I've been putting away a few bourbon and Coke cocktails the last few weeks and I figured I'd seek out an old friend, Jim Beam, and see if it's everything I remember. Actually, I found the single barrel variant of JB so why not mix a cocktail and pour myself a dram to review neat. The Jim Beam Single Barrel program is still the normal 4-7 year old white and black label Beam everyone knows (and loves), this just happens to be hand selected barrels making up less than 1% of the stock that's also Barrel strength. This is bottle number 5251 and is 95 proof. I found this bottle locally and paid $32 for a 750ml. On the nose there's typical sweet vanilla and caramel, heavy corn and charred oak. The palate is more of the same, with a bit of orange peel giving a bit of zest to the profile. The finish is relatively smooth with a nice punch from the proof. It's definitely more vibrant than it's normal bottling, but I'm not sure there's a real reason to choose this over the normal white/black label. Especially at $10-15 above the regular stuff. As a mixer, it's still Jim Beam with a slightly harder bite. Still, I'm not sure it warrants a special bottling and increased price. If you like JB I'd recommend sticking to the regular stuff and spend those extra dollars on something more substantial. Cheers.