Jim Beam’s new American Stillhouse is a new visitor’s center and production facility is getting a new whiskey to call its own. Specially bottled with a custom, vintage-dated label, Beam Master Distiller Fred Noe has put out this 2013 Clermont Limited Edition bourbon in an edition of just 7500 bottles, each numbered and signed by Noe. (No age statement or mashbill information is available.) We were lucky enough to nab one.

The nose is unexpected and intriguing, with characteristics of maple syrup, bacon, and deeper level baking spices — allspice and nutmeg. The body is even more unusual. Here you’ll find not the traditional vanilla sweetness of bourbon but something much different. Huge wood notes are evident, with secondary notes of incense, raisins, and leather. Lots of tannin throughout, with a very drying finish. In the end the fruit components take on more of a prune-like character, with plenty of wood notes to round out the finale. I can’t say it’s overwhelmingly pleasant. It’s got a certain frontier curiosity around it, but the fruit and sweeter elements are so muted that it comes across as decidedly flat.

80 proof. Reviewed: Bottle 1542/7500.

B / $40

Jim Beam American Stillhouse 2013 Clermont Limited Edition Bourbon

$40

8

Rating

8.0/10