Top 20 Whiskies of 2017

#11 • Little Book “The Easy”

  • Rank: 11
  • Year: 2017
  • Score: 92
  • Price: $80
  • ABV: 60.2%
  • Style: Blended Straight Whiskey
  • Place of Origin: Kentucky

By focusing exclusively on high-quality straight whiskeys, without neutral spirits, Little Book is a fine example of America’s new era of blends. It includes all straight whiskeys: 4 year old bourbon, 13 year old corn, 5 year old 100% malt, and 5 year old rye. Like Booker’s bourbon, Little Book is uncut and unfiltered, to preserve the full flavor. The dominant note, cornbread, still allows the malt’s sweetness and the rye’s spice to come through. This is the first release from Freddie Noe, son of Beam master distiller Fred Noe and grandson of the late Booker Noe himself. It’s an impressive and unconventional debut, as Freddie prepares to continue the Beam legacy. —Fred Minnick