Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon | 53.5% ABV

Score: 7/10

**Very Good Indeed.**
***TL;DR***
*Booker’s baby brother you say? Well, that makes perfect sense*

The Water Cooler

The Dramface water cooler is a particularly interesting place to be. As our writers span the globe, our “water cooler” is a WhatsApp group chat. The comments, opinions, jokes, snark, sarcasm, notes, and posts come at all hours.

While the bulk of the writers hail from the UK and/or western Europe, there are a few of us residing in other, far-flung time zones. And, with apologies to our colonial newcomer, Nick Fleming, currently located in New York (as he hasn’t been introduced to the DF water cooler as of the time this review was being drafted) there has developed a certain camaraderie and bond formed among us descendants and heirs of the rebels that cast off the bonds from the British Isles in times past. We affectionately refer to ourselves as the “DF Colonials”.

To be fair, Eallair and I, the Americans, inherited the legacy of our original rebellious rabble rousing forefathers. Aussies Tyree and Calder are, generations later, carrying the baton from the cast-out felons and criminals. While Broddy and Aengus are the progeny of the polite hey-we’re-with-you-but-would-kinda-like-our-own-country-eh? Canadians. Regardless, Colonials we all are.

Listening to the DF water cooler, we Colonials are all not-so-secretly jealous of our Scottish, Irish, English, Welsh, and European brothers and sisters who have easier access to Scottish distilleries, whiskies, and festivals. It is fascinating to hear about it all. While we’re not shy and we take part in the conversations, sometimes it is a bit awkward. For example, I’ll hear my cell phone ping during the work day (and, yes, every now and then I can quickly jump in) but oftentimes by the time I am free to join the conversation most of the UK. and European-based Dramface folk are not far from their evening sleep. Time zones are tricky like that.

But, among us Colonials, our time zones align pretty well. Those of us in North America can easily converse with the folks in Australia. During our North American early evenings, it’s morning in Australia. Our texts are done when we are all – for the most part – awake and able to chat in real time. And when we’ve had Colonial Zoom meetings, one side of the equation is drinking whisky with eggs and toast while the other side of the equation enjoys a whisky as an after-dinner drink. And, not to boast, but we Colonials do make some awesome whisky breakfasts…Calder especially, his tales of pairing peated Bunnahabhain with breakfast spreads are simply legendary.

And so it came to pass that we Colonials decided to try a multi-writer review. The initial problem was finding a common bottle available to us all. While we’ll try to do something in the near future to include our brothers-from-other-mothers Tyree and Calder, asking them in Australia to get their hands on the same expression as we in North America is a bit much. Also, both Aussies are presently tied up a bit – Tyree burning the candle at both ends finding his way to become a master distiller and Calder is corralling a few very young tots who, along with his day job, keep him busy enough to warrant a sabbatical.

So, with Tyree and Calder on the sidelines for this one, the North American rabble have decided to find and review a bottle available to us all. We thought about some single malts, but there were too many obstacles between the United States and Canada. What did appear to be a common denominator in our whisky shops, however, was good ol’ bourbon. After some suggestions, we settled on Baker’s 7.

Baker’s Bourbon is a whiskey from Jim Beam’s Small Batch Bourbon Collection. There’s a 13 as well as the 7 and it’s one of four small batches in the collection: Aside from the Baker’s, the others in the series are Booker’s, Knob Creek, and Basil Hayden’s. Booker’s expressions carry the highest alcohol content, though the ABV among its releases varies. Next in the ABV line, both Baker’s expressions are bottled at 107 proof (53.5% ABV), while Knob Creek and Basil Haydens have the lower alcohol content.

It being from the Small Batch collection, Baker’s bottles are derived from single barrels, and therefore no two barrels are the same. There is no vatting nor mixing here – once the barrel is dumped, only limestone water (so says the Baker’s website) is added to proof the whiskey down to 107º.

Baker’s Bourbon’s website has a plethora of information. The mashbill of the Baker’s 7 recipe is 77% corn, 13% rye, and 10% malted barley. Using the serial number on the neck of the bottle, I can track the history of the barrel, its dump date, at which of the four campuses it was stored, how long it aged, and the floor and rack number in the rickhouse where the barrel was aged. Want to know the hottest day the barrel had in that warehouse? The coldest? It’s all there.

