Colin Joliat
Booker’s Batch 2022-01 pays tribute to my third favorite Ronnie of all time – Ronnie Land. The first two are obviously Ronnie McDonnie and Shy Ronnie.
Bear with me as I momentarily channel my inner food blog. Back in the day, my friend Erica worked for Oprah’s eponymous show. And while I never really watched Oprah, I understood that women of a certain age across the nation gleefully awaited the annual Oprah’s Favorite Things episode.
Well, it turns out that moniker was a misnomer. Erica (and other employees) went out and picked a handful of options in particular categories. Then, the Big O would just pick one of them to be featured. These weren’t really her favorites nor had she probably heard of let alone used said things them. It would be like me starting an annual list of my favorite escargots.
Booker and Ronnie’s Batch
I tell this story to give you a sense of who Ronnie Land is. Ronnie is Erica in this situation. The biggest difference is that it was his job to know exactly how Booker Noe liked his bourbon, not to swing through the local Targét and grab random items in exchange for vodka money.
Ronnie worked at Jim Beam for 40 years, eventually working his way up to Warehouse Manager. Ronnie was responsible for keeping inventory of aging barrels, and he knew the quantities and locations by heart. He also knew exactly where Booker preferred to store his namesake barrels and was trusted to prepare the samples for batch evaluation. Booker always had final sign off when it came to batches, but he knew he was working with barrels that met his standards when they were under Ronnie’s watchful eye.
Booker’s Batch 2022-01 is 124.3 proof. And in a move that feels like they’re trying to hammer home that age is just a number, it’s aged for 6 years, 11 months, and 22 days – just a week shy of being able to call it a 7-year-old bourbon.
