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Like its old Jim Beam Small Batch Collection stablemate Knob Creek, Basil Hayden is undergoing a brand expansion. First came Basil Hayden Rye and then Basil Hayden Dark Rye, both released in 2017 and playing on the original expressions status as a premium high rye bourbon. Now Beam has come out with Basil Hayden Two By Two.
This is a blended whiskey, drawing on two stocks of rye and two stocks of bourbon, with the majority coming from the rye. * The two rye whiskeys are a 5 year old Kentucky rye (i.e. a 51% or slightly higher rye content whiskey in the “just barely rye” Kentucky style) and a 7 year old “high rye” rye whiskey (perhaps the same high rye Beam stock that yielded the highly acclaimed Booker’s Rye?), as well as 6 year old and 13 year old bourbons.
The blend is bottled at 80 proof, and a bottle of Basil Hayden Two By Two will be priced at $44.99.
* You may see an outraged blogger complain that this is product is a blended whiskey, and just because the majority of the content is rye doesn’t make it a rye under TTB rule. We agree to a certain extent: it’s called a rye on the label, although the rye-bourbon blend part is clearly denoted, so we feel obliged to rely on the official title. However, note it’s tagged otherwise in our data.