Reaching out to Baker’s Bourbon, I learned that it was introduced in 1992 as part of Booker Noes small batch collection. Since Baker’s introduction, it has gained a quiet but firm following, though it remains a somewhat under-the-radar expression. It is available, but isn’t ubiquitous as its relation, Basil Hayden, which is impossible to miss here in North America as it seemingly has 396 different cask expressions and bottlings. Anyway, we had heard about the quiet Baker’s buzz, if that can be a thing, and we were intrigued. So, Baker’s 7, it is.

What intrigued us even more is that we wanted to compare notes on a single barrel product. How would the tasting notes and general reception vary, if at all, among us? Varied taste buds and variations among bottles. Among the four of us, we have three different batches (Eallair and I did a bottle share, with half of my bottle heading from North Carolina to Colorado.)

But wait…there’s more.

As a kicker – because we Colonials are nothing, if not generous – each of us is will offer a brief comparison to a different bottle of bourbon from our respective stashes to help y’all when you find yourself looking at bottles of bourbon in the store.

Review 1/4 - Ogilvie

Baker’s 7 Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Serial No. 004344912 / Warehouse CL-H, Bottled December 2015, age 7 years 10 months, 107º Proof, 53.5% ABV
USD$69.95 paid. (£56)

Product of a single barrel. Dump date October 2023. Barrel aged on floor #2, rack #5 of Jim Beam warehouse CL-H.

Nose

A sweet and rich (almost umami-ish) combination of browned butter, pine needles, and brown sugar. Artificial vanilla icing from a can. Almond butter and peanuts. Wood char and cherries. Allspice and saw dust from a lumber yard.

Palate

Cinnamon, brown sugar and maple syrup. Slightly bitter molasses. A hint of yellow-green ripeness of banana. Mid palate, black pepper spice with astringent black tea come forward. Peanut brittle and rye spice. Oak throughout but the spices equal and build to a larger portion of the palette. The finish is not hugely long but it is a nice blend of that pepper, peanut brittle, rye, and allspice.

The Dregs

This bourbon is particularly nice. As noted in my recent Heaven Hill review, I am still at the start of my bourbon journey. Even so, I can firmly say that this Baker’s 7 is particularly good. It is in the same family as Booker’s – literally and figuratively. While there are differences, I can detect the same family lineage. And, for those that haven’t read my Booker’s review, let me simply say that I really enjoyed that bottle.

This bottle has sweetness, but there is a richer and rounded flavour here that I haven’t experienced with many other bourbons. Granted, as said, I have not had an enormous range of bourbons as of yet…but for the ones I have had, this one is close to the top.

It didn’t come out of the bottle this way. This bottle has opened up extraordinarily well after being open for a week or so. The sharp, and almost tart, edges are gone. The richness and the tea and the spices have emerged wonderfully. Letting a bottle breathe is a thing.

My Baker’s 7 is, in all reality, the little brother of the Booker’s Tea Batch that I fully enjoyed. And, that makes sense as it is the next step down – proof-wise – in the Jim Beam Small Batch Bourbon Collection. 128 proof versus 107 proof does really have a noticeable step down, but those foundational notes translate and shine through. Great blend of nuttiness, oak, spices, and a nice astringent black tea note.

If I rated the Heaven Hill as a low 6/10, the Rare Breed was a higher 6/10, this Baker’s 7 gets its own 7/10 from Ogilvie. Perhaps, as I become more fully immersed in bourbon and expand my horizons, this score may need some reconsideration – but placed against the backdrop of the bourbons I have tasted, and looking at the Dramface scoring guide, this is a 7/10.

Score: 7/10 OS

Review 2/4 - Broddy

Baker’s 7 Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Barreled 03-2016, Age 7 years 2 months, Serial No. 000128687, Warehouse CL-L, 107º Proof, 53.5% ABV
CAD$62 paid. (£36)

I was excited with the prospect of a collaboration of North American writers but it became apparent that our local market availability would become a challenge.

I am very fortunate to live in a veritable malt mecca without legislative interference, a far cry from my other contributors here. So with that dilemma firmly in our minds, we discounted Scotch whiskies since availability meant that basic whiskies were either difficult to find or would cost a slice of kidney.

So we resorted to bourbons and upon a suggestion, we settled on the single cask Baker’s releases as they offered an attractive price point and presentation. Colour me intrigued. And by happenstance, this bottle went on sale the day after our last Colonials chat, perfecto!

Score: 5/10

**Average. In a good way.**
***TL;DR***
*Good bourbon at a good price*

Nose

Brown sugar. Vanilla. Soft dry albeit indistinct rye spice undertones are hiding under the bourbon sweetness. The %ABV prickles my nose. Nothing exceptional but nothing negative either.

