The New Booker’s Bourbon Is One of the Oldest and Strongest

There are certain whiskeys that are more about variation than consistency; Booker’s is one of them. This bourbon from the James B. Beam Distilling Co. is released in four batches per year, each with slight differences in terms of proof and age, but always bottled unut and unfiltered. The latest release, Southern Thunder, also happens to be one of the oldest and highest prooof in recent memory.

Booker’s was created in the late 1980s by its namesake, the late Beam master distiller Booker Noe. It eventually became part of the Jim Beam Small Batch Collection, along with Knob Creek, Basil Hayden, and Baker’s. Booker’s stands out as being the uncut, unfiltered member of this collection—in other words, the whiskey is bottled at cask strength, which usually ranges from about 120 to 130 proof, and it’s filtered only to remove barrel char. The third batch of 2026, Southern Thunder, was aged for seven years, eight months, and 14 days, making it one of the older expressions in recent years (although not the oldest), and it clocks in at 127.3 proof, which is on the higher end of that spectrum.

Each Booker’s release is batched together from barrels that are stored in specific parts of specific warehouses, where master distillers Fred and Freddie Noe (the son and grandson of Booker) look to find the whiskey that goes into this brand. If you want to find out exactly what that means for this new release, the Booker’s website lists exactly where the barrels used for this batch were aged by warehouse, floor, and percentage in the blend (the details are not live yet, but they should be soon). Like the proof and age, the tasting notes vary depending on the release, but there is some consistency here. For Batch 2026-03, expect big notes of oak, vanilla, cherry pie, honey peanuts, black pepper, and a bit of menthol on the finish.

As is always the case, there is a story behind the name of this batch. According to Fred Noe, his father was a big kid and an even bigger man, and that size translated into the sound of his voice, which he calls “southern thunder.” “It boomed across the distillery, through our house, and all around town,” he said in a statement. “It cracked jokes. It charmed friends old and new. It sometimes blew with choice language when someone wasn’t acting right, but most often it rumbled with laughter.”

You can find Booker’s “Southern Thunder” Batch now at retailers around the country (SRP $100).