Sunday Evening Review

This week SER reviews a newer release from Fred B. Noe Distillery, Hardin’s Creek Jacob’s Well 184 months aged (15 years for those mathematically challenged) edition. This came in with a fair bit of fanfare. Let’s find out if it holds up to the hype.

This review was a request from a member so make sure you put in the comments any bottles that you would like me to review.

NAME – Hardin’s Creek Jacob’s Well

PROOF – 108

AGE – 15 years but this is a blend of 15 year and 16 year bourbon

COLOR – Aged Hickory bark (1.8 old oak on the Whiskey Magazine Color Chart)

NOSE – Classic scents are here in spades. Caramel, cinnamon stick, vanilla, aged oak but I think the classic cherry note leans more to a strawberry taffy. There is the smell of a tobacco barn, some maple syrup and roasted coffee beans.

TASTE – The age of this whiskey shows on the palate. Old oak, leather, tobacco, along with cinnamon, maple syrup and raisins.

FINISH – I would call this a medium finish. Slight disappointment is this whiskey is thinner than expected for a 15 year bourbon and I think it hurts the length of the finish. That said it is very pleasant. Aged oak, roasted peanut, and leather linger until the end.

REVIEW – Don’t know if this is influenced by something but this is what I think Baker’s would taste like if it was 15 years old. That’s a very good thing. Makes since as the proof if very close and both from Beam. I appreciate the tamed down Beam peanut in this whiskey and all the darker notes that I really enjoy.  Really the only think that makes this a very good bourbon versus a spectacular bourbon is the mouth feel and longer finish.

FINAL COMMENTS – Here is from the press release for Hardin’s Creek:

Hardin’s Creek is an ongoing series of annual releases, featuring some of James B. Beam Distilling Co.’s rarest and most unique liquids and grounded in the rich experience and distilling expertise of James B. Beam Distilling Co. Each set of releases will showcase the breadth and depth of the James B. Beam Distilling Co’s whiskey-making credentials inclusive of age, blending, mash bill, distillation, barrels, rackhouse locations, and more. This year’s inaugural Hardin’s Creek series will launch with two expressions: Jacob’s Well™ Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, a thoughtful blend of two ultra-aged bourbons, and Colonel James B. Beam™ Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, a carefully crafted young whiskey.

The Fred B. Noe Distillery was thoughtfully named after seventh-generation Master Distiller Fred Noe, with the intent of producing new-to-world innovative products as part of the next generation of whiskey such as Little Book® and Booker’s®. On May 12, 2022, Freddie Noe was officially named the Master Distiller of the Fred B. Noe Distillery, announced by his father Master Distiller Fred Noe. This is significant as it is the first time in Beam history that there are two family members, working alongside one another, sharing the Master Distiller title at the James B. Beam Distilling Co. homestead in Clermont, KY.

Today the Beam name is synonymous with bourbon, and that all started with Johannes Jacob Beam, the forefather of America’s first family of bourbon. In 1795, Jacob Beam set down roots in the foothills of Western Kentucky. He started with a sturdy but humble well to draw water from a nearby creek. That water powered a mill – the mill to grind fields of corn – which formed Jacob Beam’s earliest mashes. That creek – Hardin’s Creek – became the first source of his family’s enduring legacy.