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Despite being owned by one of the biggest drinks companies in the world, Suntory Global Spirits, the James B. Beam Distilling Co. is still kind of a family business—at least when it comes to the past few master distillers. Freddie Noe is the eighth generation master distiller, following in the footsteps of Fred Noe, his father, and the late Booker Noe, his grandfather. Over the past few years, Freddie’s pet project has been Little Book, a series of blended whiskeys that are supposed to pay tribute to his granddad. And the latest release, Chapter 9 “None For Granted,” is a blend of whiskeys that includes bourbon made with brown rice in the mashbill.
That brown rice bourbon was aged for eight years, and it was actually previously used when it was half that age in Little Book Chapter 4 “Lessons Honored.” Of course, that’s just one of the components in this blend, which has included Canadian whisky and different types of rye in previous expressions. The other whiskeys are as follows: 11-year-old bourbon, 8-year-old rye whiskey, and two different 7-year-old bourbons. At a recent tasting, Beam global brand ambassador Tim Heuisler explained that one of the 7-year-old bourbons in the blend was fermented for five days instead of three and distilled to a lower proof point, which is supposed to have added more fruit notes to the palate, while the other was finished in a toasted barrel. The final blend was bottled at 121.8 proof and was filtered to remove any barrel char from the liquid.
According to Freddie, “None for Granted” is an homage to what he considers to be the “founding flavors” of modern American whiskey, and he spent about 18 months formulating the blend. “Chapter 9 takes us back several decades, to an era when whiskey as we know it was just finding its feet,” he said in a statement. “After experimenting with several blends, we landed the profile. Five unique whiskeys blended into a viscous, golden liquid . . . As possibilities were explored and foundations were laid, a certain profile began to emerge: one built on brown sweets, the comforting warmth of vanilla, creamy caramel, and big oak.” We got to sample the whiskey, and those notes are present, along with leather, tannic oak, black pepper, cinnamon red hots, and ripe stone fruit. There’s some heat on the finish, as you might expect, but it fades into a pleasant warmth.
Chapter 9 might not be the most flashy or interesting (or even the best) Little Book release that Freddie has come up with, despite the inclusion of some interesting components. But perhaps that lack of flash was the point, given his statement about the inspiration for this expression (go back and try Chapters 4, 6, or 2 if you want to see just how unique Little Book can be). Little Book Chapter 9 (SRP $160) will be available starting this summer, and you can find previous releases at websites like ReserveBar now.
Authors
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Jonah Flicker