Booker's Final Batch of the Year Pays Homage to a Living Legend

Earlier this year, Wild Turkey released a limited-edition bourbon in celebration of longtime master distiller Jimmy Russell’s 70th year on the job (which went on to land at No. 9 on our Top 20 list this year). Now, Booker’s Bourbon is also paying tribute to the legendary master distiller with its final batch of 2024.

Booker’s “Jimmy’s Batch” blends bourbons stored in four different seven-story warehouses. The warehouse breakdown is as follows:

• 12% came from the 5th floor of warehouse Z
• 20% came from the 5th floor of warehouse 1
• 22% came from the 4th floor of warehouse Q
• 46% came from the 3rd floor of warehouse 3

The bourbon is bottled at 62.9% ABV and is precisely 7 years, 9 months, and 19 days old. As with all batches of Booker’s this one is available on a limited basis, and it has a suggested retail price of $100. It follows three other 2024 releases: “Springfield Batch,” (our No. 6 whisky of 2024), “The Beam House Batch,” and “The Master Distillers Batch.”

In the “Jimmy’s Batch” notes, Beam master distiller Fred Noe details the relationship his father, Booker Noe, had with Jimmy—the pair were not just competitors in the industry but dear friends, and together they played a critical role in turning American (and global) perception of bourbon on its head in the 1980s and ‘90s. Fred also reveals that Jimmy became something of a surrogate father to him in the wake of Booker’s death in 2004 and that he’s taught him a great many life lessons in the years since. Two that have stuck out the most are the importance of keeping camaraderie in the whiskey industry and treating others as he’d like to be treated.