Baker's 7 Year Old is a Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey produced by the James B. Beam Distilling Co. in Clermont, Kentucky, and forms part of the original Jim Beam Small Batch Bourbon Collection alongside Knob Creek, Booker's and Basil Hayden's. The label was first released in 1992 and is named after Baker Beam, grandnephew of Jim Beam himself, in recognition of his long career as a distiller within the family. In 2019 the expression transitioned from a small batch blend of around 200 barrels into a single barrel release, with each bottle now carrying its own barrel number, warehouse location and barrelling date on the neck label.
This is a bold, full-bodied bourbon built on the classic Beam high-corn mash bill with a generous portion of rye and malted barley. Expect an inviting nose of toasted oak, vanilla bean, caramel and roasted nuts, with hints of dried fruit and baking spice. The palate is rich and warming, layering dark caramel, toffee, charred oak and a peppery rye spice over a backbone of vanilla and cocoa, before a long, sweetly spiced finish carrying lingering oak and a touch of coffee.
The whiskey is matured for a minimum of seven years in new charred American oak, with single barrels selected from the most prized rackhouses on the Clermont campus. Fermentation uses a proprietary jug yeast strain that the Beam family has propagated for more than sixty years, considered central to the distillery's house character. Bottled at the traditional 107 proof that has defined Baker's since its launch.