Jim Beam’s latest edition to the family is The Devil’s Cut. I first tasted it at Whiskey Fest in Chicago in April of 2011 (It hit the market in the following month.) and was not very impressed. Having sampled some 40 to 50 whiskies in an evening can take a toll on your taste buds. My tasting of The Devil’s Cut this evening had very different results. Wow!
The name is a play on the term “The Angel’s Share”. The Angel’s Share is the whiskey that evaporates from the barrel during the aging process. The Devil’s Cut , per the Beam family, is the whiskey that is left within the wood of the barrel after the barrel is emptied. The people at Jim Beam have found a way to extract the whiskey from the barrel. They then blend it with at 6 year old bourbon and bottle it at 90 proof.
The resulting product is a very bold bourbon. If you are looking for a very good bourbon try Jim Beam’s Double Age 8 year old. But if you want to try a very good bourbon with an attitude, grab The Devil’s Cut.
Doug