Jim Beam Double Oak is a remix on Jim Beam’s flagship bourbon. Standard Jim Beam is taken for a second period of maturation and placed in another new charred barrel for the finishing duration.
I think they could have upped that richness on the palate by releasing this at least at 46% and NCF; 50% would have been even better. Regardless, the Jim Beam Double Oak is still a nice bourbon and I’ve enjoyed sipping on it ever since the bottle arrived.
It lacks balance and complementary flavors to the oak, but caramel finds itself on a short finish. Decent first release, but I wanted to find more nuance from the second barrel.
The taste is chewy, thick, and spicy with black pepper, a touch of ginger, honey, molasses, dark chocolate, and pipe tobacco. The finish is long and spicy, but with a good balance of sweeter notes underneath.
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House Review
Nose:
Young grains, a bit of fruit character before a blast of wood notes. Rather than mature oak, this comes across on the nose as fairly young, malty and sweet.
Taste:
Sweet on the palate, moderate mouth feel. Young notes arise once more, though. Malty grains, bitter oak notes, a bit of heat.
Finish:
Short, hot finish. For the low proof (86pf) this is way hotter than it should be and that heat comes without much character to help justify.
Overall:
Overall, this is an expression from Jim Beam to skip. Both the regular white label and the extra-aged are better bourbons.
Score:
75
By t8ke
Our in house critic rates spirits on a scale of 0-10 (10 best) and is aggregated the same as external sources
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