Review #243 - Baker's 7 Year Single Barrel

Jim Beam's 'Baker's' brand, named for Baker Beam (one of the Beam family members) is distilled at the Clermont facility. It's a single barrel product, which is aged for a minimum of seven years before bottling, though it's possible to find older bottles with a bit of searching. Once they dump the barrels, they bottle the bourbon at a nice 107 proof strength, so flavor should be in no short supply.

For our review, we tasted from a couple of distinct bottles of Baker's 7 - one single barrel had an age statement of 7 years and 10 months (warehouse CL-J), while the other barrel was aged for 8 years and 10 months (warehouse CL-H). Our goal is to give more of a generalized review of the product, as opposed to an individual review of a single barrel.

Baker's 7 Year Single Barrel

USA - Bourbon

Price Paid: USD 50 (2023)

Current Locally Available Price: USD 50 (2024)

Age Statement: 7+ Years

Strength: 53.5% ABV

Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 4 times over 8 months; bottles at 70%, 100%, 80%, and 70% fill levels at times of review. Tasted in a Glencairn glass each time, rested 10-15 minutes

Nose: Quite woody and oaky, nutty as well - leathery oak, wood smoke, barbecued wood, as well as raw almonds and dusty peanut brittle. Spices like cinnamon and clove are present, some black pepper too, and there's the tiniest hint of orange and cherry from time to time.

Palate: A medium thickness mouthfeel; a nice reflection of the nose. Woody with dry oak and hints of bitterness, strong barbecued wood, and lots of baking spices: pepper, nutmeg, cloying clove, and dry vanilla. There's a nutty character, dry nuts specifically, and then hints of sweetness. Generally, though, quite dry.

Finish: Medium length, warming, and becoming more balanced. There's still drying oak and dusty peanut, but we also get brown sugar, candied pecans, rum, and cooking spice.

Final Note: Not too simple but not overly complex either - there's decent flavor development, but it's almost all in the direction of woody and nutty flavors. A bit of a classic Jim Beam profile, and while it is strongly oaked for a product that's seven or so years old, it doesn't ever come across as too bitter.

Value is pretty good here - we've been seeing it more often on the shelves of local stores in the last year or two, so availability is increasing, and at the $50 price point, it isn't a huge gamble. There will be some variation between barrels, of course, with some shining and some more average, but our general experience was good.

Our Average Rating: 6.8 / 10

In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.

Value Rating: 7.33