Blind pour on a summer evening. Color: light amber, very slow teardrop legs. Nose is bountiful cherry, gala apples, figs, cinnamon, banana, brown sugar, maple syrup and oak in the distant background. The oak and a bit of varnish and tobacco come more forward with time. Bits of rye bread and spearmint in there as well. This is a 9.5/10 nose. I could breath this in all day. Hot and sweet, viscous with a blast of maple, brown sugar and spice with a turn toward an oily, oaky finish propped up some of the fruit esters. Wow. The allspice, clove, peppermint, dash of white pepper all mixed in with brown sugar and vanilla - then the oak/earthy and sweet tobacco notes. This finish just keeps going. What is this?!? It’s big and bold without pushing too far in any one direction. Not tannic or drying. Not bitter in any way. No funky esters. This is so well tied together. This is so Heaven Hill turned up to 11 but with more dark/sweet/earthy notes than I’ve gotten from, say, ECBP. There are no big dill or cedar notes so not MGP. No Turkey bubblegum funk. No Barton banana funk. No over the top stonefruit and vanilla BT characteristics. No Beam peanut funk. I’m sticking with HH but who knows. I’m still getting wood, sweet cherries and tobacco with vanilla sugar minutes later. Is this a blend? Sweet Heaven this is good. Very good. Good as in best pour I’ve had in a while. Age - maybe a sweet 9-13 years, leaning toward the 10-12 but sweet enough that it could be younger. Whatever it is they yanked it at exactly the right moment. Oily enough to be an aged, wheated mashbill but oh so good. Better than Larceny Barrel Proof good. And so wonderfully spicy. I’m out on the mashbill a parts of the nose say high rye but the oily finish is uncanny. This - somewhere in the top 5. Better than Bardstown Distillers series #3, Cream of Kentucky 13 and possibly even the likes of Weller FP (almost too earthy some days) or ECBP A119 or B520…. Won’t hurt you like Stagg Jr or GTS. This is at least Kentucky Owl batch 10 territory. Better than my beloved Lux Row Double barrel or Garrison’s Cowboy?? I’m afraid to say - this is quintessential, well executed and crave-worthy. Absolute thanks to @pkingmartin for whatever this is - it could be just about the best bourbon I’ve ever had. Reveal: Little Book Chapter 4 Wow. Well done Beam, we’ll done! I’m guessing the brown rice whiskey imported some of the unusual viscosity? This also seemed much more fruit forward than typical KC or Bookers (although I always thought Bakers had a noticeable amount of cherry). Being a blend it does have some unfair advantages - but I don’t care. Expressions like this one leave me asking why we aren’t seeing more blended American whiskey expressions outside of Barrell? The creative license beyond blending barrels from a single distiller has clear potential and in this case tremendous results (although it’s all still Beam at the end of the day). I will say that High West Bourye and WM Tarr fall short of what this accomplishes but I say keep at it because this is phenomenal.