Baker's 107 Proof 7 Year Bourbon Review

Confession time: I didn't think I liked Bourbon (or American Whiskey on the whole), my experience with such things was limited and not the best with the only Bourbon proper I'd had being Jim Beam Triple Aged 6 year old Black label, which I found a bit too sweet and simple -albeit not bad.  I'd also had Jack Daniels Old No. 7 which, whilst not technically a bourbon is one in most ways that count, I found to be overly young, simple and sickly sweet.  But I kept hearing about various Bourbon's that sounded rather good.  Yesterday I went into the local liquor store and wanted something different to the usual Scotch, I looked at some rums but then I saw the subject of today's review, Baker's 107 Proof Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon, the price was quite reasonable and I recalled vaguely having read some quite decent reviews of it (though I couldn't remember specifics), and thus the bottle was mine.

Price Paid: $75.99 nzd.

This Bourbon is part of Jim Beam's "Small Batch" range that consists of apart from this one, Knob Creek 9 year old, Basil Hayden's 8 year old, Booker's True Barrel Bourbon, and the subject of today's review the 7 year old Baker's 107 proof. This Bourbon is said to use the standard Beam mash bill but with a different yeast, is 7 years old and bottled at 53.3 per cent.  It's a fiery big beast of a Bourbon and one to be approached with care.

Tasting Notes:

Colour:  Rich mahogony.

Nose (neat): Spicy rye notes, pepper, nuts, green pistachio nuts, slight toffee and caramel, a wonderful rich fruitiness akin to Cognac, hints of milk chocolate.  As it develops more in the glass the Rye, spice and pepper notes become more subdued and the fruity Cognac and nutty notes become more pronounced along with the Chocolate ones.  Surprisingly low on alcohol smell for something bottled at such a high strength.  Overall a very interesting nose that starts off quite aggressive, powerful and spicy, then becomes rich, fruity and chocolatey.  Rather complex.

Palate (neat): Arrives with a powerful burst of oak, spice and pepper, followed by nuts and fruit and charred notes, green pistachio nuts and green bitter woodiness, after some time in a glass the cognac fruit and chocolate notes become more prominent.  One thing that stays constant over time in the glass is that at the end the pepper and spices take over again and build intensly.  Overall quite interesting, this is a fairly aggressive palate, but then becomes richer over time in a glass.

Finish (neat):  medium length, pepper, oak, the green notes mentioned before.  Overall a dry finish that I quite like.

Well, it's quite impressive Neat so let's see how a little water and some time in the glass changes this Whiskey.

Nose (with water):  Much less of the rye, pepper and spices, now the first things I note are the green woods, buts and vanilla, the Cognac fruitiness is also considerably greater.  Overall this smells a lot like a very dry green oaky Cognac (though it is still noticeably a Bourbon.

Palate (with water):  Pepper and oak still lead, though much more diluted, then come the Cognac and vanilla type notes, the pepper and spices build up again becoming very intense then start to fade as the green notes come through.  Overall quite a lot milder than without water, still dry but focusing more on the sweeter aspects of this Bourbon.

Finish (with water):  Lots of the green notes oak and nuts.  Still rather dry but less powerful.

I'd say that this Bourbon is very interesting, both with and without water, I'm inclined to prefer the big attack and fire of this Bourbon neat, but I'll take it either way.


This Bourbon has certainly changed my mind about Bourbon and American Whiskey in general.  I love it, whilst it's not hugely complex -though it does have a reasonable amount of complexity-, it does have a wonderful combination and balance of flavours (both neat and with water).  It's a substantial big flavour dry Bourbon that isn't overly sweet or harsh (although it is fiery and you must approach it with care).  I'd give this Bourbon an 89 / 100, and I highly recommend this Bourbon.


Well this was my first review, I hope you guys liked it and I'd appreciate any feedback or tips for it, you'd be doing me a real favour if you did so.  Thanks for taking the time to read it.