Palate

There’s aspects of this that remind me of an Old Fashioned, a combination of simple syrup sweetness, maraschino cherry, and a slight bitterness that reminds me of a few too many dashes of angostura bitters. In reality, the bitterness quickly transforms into a barrel heat and spiciness. The spice is replaced with a brown sugar sweetness on a quickly fading experience. The spicy sugary experience does cling to my teeth. It’s not a toothache inducing level of sweetness but has a tendency to turn your teeth a little fuzzy.

With a dollop of water, the spice is dialled down significantly, replaced from a tongue-biting spice to an inside-cheek tingle and pucker. Unfortunately, it dials everything down and doesn’t reveal anything else, turning this into a nondescript bourbon.

The Dregs

Upon my first two drinks, I was ready to write this one off. It has since tamed down quite nicely with some air time. Definitely don’t judge this book by the cover. It’s a nicely average bourbon at a nice %ABV point, enabling usage in a wide variety of situations.

Following the theme of this multi-part review, I’ve compared this Baker’s to the malt-heavy 42% ABV Boulder bourbon, coincidentally also a combo review with Aengus and both of us arriving at a 6/10.

In comparison, the Baker’s is a weightier nose owing to the higher ABV but also suffers from a significant nose prickle as a result, while the Boulder is perfectly subtle and much fruitier. On the palate, the Baker’s is much hotter and spicier, with a more oaky bite throughout. In contrast, the Boulder is sweeter, thinner, and an easier drinking experience with a pronounced fruitiness that is welcome to malt drinkers.

I’ve shared both the Baker’s and Boulder around with friends and 75% of them preferred the easier drinking and fruitier Boulder.

Score: 5/10 BB

Review 3/4 - Aengus

Baker’s 7 Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Barreled 03-2015, Age 7 years 2 months, Serial No. 000077848, Warehouse CL-1, 107º Proof, 53.5% ABV
CAD$105 paid. (£62)

I quite enjoy our little subgroup of Dramface Colonials which I surmise was born out of a shared sentiment of feeling a bit left out.

All of us are scotch whisky lovers at heart, we’re just removed from the action by an ocean or two. Every once in a while, we’ll get together for a call and talk about our fascinations with the finer things - not always whisky. Whether it’s whisky, wine, cheese, Broddy’s homemade bagels, or my latest obsession, coffee; with two engineers, a lawyer, a child therapist, a polar explorer, and a mad scientist, there’s a lot of technical knowledge and opinions in this group which always makes for an entertaining and informative discussion.

In a previous life I was mainly a bourbon drinker and I’ve been a fan of Baker’s bourbon going back far enough to have bought a few of them when they were still in the old bottles. That old bottle was a class act. No frills. Cheap glass (probably a Burgundy wine bottle) with a standard issue cork stopper, black wax dipped, a black label slapped on the front with a big letter “B”. It really gave the sense that you were holding a serious drinker's bourbon.

The new bottle has been modernised to be bolder and more shouty and the liquid inside upgraded to single barrel status while maintaining the age and ABV. The current design is alright overall but the new stopper is an unsightly mess. Chunky cheap grey plastic. And it feels worse than it looks with the appearance of heft, but featherweight in the hand.

I haven’t been drinking much bourbon lately so I was happy to buy this bottle and dig in.

Score: 5/10

**Average. In a good way.**
***TL;DR***
*A solid example of its type*

Nose

Very sweet. Caramel, apple, brown sugar. Typical bourbon barrel char, a bit of the classic Jim Beam peanut dust.

Taking a break for dinner with my wife (bowtie pasta, pesto, parmigiano, and a juicy Californian red) I come back to the glass about an hour later. The nose is even sweeter now - vanilla, maraschino cherry syrup.

Palate

A deep sweetness. Apple juice, oak, more char. It is slightly thin and hot. Slight antiseptic.

After an hour of airtime, some of the heat dissipates and there’s a pleasant drying sensation on the tongue underneath the sweetness. A heavy dose of oak adds to the structure on the palate.

The Dregs

The Baker’s is fine. It’s bourbon, bottled at a nice ABV. It’s a bit hot, but time in the open bottle and in the glass mellows it out and gives a more enjoyable drinking experience.

