Messing with Booker's?
I love Booker’s.
I started drinking Bourbon about 7 years ago. I went through my Maker’s & Coke phase and then my Blanton’s phase. Then…I found Booker’s and it was not a phase. I loved everything about it: the box, the black wax, the names of the batches, the different releases to look forward to each year and, of course, the taste. Each batch is a little different, but that uncut power harnessed through notes of caramel and vanilla sweetness are what Booker’s fans find familiar and fantastic in most every release.
I love Booker’s.
My Bourbon group, The Bourbon Fellowship, has an annual Booker’s Night where everything from what we eat to the music we play to, obviously, everything we drink is about Booker’s. I re-purpose Booker’s boxes as silverware and drinkware caddies, table centerpieces and flower boxes. My favorite landmark in Kentucky is either Churchill Downs or the Booker Noe statue at Jim Beam’s American Stillhouse.
I love Booker’s.
There are people who know more about Booker’s. There are people who have more bottles of Booker’s, though you’ll have a challenge convincing my wife of that. There are not, however, many people who are a bigger fan of Booker’s.
Booker, himself, was the sixth generation Master Distiller at Jim Beam. He was a bold and strong personality who created his namesake Bourbon to be the same. As legend goes, the one request Booker made at his retirement was “make sure they don’t mess with my Booker’s”. The question I ask today is: have they been messing with Booker’s?
Some Things Stay the Same
The hallmark traits of Booker’s from its creation is that it is “uncut and unfiltered” and is pulled from barrels at the center of the rickhouses. Jim Beam has certainly held true to that “uncut and unfiltered” requirement as releases hover at the 124 - 128 proof range. Batches from recent years also include a mini stat sheet that shows what floors and warehouses supplied the Bourbon for that particular batch. With very few exceptions, the Bourbon is still coming from the middle floors of the rickhouses. So, it doesn’t appear much is being messed with here.
Some Things Get Messed With
It’s difficult to draw comparisons from today to 1992 when Booker retired and requested “make sure they don’t mess with my Booker’s”. Some changes are easy to identify. The color and features of boxes used has changed over the years. Is the new box better? Is the new box worse? To me, it’s a box: who cares? It certainly doesn’t rise to the level of “messing with”.
In 2015, the batches went from being an alphanumeric code to a batch year plus a release number and a batch name. The names of the batches has always been reference to something about Booker himself or something special to him (For example: 2015-02 was the second release of 2015 and carried the name “Dot’s Batch”, named for Booker’s dog, Dot). For the consumer, this change is an improvement, in my opinion, as it is much easier to identify and discuss batches under the new numbering/naming system.
Some changes we’ve seen to Booker’s do qualify as “messing with”, in my opinion. I don’t have access to Booker’s from 1992 to compare to the 2020 Boston Batch (the most recent release). So, when I refer to “messing with” I’m looking more at what has happened in the last five years, specifically age and price. It’s in that five year span that we’ve seen the most change…the most “messing with”.
Age
Booker’s has always held to the philosophy of “when it’s ready, it’s ready”. I appreciate that practice and do not believe that a whiskey is better simply because a whiskey is older. Some of the very early Booker’s released in the 90’s and early 2000’s was over 8 years old. From Booker’s beginnings through 2015, most batches (not including limited edition or anniversary releases) were at least in the seven year range.
In the last five years, Booker’s batches have been reduced to the six year range. In fact, the last batch to top the 7 year mark was Center Cut (2015-03). That seems like a long time in between batches requiring at least 7 years to be “ready”.
To be clear, the age stated on the bottle is the youngest Bourbon in the batch. So, the 6 years, 3 months and 10 days stated on batch 2020-02 (Boston Batch) is the youngest Bourbon included in that release. It’s possible that 7 or 8 year Bourbon is part of that batch as well. It’s also possible that when we saw releases five years ago, like Center Cut, that some Bourbon used was 8+ years in age. We don’t know for certain, but what we do know is that younger Bourbon is being used now to create Booker’s than in the past. Beam already includes stats showing what percentage of each batch came from which floor in which warehouse. Why not also show us the breakdown by age of what is used for each release?
Price
To some extent what you pay will depend on where you shop. Price can vary from store to store and from state to state. So, when I’m discussing price it’s more of a common dollar amount that I’ve found through internet searches or walking aisles at liquor stores. Undoubtedly, some will say they pay less or more than the amounts I’m using.
In late 2017, Beam-Suntory announced that in 2018 Booker’s suggested pricing would increase from $59 to $99. That was a proposed 66% increase. People were not happy.
Some retailers took that as a green light to go ahead and raise prices on existing stock on the shelves to $99. People squalled.
Beam-Suntory walked back that price hike rather quickly. The suits at Beam had set the course for Booker’s pricing, however. It seems it was now only a matter of speed in getting there.
In 2015, a bottle of Booker’s was around $55. Today, it is $85. I’ve seen some prices in the $75 range and others at well over $100. Using the $55 (2015) to $85 (2020) prices, that’s an average of an 11% price increase per year. That leaves me with two questions. The first: Is that a lot?
Comparing to the economy as a whole, the Consumer Price Index rose 1.8% per year from 2015-2020. So, the Booker’s price rose 6 times more than the CPI. You may counter: “That’s the national economy, you big nerd. We’re talking about Bourbon here, so who cares about CPI.” Fair enough, though the “nerd” dig seemed uncalled for.
The second question (which will help answer the first question, too): How does that price increase measure against competitors’ pricing? I’ve identified some Bourbons that could be considered, in many respects, comparable to Booker’s. Let’s look at the price change comparisons:
Elijah Craig Barrel Proof, like Booker’s, is a batched, barrel strength Bourbon with multiple releases (three) each year. In 2015, a bottle went for $56. In 2020 the price is around $65. That is an average annual uptick of roughly 3%.
Stagg, Jr. is also a batched, barrel strength Bourbon with multiple releases (two) each year. The price on Stagg, Jr. has increased $10 ($50 to $60) since 2015. The average year to year increase is 4%.
Another barrel proof, batched Bourbon is Wild Turkey Rare Breed. If you work for Campari, please skip this paragraph. There is nothing for you to see here. Rare Breed in 2015 was about $45. Today, Rare Breed averages about $48. That’s just over a 1% increase per year.
You can make your own decision on how closely these three competitors compare to Booker’s. Nevertheless, they belong in the same discussion and the increases we’ve seen in the cost of a bottle of Booker’s has far (FAR) exceeded that of any of these three. To me…this is definitely messing with Booker’s.
I can shrug and move on with the age of the Bourbon slipping, but it is curious that it’s been five years since there’s been a 7-year old Booker’s. However, being asked to pay significantly more for younger Bourbon feels like the Booker’s fans are being taken for granted. And when this particular Booker’s fan pulls his hand back reaching for a box on a liquor store shelf because he’s balking at the price, then Beam-Suntory has pushed the price envelope too far, too fast.
I love Booker’s. Please stop messing with it.
