By Kevin Gibson

Each year, Fred Minnick does intensive tastings all year to decide candidates for his Top 100 Whiskeys of the Year, setting up a year-end taste-off to rank the best of the best. He took time recently to highlight one of the Top 10 finishers that scored as the best available bourbon for consumers: Booker’s 2022-3 Kentucky Tea Batch.

That expression of Booker’s finished sixth in his tasting, but Fred pointed out that that means more than just a No. 6 finish out of 100, which is impressive anyway. Consider that of the vaunted Pappy Van Winkle line of whiskeys, the only one that made it was the 13-year rye – and that finished at 78, well below Booker’s.

The 126.5 proof Booker’s can often be had at retail for around $90. Try getting a Van Winkle bottle for that. If you can get one at all.

“I think it’s as important to show how an everyday bourbon can fare up against the beasts of the allocated world as it is to show how good something tastes,” Fred said in his look back.

He said he loved the spicy characteristics, with notes of cardamom and toasted pine nut that the Tea Batch exhibited, and that’s a big part of what propelled it into the Top 6. Fred looks back on the revelation when he tastes the Booker’s for the last time in the tasting and utters, “We might have a big upset here, folks.”

Fred points out that the scoring was extremely tight between the top six bourbons in his taste-off, with William Larue Weller winning with a rating of 96 points. Booker’s came in with a score of a “rounded up” 94 – and you’re not going to find a bottle of that Weller at retail anytime soon.

Consider that Booker’s was really close to beating Michter’s 20-year, Old Fitzgerald 19-year, George T. Stagg and Jack Daniel’s Small Batch Coy Hill, all of which are highly sought-after allocated spirits. And the Kentucky Tea Batch did beat Old Fitzgerald 17-year, the popular Smoke Wagon Uncut Unfiltered, Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch and all the Larceny and Elijah Craig barrel proofs, among others.

The point is, sometimes the best thing to search for is what’s right before your eyes.