Booker's Bourbon Batch 2025-02 'By The Pond' (75cl, 63.3%)

Booker's Bourbon Batch 2025-02, known as By The Pond, is the second Booker's release of 2025. It is a Kentucky straight bourbon in a 750ml bottle, bottled uncut and unfiltered at 63.25% ABV after 7 years, 1 month and 20 days in barrel. The name recalls the pond by Booker Noe's home, where he went for peace and inspiration. His son Fred Noe, seventh-generation Master Distiller, chose the batch during a very wet Kentucky spring, when its deep colour reminded him of a Kentucky Derby racehorse. The blend brings together barrels from seven production dates, aged in eight different warehouses. Fred Noe describes a nose of vanilla and oak and a sweetness he enjoyed on first taste. Further notes include toasted oak, caramelised sugar, roasted peanuts, red berry and baking spice.