Bookers Bourbon 2024-01 Springfield Batch Review
Booker’s “Springfield Batch” 2024-01 is the first release of 2024 and is called the Springfield Batch to honor Booker Noe’s childhood home town of Springfield, Kentucky, where he was born and raised. I was able to pick this up at a local Costco at MSRP plus the Washington governor’s extortionist tax of 20.5%. Pour yourself a dram and join me as I work on this Bookers Bourbon 2024-01 Springfield Batch review.
This batch is made up of 5 production dates stored in 4 different aging warehouses. The age is 7 years, 7 Months, 8 days and is 124.5 proof. The breakdown of barrel storage for Booker’s “Springfield Batch” is as follows:
17% came from the 5th floor of 9-story warehouse G
7% came from the 4th floor of 9-story warehouse H
31% came from the 5th floor of 7-story warehouse Z
45% came from the 4th floor of 7-story warehouse 3
Series: Booker’s 2024 Batches
Classification: Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Age: 7 years, 7 mo, 8 days
Proof: 124.5
Proof Designation: Barrel Proof
Batch Designation: Small Batch
Filtered Status: Non-Chill Filtered
Mash bill: 77% Corn, 13% Rye, 10% Malted Barley
Barrel Char Level: 4
Barrel Entry Proof: 125
Distillate Source: ??
Distillery: James B. Beam Distilling Co.
Company: Beam Suntory, Inc.
Bottled By: James B. Beam Distilling Co.
Distilled/Aging Location: Clermont, Kentucky
Master Distiller: Fred Noe, 7th Generation Master Distiller
Release Date: April 2024
MSRP: $90 (2024)
Secondary Market: $150
Availability: Somewhat Available
Booker’s Bourbon 2024-01 Springfield Batch Review
My tasting reviews are unique in that I include the notes of several well-known whiskey critics. The hope is that this format will help me and others to explore and expand their tasting experience. After you have taken your own tasting notes, read the reviews and see if there is a flavor note that others discerned that now you can detect as well.
For this tasting: Fresh crack), Glencairn Glass, Neat, Room Temp, Breathe: 40 minutes.
Legs
The beads begin to form on the crown at around 5 seconds, the legs begin to fall at around 9 seconds, and the first legs reach the bowl of the glass at around 23 seconds.
Nose
A sweet nose with a hint of cinnamon and anise, caramel, vanilla, brown sugar, oak, sweet leather.
Other Reviewer’s Perceptions
Mash & Drum: Vanilla, caramel, on the sweet side.
Breaking Bourbon: The aroma is bold with cinnamon spice up front. Sweet brown sugar and vanilla layer in, contrasting the whiskey’s spice-forwardness. Slight amounts of aged oak and leather add further depth, though their presence is fleeting. The result is a classic, satisfying Booker’s aroma.
Dram Guard: Vanilla barrel funk, thick sweet oak, waves of vanilla and oaky warehouse funk, aromatic vermouth.
Palate
Caramel, vanilla, toasted oak, sweet leather, cinnamon, anise, caramel corn funkiness, brown sugar, black pepper, a hint of peanuts, and a nice warming Kentucky hug. The flavors are a nice balance of sweetness, spice, and savory notes.
Other Reviewer’s Perceptions
Mash & Drum: Citrus, caramel, vanilla, bright, sweet, barrel char, a little oak forward.
Breaking Bourbon: Booker’s is billed as a bold barrel proof bourbon, which is immediately evident on the palate. Robust baking spices, highlighted by cinnamon, reach a high level of intensity right out of the gate. An undercurrent of brown sugar and caramel tapers in, which is complemented by savory leather and aged oak. The flavors are uncannily consistent with the aroma, though the intensity of the spice is turned up a few notches on the sip. It’s big, bold, and everything you want Booker’s to be.
Dram Guard: Silky vanilla up front that transitions into like a fortified wine sweetness, some funk and grape. The backend of the palate is a ton of funky oak, a sweet brown sugary oak. It’s like the essense of a funky bourbon warehouse, in a good way. It’s not super complex, but it is a really nice sip.
Finish
The finish is medium-long with brown sugar, vanilla, a hint of mocha, sweet leather, anise.
Other Reviewer’s Perceptions
Mash & Drum: na
Breaking Bourbon: Spice continues to intensify on the finish, with cinnamon again being the most prominent. It drastically eschews the sweeter flavors, gripping the taste buds with a warming intensity. While it’s one-dimensional to a degree, its staying power is what really defines it, making for an intensely long, satisfying ending to the sip.
Dram Guard: A ton of sweet vanilla and funky oak.
Mouthfeel
The mouthfeel is creamy and lingers for a medium amount of time. Pleasant.
The Burn
4 out of 5. This means that the burn from the alcohol is a bit lower (5% to 9%) than what I would expect it to be. I would guess this to be around 118 proof, not 124.5 proof.
Tasting Summary – Booker’s Bourbon 2024-01 Springfield Batch
Overall, I find the Booker’s Springfield Batch to be a satisfying pour, nicely balanced between sweet caramel/vanilla, spicy cinnamon, and savory, dusty oak.
My Rating
The higher the score the better the whiskey is in my opinion. For reference, my best rated bottle so far is the George T. Stagg 2022 (138.7p) with a score of 9.7.
| Score Type | Score | Examples |
| Likability Score | 8.5 | 1.0 – 10.0 |
| Availability Score | 3 | 1-Rare, 2-Hard to Find, 3-A Little Hunting, 4-Easy to Find |
My Tasting Notes
I used the tasting wheel below for writing my Bookers Bourbon 2024-01 Springfield Batch review. A blank version of this tasting notes wheel is available in both a color and a black & white version in the member’s area.
Notes and History
Label Inspiration – From the card inside the wooden Booker’s box:
The first release of the Booker’s® Bourbon 2024 Collection is Booker’s Batch 2024-01 “Springfield Batch.” This batch is named after the small town in central Kentucky where my dad, Booker Noe, was born and raised.
Dad was a natural storyteller. While out on the road to promote his namesake bourbon, he would tell anyone who would listen about how Booker’s Bourbon came about. Distributors and other industry folks thought Jim Beam hired an actor – that’s how good he was. He told a lot of different stories, but one of his favorites took place during a visit to Chicago. While eating at a nice restaurant, Booker was served a so-called “country ham.” However, it didn’t quite match up to his idea of a true, bona fide country ham. So he leaned over to his publicist and right-hand man and asked him to retrieve the ham he had stashed in his trunk for an upcoming Alaska fishing trip. Booker wanted to show the chef what genuine country ham tasted like. After a bit of back and forth, the ham made its way into the restaurant, where Booker generously shared it with both the chef and the other diners. That story always got the whole room laughing.
Many people think Dad was from Bardstown, the Bourbon Capital of the World, but it wasn’t until later in his adolescence that he moved into the Beam family home there. As a boy, he grew up in Springfield, Ky., a small rural town about 18 miles down the road. While the town has grown over the years alongside bourbon and a few other industries in the area, it was a farming community with many residents working in tobacco when Dad was young. Many, many years before he became the Master Distiller he was known for, he got his sense of hard work from his time as a farm hand in Springfield.
One thing most folks don’t know about the Springfield area is that it was where Abraham Lincoln’s legacy began. Beyond that, I’d say Dad is probably one of the more recognizable figures to come from Springfield. Even when he moved away, he spent a lot of time going back for family dinner, holidays and even the extended Noe family reunion every summer.
You never forget your hometown, and this batch is in honor of Dad’s. I hope you enjoy it as much as he would have.
— Fred Noe, Beam Family 7th Generation Master Distiller
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