First Batch Of Booker’s For 2023 Coming To Shelves

As a rule, if a series comes out in serialized batches through the year, the first batches arrive while it is still late winter. Which is to say, January or February. But here we are in April, and batch #1, 2023 of Booker’s is just now arriving.

“Charlie’s Batch” is named for Charlie Hutchens, the former distillery worker who was also handy in the wood shop, and fashioned the original wooden boxes early Booker’s bottlings came in. Hutchens continues to fashion wooden boxes and fixtures for selected Beam products.

Last year was noteworthy because it contained most of a run of fairly well-aged batches of Booker’s, leaning almost to the 8 year mark of the “6 to 8 years old” Booker’s is described as being. This batch returns to the more usual pattern: at 7 years, 1 month, it’s right in the middle of the stated aging range. The batch came out at 126.6 proof, and is priced at $89.99.