Hardin's Creek Colonel James B. Beam Bourbon Whiskey

Hardin's Creek Colonel James B. Beam is a two-year bourbon at 108 proof made the way the Colonel made it on day 121 after Repeal — taken off the still at a low proof so the fermentation and the barrel show through the youth. Hardin's Creek is Beam's limited series, and this release is Freddie Noe's tribute to his great-great-grandfather, who rebuilt the family distillery in 120 days after Prohibition ended and put whiskey in barrels on the 121st; Freddie, the eighth-generation Beam and master distiller of the new Fred B. Noe Distillery in Clermont, distilled it there at a lower proof than modern Beam, aged it two years in new charred oak, and bottled at 108 proof. Breaking Bourbon: peanut brittle, candy corn, sweet cream, new oak, and spice on the nose; peppercorn, toasted oak, gumdrops, red licorice, and roasted nuts on the palate; and a finish of oak, green peppercorn, tobacco, peanut brittle, and lingering spice. The Whiskey Wash and Paste both note how much the low-proof distillation gives a two-year-old — the Beam peanut signature, all the way up. Honest note: it's a $80 two-year bourbon and reviewers argued about that; what it is is a historical exercise by the most talented distiller in the Beam family, and the Beam-nut fan's collectible. Neat, in a Glencairn, beside a Booker's for comparison. Hardin's Creek, the Colonel.

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