Booker's Small Batch Bourbon

My wife, brother and sister in law and myself recently got back from a trip to our local whisky bar, Helvetica, where we got to try quite a few new whiskies.

The Hakushu 18 yr old (meh at best), the Springbank Madeira Wood Finish (brilliant), and the Springbank Claret Wood Finish (also brilliant)

At this point we felt that it was time to head in a different direction and try some American whiskies.

Specifically Booker's Small Batch Bourbon, Thomas H Handy's Sazerac Rye Whisky and William L. Weller's Wheated Bourbon.

All whiskies that we'd never tried before.

All whiskies that are supposed to be cracking drams!

We started with the Booker's Small Batch Bourbon just because we could.

I'd heard good things about this cask strength bourbon from Jim Beam, but I'd never got a chance to try it before.

Mainly because it was the cheapest of the upcoming whiskies.

That and the Antique Collection from Buffalo Trace is considered one of the high end sets of American whiskies and I wanted to save the best for last.

My wife at this point has removed herself from the tasting festivities so it was going to be me and my brother and sister in law.

Now I'm not really a huge Jim Beam fan, finding most of their whiskies being really good mixers, but not very good sipping whiskies so I wasn't sure what I was walking into.

Nose on this bad boy is intense with lots of spice, caramel, tobacco, vanilla, and oak.

Quite intense and not half bad!

Time for a taste.

A lot of wax and grass notes are the first thing that hits my palate, then some cinnamon, caramel, oak, vanilla and a hint of cherries, but it is all dominated by a waxy grass flavor.

Finish is quite long with cinnamon, vanilla, oak and wax grass following through.

Not a bad bourbon, but not that greatest I've ever had, however it's a cask strength and small batch so you'll get different flavors from different bottles even better is the price point for a cask strength whisky.

Roughly $90 AUS which is bloody cheap for a cask strength whisky.

In fact I do believe my next bottle of exploration bourbon might be another one of these bad boys because at that price point, it's stupidly cheap. And I might get a better bottle!