Whisky

Whilst it won't be the sole topic of my blog chances are (at least for now) Whisky will be the main topic of it.  I never used to drink, and the thought of drinking never appealed to me, then earlier this year something changed.  I'm not sure what but something changed, and I became interested in drinking.  I was introduced to it in the form of Rum and Coke, which I enjoyed and found to be rather enjoyable.  The rum was Bacardi -nothing special I know- and I did have a sip of it straight as well, I found it to be too alcoholic in taste but could tell something about it was appealing.  This lead to me doing some research into alcohol and coming to the conclusion that as well as Rum I should try out Whisky, but I wasn't sure which type of Whisky.  I ended up trying Whiskey first (Whiskey being the spelling for Whiskey produced in America, Ireland and a few other places for the most part and Whisky typically being the spelling for Whisky produced in Scotland Japan and New Zealand), in the form of Wild Turkey Rye 101.  Honestly, it was crap, harsh and simple and it burned like crazy, it wasn't for me but the people at the party I went to thought I was awesome for having it.  The next Whiskey I tried was Jack Daniel's Old No. 7, I found it alright at first but then came to the conclusion as I got more familiar with it, that it was too young and sweet and too simple for my liking - in other words great for getting pissed on, but I early on decided I wanted to drink for the flavour not for the purpose of getting pissed on.  Next I decided Scotch would probably be more my thing and so I dove in the deep end with a bottle of Ardbeg 10.  I immediately was fascinated by the nose and taste, it was of course like nothing else I'd ever had, the smoke and peat were unique, the notes of smoked fish and citrus sweetness (along with a sour citrus note) the way it progressed on the palate from sweetness to peat blast, to peppery notes that intensified, the way the finish was like what I described but in reverse, well I can't say I fell in love immediately, but I knew it was something that I would like given a little more time.  And what do you know, I was right.  within a few drams (no more than one every couple of days at that point, now I'm more likely to drink a dram or so a night) I'd fallen in love with it, sure it was a bit intimidating but I liked the challenge of the flavours and of figuring out just what the hell I tasted and smelt.  My next Whisky was the Yamazaki 12 year old which I found in the local Liquor store and had been interested in trying.  Well if Ardbeg was the begining of my love affair with Whisky, it was the Yamazaki that confirmed this love was to last.  I loved it immediately (and still do), the balance of sweetness and oak spice and pepper, the beautiful fruity notes and vanilla, God, it was heaven (I get sad when I look and see that my bottle is almost gone).  Since then I've had several other bottles of Whisky including some fantastic ones made and bottled here in New Zealand, and have come to the conclusion that Whisky really is one of the finer things in life.  I like to think I've learned fast in the last 3 or 4 months that I've been drinking Whisky, but it's probably just that I listened to the people whom I admired and trusted in their views of Whisky (be they Vlogers such as Ralfy or Bloggers such as Jason of Jason's Scotch Blog) when told me -well more precisely the reader or viewer rather than me in particular- to trust my nose palate and general instincts.  And now I'm going to be exploring Whisky here in this blog (amongst other things I'm going to be writing about, but as I said it will likely be the main topic), both with reviews and just my thoughts about Whisky.  I'm still new to this so take my reviews with a grain of salt -please for the love of God don't take me as a fucking expert, firstly I'm not, secondly they're normally full of shit!- but I hope you enjoy my blogs and reviews and get something out of them.  I'm going to try to have my first review out within the next week.  Now for the fun process of deciding which I will review first...

Introductory Crap.

Right, well first things first I'm writing this blog because I have a lot to say about a  lot of things and VLOGs are too much fucking effort.  I'll be writing about many things -basically anything of interest to me or that I simply have something to say about- at the moment my primary topic will be Whisky (the latest interest of mine), and I'll be writing my thoughts on that (and like as not doing some reviews too).  But I'll also be writing about things like; Anime, Video Games, Music, Tabletop RPGs (and my disappointment that I know almost no one who's interested in playing the damned things which means I've not played any for years), Politics, Economics, Films, Tv shows etc.  etc.  My name is Sam (the name Xephon I'm using comes from a friend's nickname for me based on the fact that before I was introduced to the awesomeness that is '80s anime, my favourite show was RahXephon), so feel free to call me that, or don't it's really up to you.  I have a dark sense of humour which may come out at times, I may swear at times on this blog, I'm a Libertarian and have a tendency to be a snob.  The last of those is not a good thing and I do like it when my snobbishness is proven wrong, but I'm just stating the stuff that might be controversial if you don't like my blog then you're welcome to not read it anytime.  Anyways I really hope anyone who reads this enjoys it.  I can't promise to blog regularly but I will certainly try to make up for that with the quality of my posts.  I'm not really as used to writing my ideas and thoughts as I am speaking them so finding a natural way to write might take me a while, and sorry if my writing seems a little forced because of that, but I'm gonna try.  Anyways I think that's got the bases down.  I hope you enjoy your time on this blog, and thanks for reading.