🥃Review #74: Basil Hayden Bourbon

Basil Hayden Bourbon lying on its side with a Jim Beam glass

Produced by Jim Beam, Basil Hayden Bourbon is the brainchild of Booker Noe, spawning this easy-drinking offering in 1992 as part of the "Small Batch" collection. Inspired and named for Meredith Basil Hayden Sr, a rye farmer in Maryland who was one of the pioneers in "high-rye" bourbon. Originally bearing an 8-year age statement, this bottle like many others lost its age stamp while stocks were under pressure during the bourbon boom of the late 2010s. With Jim Beam Black getting a 7-year mark back, have hopes that this bottle will regain its as well. Under the Basil Hayden label, Beam continues to release an expansive lineup of variations, most of them playing around with various parts of the mash or finish, including Toasted, 10YR, Dark Rye, Rye malt, Red Wine Cask Finish, and Subtle Smoke. The original Basil Hayden was specifically designed by Noe to be very light bodied and easy drinking, an inviting bridge into the world of bourbon at a semi-premium price point.

“If you don’t like bourbon, try Basil Hayden." - Booker Noe, Jim Beam's grandson & Master Distiller

Basil Hayden Bourbon on a bar mat with cork and Jim beam tasting glass in front of plants and wood wheel

🛒Sourced: $39.99 on sale, gifted - Costco, GA 750ml

🧪Proof: 80 proof, 40% ABV - Unlike most other small batch bourbons these days, Basil Hayden is and always was at the legal minimum by design, targeting that light body and smooth drinking experience.

🎨Color: Y4 - like a light green tea, almost no legs at all. Basil Hayden is meant to look classy. The bottle bears a copper colored metal waistband and raised "BH" detail. The labeling has irregular edges on one side and there is a brown tasting notes card on the side. The design language strongly suggests classy and crafted image, poised without bells and whistles.

🥔Mash Bill: 63% Corn, 27% Rye, 10% Malted Barley. This is around double the rye content of standard Jim Beam and is also the mash bill used in the Old Granddad(OGD) family of products. Distilled on a quite impressive continuous column still. Beam does change up the distillation proof and barrel entry proof across it's products, meaning that spirits are destined for a specific brand at time of distillation. Basil Hayden comes off the still at 120 proof and enters the barrel at the same without dilution. The OGD family is distilled at 127 and barreled at 125, slightly higher, with the effect that a bottle of Basil is diluted by 33% added water vs OGD's 36% at 80 proof (around 6.25% of the barrel volume). Less dilution = slightly more whiskey flavor. Beam uses a level #4 alligator char.

👃Nose: Garden vegetable greens, black pepper, and oak. Easy on the nose and vaguely sweet.

😜Palate: Light on the palate and very thin, almost vodka-like. People who don't drink liquor will tell you it is very smooth - it is absolutely frictionless. Flavor is a scattering of brown sugar that transitions quickly to a mild bitter oak, adjacent perhaps to raw walnut.

💦Finish: Virtually non-existent, the palate subsides into an instant of sweet corn. If you take a Listerine sized mouthful and swish you'll get more black pepper both on the tongue and after the swallow.

🏆 Overall: 4.5/10 - Other Better Options - When rating this, I had a bit of a hard time settling on a number. By design, it's supposed to be easy-drinking and appealing to a nontraditional bourbon audience. It accomplishes that very well. I've heard podcast hosts (outside of whiskey) get them as gifts and rave about how smooth it is; they're not wrong. People at work have mentioned it as their favorite readily available bourbon. At the same time though, I would reach for this bottle less than almost all the others on my shelf. It is smooth to the point of being outshone by most other options. If you can take even the slightest bit of jagged edge, you'll be better served looking to other bottles and rewarded with some savings to boot. All that aside, as a token whiskey gift bottle, Basil Hayden might as well be the king: it's not too cheap as to be insulting, looks great with a quality bottle design, and nobody will complain about it being tough to drink.

💵Would buy again? Didn't this time and probably won't. I've sprung for a few of their other variations before and felt them to be a poor value but acceptable pours. OGD 114 all day baby.

⚖️Rating Scale:

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