Jim Beam Distillers Series

Jim Beam's Distillers Series is a limited release bourbon from the great bourbon maker. In fact, its release was announced last October with an availability only running through January 2009. So it was somewhat serendipity that I ran across a bottle (cluelessly not knowing what I was looking at) in a liquor store near the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. This is a seven year old that is bottled at 90 proof. The bottle itself has small portraits of each of the seven master distillers going back to Jacob Beam in 1795. The liquid inside is a dark crimson (I wonder if bourbon is colored with caramel coloring like some other whiskies?) and has a rich nose, with tons of spice, hints of chocolate, some burnt sugar and caramel (the gooey stuff, not the coloring agent). This is a fascinating bourbon: with water it is soft and round, a fabulous bourbon with tons of complex layers; on the rocks it is very spicy and has some roughness to it.