We seen the TTB label pop up several months ago thanks to @comingwhiskey on instagram and now they are finally here! Yes, I am talking about Baker’s Store Picks.
You may have noticed that last year the Baker’s Small Batch was discontinued and replaced with an all new Baker’s single barrel. So what gives? I am not sure, but Jim Beam did a great job with the packaging, they updated the new Single Barrel bottle to match that of Baker’s 13, kept the same 107 proof point, but have gone straight to a single barrel format. You may have noticed these sleek and fancy new bottles start popping up in the midst of the summer of 2020 nationwide and if you looked closely at the neck tag you might even see that some of those single barrels were older than 7 years!
Baker’s 7 Year is the true name of the product. The 7 year age statement for the small batch denotes the youngest barrels to enter the blend. Well, now that it is a single barrel - upon release, some of the standard bottles on the shelf had ages all the way up to almost 10 years old! You read that right, a $55 (in my area), 10 year old, 107 proof bourbon! But since the announcement of the store pick program for Baker’s those ages have dropped. No more 8.6, 9.1, 9.10, etc year old neck tags. Most of what I’ve seen around me lately are all 7-8 year old barrels.
Enter the store picks. The photo for the article was sent to me by a good friend, Levi, who happened to purchase one of the picks from local central KY liquor chain, Liquor Barn, for $105 before including taxes. That is an 11.8 Year single barrel pick, comes in a beautiful box, with a nice and clean label. I LOVE THE PACKAGING! But, I hate that price tag.
Store picks are getting up there with Limited Edition bottles these days, not only in price, but packaging as well. It has even gotten so bad, that the retailer I work for have to limit certain store picks to one per person per day to keep flippers from trying to buy them all up before the real enthusiast can get their hands on one. No store pick is worth any secondary value to me and they shouldn’t be to you either!
Me personally, I could not spend that kind of money on a Baker’s pick seeing as I can still get a Knob Creek 10 or 11 year for sub $60. The packing may not be nearly as fancy, hell Knob Creek is far from fancy when you talk about looks, but I buy my whiskey based on its value to me. I think there is a place in the market for this item, but for those of you wondering where the older age Beam barrels are going - look no further than things like this.
We have seen the disappearance of 12+ year KC picks, the 15 year LE has come and gone randomly since it officially came out, and both of those are priced under $100. I am happy for everyone who buys one of these and enjoys them, because I know they are going to be amazing, but before you jump on this fancy package - ask yourself if you are even a fan of Beam juice before offloading $XXX.XX on a bottle.
Have you purchased one of these new Baker’s Store Picks? Are you planning to? Shoot me a DM or tag me in your post on IG so we can chat!
For any questions, please feel free to reach out to me at @mydailybourbon on IG