Booker Noe’s Barrel Bourbon 62.15% (Batch 2022-01E) 750ml Booker Noe’s

LABEL INSPIRATION

The first release of the Booker’s® Bourbon 2022 Collection is Booker’s Batch 2022-01 ‘Ronnie’s Batch.’ This batch is named in honor of Ronnie Land, a longtime employee at the Jim Beam Clermont and Boston, K.Y. plants, when my dad, Booker Noe, was master distiller. During his 40 year career at Jim Beam, he worked his way up to the Warehouse Manager position. Ronnie was always known to shoot straight with Dad, and Dad put a lot of trust in him because of that.

Ronnie was responsible for keeping inventory of aging barrels, a key part of the bourbon-making process. Back then, we had to track barrel quantities and locations by hand – no computers for that! – and Ronnie knew it all by heart. He also knew exactly where Dad preferred to store his namesake Booker’s barrels and, in time, he was trusted to prepare the samples for Dad to evaluate for the next batch. Once, Ronnie sent me home with a box of small Booker’s samples for Dad to taste. When Dad saw the samples, he said they weren’t big enough to get a proper sense of the whiskey, so what did Ronnie do? He went back into the warehouses and prepared samples that were notably bigger! Dad was more than pleased and that became the standard sample size Ronnie gave us from then on – and still the size that Freddie and I use today!

Dad always had final sign off when it came to his Booker’s Bourbon, but he knew he was working with barrels that met his standards when they were under Ronnie’s watchful eye.

Dad valued Ronnie’s dedication, work ethic and honesty and, because of this, he would be proud to honor Ronnie with a batch of his own. I hope you enjoy a glass alongside close family and friends.

— Fred Noe, Beam Family 7th Generation Master Distiller