Thursday, January 2, 2014

Standard Bourbon Has New Exemplar: Jim Beam Single Barrel


Let us now praise standard bourbons.

Bourbon whiskey is a broad platform. It admits many wonderful variations. But standard bourbon is what most people drink most of the time. It is a distillate of corn, flavored with rye, aged four to six years in new, charred oak. It holds grain, yeast, and wood in gracious balance. It is suitable for all purposes. It is silky sweet with just enough bitterness to be adult. It is the benchmark, measure, model, and touchstone. It is classic and definitive. It is where all knowledge of America's whiskey tradition and heritage begins.

All standard bourbons on the market today are made by major distilleries. That is not to say a micro-distillery cannot make a standard bourbon, they just haven't.

Standard bourbons typically do not carry an age statement. They are usually a good value. They dominate the American whiskey market. For all of these reasons they are generally taken for granted.

Standard bourbons are not all the same. Most are perfectly okay. A few are less than they should be. Another few are wonderful.

The 'wonderful' category is about to get a new member.

It would be very disappointing if Jim Beam Single Barrel Bourbon was not wonderful. A successful single barrel program is all about selection, so having more barrels from which to choose than just about anyone else should be a huge advantage. Beam estimates that only one barrel out of 150 will make the cut.

Technically, single barrel just means that the contents of a given bottle all came from the same barrel, but the point of a single barrel program is selectivity. You're not picking to a standard so much as looking for the best liquid you have. According to Fred Noe, Jim Beam Single Barrel "represents our highest standards" and is "some of the very best liquid Beam's distillers have produced."

He's not kidding.

Much like the 12-year-old Jim Beam released last year, Jim Beam Single Barrel is exactly what it should be, an exemplar of standard bourbon. From now on, this should be Jim Beam's calling card. That's not to take anything away from any of the other whiskeys that bear the Jim Beam name, but they are all made by producing the best bourbon they can day-to-day, then combining barrels with different characteristics to match a standard. This is a slightly different paradigm. Here they are plucking the subjectively best barrels from the warehouses and bottling them as-is.

With single barrel, there's no place to hide.

Distillers have always done this, of course, prowled the racks to look for honey barrels. Who wouldn't, given the chance? That was the whiskey they kept for themselves and shared with their closest friends, like what German winemakers called their 'kabinett' (cabinet) wines. Elmer T. Lee adapted that paradigm for Blanton's, so did Parker Beam for Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage, and Jim Rutledge for Four Roses Single Barrel. It's inevitably a reflection of the maker's personal taste, a small bit of individuality in a homogenized corporate world.

Although not part of the Signature Series, Jim Beam Single Barrel uses the same bottle, but with a cork instead of the sensible screw top. It is 47.5% ABV (95° proof). Suggested retail is $34.99/750ml.

Look for it everywhere in March.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

They already put out Knob Creek Single Barrel, and that's also supposed to be the best of the best (for that flavor profile). In my experience, those generally are good but I've already bought two duds, one that was really bitter and another that was sickly sweet. Why should I expect this new one to be any more consistent?

Chuck Cowdery said...

Good question. Wish I could answer it. With single barrel, consistency is not the highest value.

BMc said...

I guess I should have asked a more directed question. Do you think they pick single barrels by identifying a small area in a warehouse with a high percentage of honey barrels, and then bottle them all? I can't imagine somebody personally vetted some single barrels I've purchased.

Chuck Cowdery said...

When barrels are being put away in the warehouse, they'll put 30 to 60 barrels from a given day into the same location in the warehouse, then move to another location and warehouse. When they're selecting, they'll select based on one or two barrels is that set, all of which were distilled and barreled at the same time. So they'll pull the whole 30 to 60 barrel batch based on tasting one of two of them.

Chuck Cowdery said...

That's not just Beam. It's more or less how everybody does it.

theBitterFig said...

If only Evan Williams would up the proof on their single barrel to something kinda like this...

Anonymous said...

Chuck's description of single barrel selection can explain why BMc wound up with several Knob Creek duds. Two barrels, distilled on the same day and placed next to each other in the warehouse, can age quite differently. The likely reason, as I understand it, is that different barrels are made from the wood of different trees. If Beam (or another distiller) selects, say, 60 barrels after tasting just two of them, then some of the remaining 58 barrels may not have aged gracefully. Yet they are still bottled as single barrel selections. The only way to avoid this problem is to buy single barrel bourbons for which a retailer has selected the specific barrel to be bottled. Assuming, of course, that the retailer's palate is compatible with that of the individual consumer.

Of course, another explanation for BMc's Knob Creek duds lies in the differences in everyone's sensory systems. Different people, I imagine, have different sensitivities to the various aromatic and flavoring compounds in bourbon. So a barrel that seems just fine to the Beam tasting panel might seem objectionable to BMc. Bourbon taste sensitivities and preferences are highly personal. So we should take, say, Jim Murray with a grain of salt when he rates one bourbon 89 and another 96. Too many people, I suspect, treat these rating numbers as quantitative values, as if they were measured with a taste meter stuck into a bottle. The fact is Jim and others just make these numbers up. There is nothing else they can do.

Tom Troland

Anonymous said...

An indirect question, but on-line articles I have found state that Mr. Chuck Cowdery was one of several individuals who were asked to assist in picking Booker's Batch No. 2013-6, with a Proof of 126.5. Here, in the Great Commonwealth of Virginia, the Booker's Batch No. 2013-6 has a Proof of 125.9, not the above Proof 126.5. How are batches done for Booker's, and why does my batch no. bottle differ from the descriptions I have read on-line. Thanks for the info.

Chuck Cowdery said...

I was involved in selecting a batch of Booker's. We tasted three samples, discussed them, and picked which one we thought was most Booker's-like. As for proof, because Booker's is always barrel proof, and barrel proof varies, the proof of each batch varies. I think the range is 125 to 127, or thereabouts.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the info. I have wondered if batch, for Booker's meant several barrels dumped together, and then bottled, or if it meant that a barrel was used, bottles filled, label made, and then on to the next barrel, with all of them called the same batch. Again, thanks from the Great Commonwealth of Virginia.

Chuck Cowdery said...

Booker's is barrel proof but not single barrel.

Anonymous said...

"That is not to say a micro-distillery cannot make a standard bourbon, they just haven't." As a microdistiller, I agree, but would argue that a microdistiller _shouldn't_ make a "standard" bourbon, either. The big boys can make a "standard" - micros should be making something different. The fact that a product is "non-standard" does not mean "bad quality" and micros do not and should not get a pass on quality, of course. But if a micro is making a "standard" product and can't compete on price, why bother?

Anonymous said...

Chuck, which standard bourbons are in your 'wonderful' list? My goal lately has been to spend less than $30 on bottles of bourbon (in Chicago anyway).

Chuck Cowdery said...

I'll name a couple, but there are many others. Woodford Reserve, Very Old Barton, Buffalo Trace, Four Roses Yellow Label, Old Forester, Evan Williams Black Label, Bulleit, and others.

Anonymous said...

Chuck- How similar would you expect the Jim Beam white single barrel at 47.5% to be to Jim Beam bonded sold to export markets only. I guess I'm asking if the bonded is the same mashbill etc

Chuck Cowdery said...

Everything that says Jim Beam on the label, except the rye, is the same mash bill. This is about barrel selection more than anything else.