Booker’s “The Reserves” (2024) Quick Review

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My reviews tend to be long-winded and detailed. I know that many readers don’t have the time or patience to read them all. This is why I have decided to create a “Quick Review” format. I’m not going to cover backstories, distilling methods or anything like that if I know I’ve covered it in a previous review of a similar bottle. You’ll find that a lot of these quick reviews will be based on single barrel picks because their backstory is usually the same with the exception of the group that picked them.

Introduction

When Booker’s “The Reserves” was first announced with an age statement of 8+ years old, I didn’t give it much thought. I figured it was another cash-grab for Beam in an attempt to further “premium-ize” its already premium-priced Booker’s releases. Besides the funky brown label and wax, the age was only about a year older from those standard batches, so what was the big deal?

It was a short time later that I learned the batch wasn’t just 8-years-old. There were also 9, 10 and 14-year-old barrels blended in as well. Even more interesting was the fact they were all selected by Freddie Noe. Knowing all of this made “The Reserves” feel a little bit closer to the “Booker’s 30th” release – which used 9 and 16-old-barrels. And if it was anywhere near the flavor of B30, Beam was going to have another hit on their hands.

Booker’s The Reserves

The timing for The Reserves was interesting because it was released almost simultaneously with another one of Freddie Noe’s projects: Little Book The Infinite. Two Limited-Time Offering (LTO) bottles released so close to each other probably wasn’t the best business decision because it made many enthusiasts choose between one or the other. But it was The Reserves that sold out first (in the gift shop and nationwide) which makes me think it was the more loved of the two.

I have a couple of theories why The Reserves had more fanfare than Little Book The Infinite. The first is that the Booker’s line is more beloved by more people. The second is that The Reserves was $70 cheaper than the Little Book. Whatever it was, the secondary market has shown The Reserves is valued at more than $100 over retail price (which was $130) while Little Book The Infinite has almost no secondary value.

In context to the secondary market of Booker’s 30th Anniversary (which was released in late 2018) and is holding steady at $750); The Reserves looks like a steal at about a third of the price. I’m not saying that perceived value is a good judge of the bourbon inside, but it can offer some clues. So did Freddie create an all-star blend? Let’s find out. I sampled this neat in a glencairn.

Tasting Notes

Nose: The nose is full of oak (both seasoned and antiqued), vanilla, rich caramel and even butterscotch scents. This is an impressively rich bourbon by any metric and smells far older than 8 years in a barrel. Surprisingly, I’m finding a little bit more fruit notes than I normally would with caramelized pear and a little bit of toasted citrus zest. There are fragrant baking spices and toasted hazelnuts to boot. This is fantastic.

Palate: Wow! The oak is much more intense than I was expecting. Tannins rule the sip and continue their theme with flavors of wood varnish, “rickhouse floor,” cedar cigar box and walnut shells. Sweeter flavors like nutty brittle and vanilla cupcakes follow. The fruit notes are back with more citrus zest, but this time the orchard fruit turns into cherries. Spices like cinnamon and allspice mix it up with the heat of 125+ proof points. It’s still shockingly drinkable.

Finish: Think there was a lot of oak so far? The finish has even more. It suffers a little bit with the drying oak on top of tobacco and coffee notes, but overall it doesn’t ruin how great this has been so far. I still find nutty brittle, caramel and vanilla which help to balance it out. The finish goes on for a long time as well.

Score: 8.6/10

Booker’s “The Reserves” definitely belongs up near the top of the best batches to wear the Booker’s name. There remains a delicate balance that the blenders at Beam must weigh whenever they make a batch. If the barrels go much over a decade in oak, they become over-oaked and oxidized. The only way to combat this is with the addition of younger barrels.

I can taste some of those older barrels in this release and it adds the perfect amount of maturity, tannins and complexity. This is how every Booker’s batch should be, but probably can’t, due to the delicate nature of maturing a Booker’s barrel (no water can ever be added, so what you see is what you get). As a final note, I know that hindsight is always 20:20, but if I had known how good The Reserves was, I’d advise all Booker’s fanboys (and girls) out there to skip all standard Booker’s releases in 2024 and concentrate on getting one (or two) of these bottles. They’re the real deal.