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Beam Box (Round 6!) - Little Book Chapter 7 and Little Book Excerpt "Curious Endeavors" Review

Frank Gorman

If anyone is interested in my past reviews from this series, they are linked at the bottom.

Background

Back once again with another delivery from Jim Beam’s Barreled and Box program. This particular parcel is a Little Book double header, featuring Chapter 7 (In Retrospect) and the Barreled and Boxed exclusive Excerpt: Curious Endeavors. As standard with Little Book, each of these releases is crafted by Freddie Noe to be unique from previous Little Book releases.

“Previous Little Book releases” is actually the perfect place to start when it comes to Chapter 7, as Freddie Noe took 6 different “liquid streams” (seriously their language, not mine) from previous releases and blended them with a 7th stream (please god no more streams) to make this unique blend (river?). You might, reasonably I’ll add, be wondering what’s the deal with all of this stream talk. Well each Little Book release was a unique blend, and Freddie essentially took one COMPONENT of each blend to include here. For example, Chapter 6 contained malt whiskey finished in smoked applewood barrels, and that’s included in this Chapter. The full list of streams (sorry, I couldn't resist) included in Chapter 7:

  • 18yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

  • 17yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

  • 10yrs Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey

  • 9yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

  • 5yrs Straight Malt Whiskey finished in Applewood Smoked Barrels

  • 4yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

  • 4yrs Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey 

As for the Curious Endeavors Excerpt, Freddie Noe notes this a particularly unusual blend using 5 rare stocks they have in house. It’s meant as a hat tip to Shinji Fukuyo, Chief Blender at Suntory, who taught Freddie the concept of “Kodawari” - the relentless pursuit of perfection despite knowing perfection is impossible. Contained in this blend we have:

  • 17yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

  • 10yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey finished in Japanese Casks

  • 9yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey finished in Scotch Casks

  • 5yrs Straight Malt Whiskey finished in Applewood Smoked Barrels

  • 6yrs Brown Rice Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

  • 5yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey finished in Wine Casks 

Ok, we now have built a waterfall of information out of all of these various liquid streams. Let’s review!

Little Book Chapter 7 “In Retrospect” (4 Years- But See Above, 118.1 Proof)

Nose: Floral, with delicate hints of spiced fruit. Warm apples coated in cinnamon sugar.

Palate: Juicy! Sautéed, lightly caramelized peaches. Black tea. Nougat, orange creamsicle… gooey basically.

Finish: It's a crescendo of spices on the finish, cinnamon, tobacco, and orange zest. There's also a touch of peanut brittle here, just a touch!

Excellent (8/10)

Overall: Where the Excerpt drinks like a gentle sunset cruise, this is a flavor log flume ride. The flavors build slowly until a late breaking wave of delicious spices arrive on the finish. It’s a beautiful whiskey, rich with fruit and an excellent texture on the palate. The nose is not quite as prominent as I’d hope, but that’s a minor gripe in an otherwise exceptional pour. 

Little Book Excerpt “Curious Endeavors” (5 Years- But See Above Years, 111.6 Proof)

Nose: Bright cherry pie dusted with powdered sugar. Fresh from the oven (in the sense that it’s particularly aromatic) toaster strudel. Just a wonderfully sweet and baking goods forward nose.

Palate: Velvet texture that just envelopes your palate. Orange marmalade, juicy rich citrus with gentle anise and cloves. It melts in your mouth like a rich caramel.

Finish: Brown sugar, more orange, more cloves… and you can sense the older stock in here too. This whiskey has a robust oak backbone throughout.

Incredible (9/10)

Overall: Just a masterful blend, the texture is honestly incredible, the minute you sip it your palate is awash with a rich, velvet citrus wave that gently melts away. Similarly well executed is the balance of notes throughout the sip. It’s not overly sweet but draws you in with its layers of juicy yet spice rich fruits. It also has an oak-y heft subtly anchoring the entire experience, almost certainly from the 17 year old bourbon in the blend.

Prior Barreled and Boxed Reviews: