Hardin’s Creek Frankfort Bourbon Now Available

Jim Beam has launched the second installment within the Hardin’s Creek Kentucky Series (announced June 2023), called Hardin’s Creek Frankfort. The Kentucky Series takes whiskey fans on a journey of ‘Kentucky Terroir’, featuring three Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey expressions, all aged for 17 years with the same mash bill — the only difference being the location of aging. This limited-edition collection of ultra-rare expressions includes Hardin’s Creek Clermont (released June 2023), Hardin’s Creek Frankfort (launching now), and Hardin’s Creek Boston (coming in September).

“Terroir” is a debated word when applied to whiskey. Borrowed from winemaking and the French language, its origins reflect a liquor production process that is much more heavily reliant on the idiosyncrasies of agriculture than whiskey-making is. However, lacking a better term, the industry is applying it for the time being, and here the use makes some sense. Depending on who is producing it, bourbon-makers like to say that maturation accounts for between 50 and 90% of what a bourbon smells and tastes like, and is everything to how it looks. By taking the same new make and aging it for almost two decades in three separate corners of Kentucky, the series showcases how even modest tweaks in the Kentucky climate can make a given barrel of whiskey distinctive.

Hardin’s Creek Frankfort is a 17-year-old Bourbon, aged at The James B. Beam Distilling Co.’s Frankfort campus in Kentucky. The creek bed at the Frankfort campus covers the storied rack houses in a blanket of humidity, making everything age more slowly. The unique terroir of Frankfort lends this Bourbon a flavor distinct from the other two expressions in the series, making for a delicate oak-infused pour, with notes of sweet caramel and floral tobacco.

“These liquids are comprised of the same mash bill, and aged for the same amount of time, but resulted in a different tasting profile. It’s a real testament to how micro-climates and diverse landscapes can impart major differences on the flavor profile of each whiskey,” said Freddie Noe, Eighth Generation Master Distiller of the Fred B. Noe Distillery. “The humidity and airflow in our Frankfort campus influence the evaporation and oxidization processes, making a slower reaction to the color and flavor.”

Launched in 2022, Hardin’s Creek is a series of ongoing releases featuring some of the James B. Beam Distilling Co.’s rarest and most unique whiskeys, grounded in rich distilling expertise. The releases showcase the breadth and depth of the James B. Beam Distilling Co’s whiskey-making credentials inclusive of age, blending, mash bill, distillation, barrels, rack house locations and more.

Hardin’s Creek Frankfort 17 Year Old Bourbon is bottled at 55% ABV and retails for $169.99.