I dove into my stash of samples to find a bourbon I could compare. Low and behold there was another Baker’s, this one barreled in 2012 and aged 8 years and 7 months. Pouring the sample, it was a little rounder, a little more floral on the nose, with a little more rye spice detectable on the palate. But no doubt the same profile from the same maker.

One of the other samples I found was from Barrell Craft Spirits. Barrell Bourbon Batch 30, released in 2021 a blend of bourbons aged between 5 and 15 years from Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Wyoming at 58.7% ABV. In comparison to the two Baker’s the nose is fruity, grassy, and mineralic. In the mouth there was wine gums, limestone, and dried fruits and nuts. With more complexity and a more pleasant overall drinking experience, the Barrell is no doubt a better whiskey, but Baker’s is still a solid example of the genre.

Score: 5/10 AMc

Review 4/4 - Eallair

Baker’s 7 Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Serial No. 004344912 / Warehouse CL-H, Bottled December 2015, age 7 years 10 months, 107º Proof, 53.5% ABV
USD$69.95 paid. (£56) bottle split with Ogilvie

Even as the other resident Americano of the bunch, I hail from a completely different geography and subculture from within the States. Of these differences, our climate is considered “Continental”, which means that we are semi-arid - receiving as little as 7 inches of rain per year on the low side. We also have weather with mood swings - experiencing all four seasons in a day is pretty typical. We see weird anomalous events like thundersnow and Graupel showers.

Being so far west of the Mississippi River means we helped to pioneer the development of dry-land agriculture, which means we had to find ways to make do with little water for irrigation. As a result, our grains have developed a robust character - influenced by the arid atmospheric conditions, short growing season, and high altitude.

So for our Colonial Group Review, I thought I’d take advantage of our State’s unique geographic characteristics and compare a local product against the bell of today’s ball: Baker’s 7. I chose one of Colorado’s ranking favourite Bourbons: Laws 4 Grain Straight Bourbon. So without further ado: some stats:

Laws Four Grain Straight Bourbon:

Age: 3 years.
Mash Bill: Laws uses a four grain mash bill from two Colorado farms.
- 60% heritage corn
- 20% heirloom wheat
- 10% heirloom rye
- 10% heirloom malted barley
Column distilled
ABV: 47.5%

Baker’s 7

Age: 7 years, 10 mo.
Mash Bill:
- 77% corn
- 13% rye
- 10% malted barley
Column distilled
ABV: 53.5%

The distinctiveness between these two whiskey’s could not be more pronounced. Colorado’s Laws bourbon is much more up front - if not a bit rougher around the edges. The rye is far more pronounced on both the nose and palate. Maybe its the younger age, maybe its the mashbill, maybe its the climate - but the LAWS comes across more ruggedised. It also reflects more of what I’m accustomed to experiencing from a modern bourbon: young spiritous heat, wood spice, toasty oak and vanilla.

Baker’s 7 by contrast surprises me with flavours and characteristics that I would define as malty and subtle. As Broddy mentions, the Rye component is far more subdued and plays a small role - especially when compared my Laws’ far more rye-forward spice notes.

Score: 6/10

**Good stuff.**
***TL;DR***
*Wait… bourbon can be this good?*

Nose

Its sweet, but rather than honey itself, I get fields of honeysuckle flowers in bloom. This is the first bourbon I’ve had that’s pleasantly reminiscent of a single malt on the nose. There are floral notes present that I rarely get from bourbons ever. Overall the Baker’s is more rounded than most any bourbon I've yet had.

Palate

The contrast in ABV between these two whiskies led me to anticipate that the Baker’s would be ‘hotter’ than the Laws. However, this didn’t end up being the case. The Laws came across more sharp and ethanolic. Maybe its the difference in age that sets the two apart. The “heirloom grains” of the Laws definitely carried more character with more pronounced rye spice that gave off flavours of aniseed and dried coriander.

Similar to the nose, the Baker’s comes across more rounded, less punchy, and sweeter.

The Dregs

It would be hard to pick one Bourbon over the other - they are both enjoyable. That said, if I were forced to choose which I’d buy a second of, I’d pick the Baker’s. I attribute that to a couple of things: 1. The 7 years of ageing has treated the Baker’s well - rounding off the sharp edges, 2. The more pronounced and rustic rye spice drives the flavour of the Laws whereas the Baker’s is more balanced in comparison. No one grain dominates the flavour of the Baker’s and that ultimately presents itself as a more integrated package that is, for me at least, more enjoyable.

Score: 6/10 EMc

Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. OS / BB / AMc / EMc

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