Food & Drink

Review: Basil Hayden Subtle Smoke

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Producer Jim Beam has launched a spread of recent Basil Hayden merchandise lately, together with creative approaches to bourbon and rye, and now it’s providing one thing utterly completely different by making a bourbon with a distinctly smoky character. Unusually, it isn’t made with peat. They clarify the distinctive course of for creating a really refined observe of smoke:

The steps to create this distinctive bourbon start with toasting and flippantly charring a secondary barrel. Afterwards, hickory-smoked chips are delicately ignited at a relentless feed to provide smoke, which is then pumped into the barrel, leading to gentle, charred notes. This six-month secondary growing older course of offers a smoother, extra refined tackle smoky spirits, and creates the peerlessly subtle, but approachable introduction to each bourbon and Basil Hayden.

There aren’t many smoky American whiskeys, which makes this new providing from Jim Beam an fascinating experiment, however the phrase “refined” is within the identify of the product, and so they imply it. The smoke is a delicate observe and never a defining function. The nostril is generally traditional Basil Hayden, together with a lot of attractive caramel and sweet corn — with only a whiff of hickory smoke on the finish. The palate is identical, for probably the most half providing the flavors we anticipate from Hayden, together with extra caramel and sweet corn, honey, and vanilla. On the end, the barest observe of smoke could be detected, however to be sincere, I may not have identified that any particular smoke software was used in any respect right here, because the ingredient tastes prefer it might have merely come from the barrel. That’s all to say: I’m not altogether bought on the inclusion of smoke, however that is nonetheless an satisfying bottle of Basil Hayden with a little bit of creativity thrown in. For followers of the unique, it is perhaps price making an attempt.

80 proof.

B+ / $50 / basilhaydenbourbon.com

Basil Hayden Delicate Smoke

$50

Ranking


8.5/10

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