Jim Beam Distiller's Masterpiece: The One Finished in PX Sherry

Jim Beam is the most recognizable name in bourbon and the most easily dismissed. Distiller's Masterpiece is the release that makes the case for the distillery rather than the brand.

What It Is

Master Distiller Fred Noe, seventh generation of the Beam family, selects extra-aged Kentucky straight bourbon from the optimal positions in the rickhouse, and finishes it in Pedro Ximenez sherry casks.

There is no age statement on the bottle, but Noe has said the stock is between ten and twelve years old. It is bottled at 100 proof, 50% ABV.

The original 2013 run was a limited release of about two thousand bottles, initially sold only at the Jim Beam American Stillhouse in Kentucky.

Rickhouse Position, and Why It Is Selected

The phrase "optimal rickhouse positions" is doing real work, and it is one of the more interesting facts about Kentucky whiskey.

A traditional Kentucky rickhouse is a tall wooden warehouse with no climate control. Temperature varies enormously from the top floor to the bottom. Upper floors get hot in summer, which drives the whiskey hard into the wood and evaporates it faster. Lower floors stay cooler and the whiskey develops more slowly.

Two barrels filled on the same day, from the same batch, stored eight floors apart, produce genuinely different whiskey after a decade. Distilleries know their buildings intimately, and a release like this is built by choosing which barrels get used rather than by changing how it was made.

What PX Does

Pedro Ximenez is the sweetest of the sherries, made from grapes dried in the sun until they are nearly raisins. The wine that results is thick, dark, and intensely sweet.

Casks that held it retain a lot of that. A PX finish is one of the most assertive things you can do to a whiskey: it pushes hard toward fig, date, raisin and dark chocolate.

On a young whiskey that can be overwhelming, essentially a sugar coating on a thin spirit. On ten to twelve year old bourbon there is enough oak and structure underneath to carry it, which is why the extra-aged stock was chosen for this.

What It Tastes Like

Classic bourbon caramel and vanilla underneath, then dark fig, raisin and mocha from the finishing cask, closing velvety and long.

How to Drink It

Neat, in a tumbler. At 100 proof it takes a few drops of water if you want, but the sherry sweetness is doing the softening that water usually does.

Not a cocktail bottle. The PX character would fight almost anything you added.

Pair It With

Rich and sweet. Pork kakuni, or a dark chocolate dessert, which is one of the rare cases where dessert and bourbon genuinely work together.

Try It at Juraku

The Jim Beam PX sherry cask finish is on the whisky list at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side. Releases like this are limited, so check the current menu or ask the bar what is open.