Review: Baker’s Single Barrel High Rye Bourbon 7 Years Old (2025)

In 2024, Jim Beam’s Baker’s Bourbon brand launched a spin-off of its classic 7 year old bottling, called Baker’s Single Barrel High Rye Bourbon 7 Years Old made with twice the amount of rye in the mash (26% vs. 13%). It’s now a roughly annual affair — and still a single barrel release. Oddly, this late 2025 sample was distilled just 2 months after our 2024 expression was — and it was turned out at an age of 7 years, 6 months. That means this 2025 release actually hit bottles before the 2024 expression we reviewed, which is our kind of paradox to explore.

Let’s dive into it.

Baker’s Single Barrel High Rye Bourbon 7 Years Old (2025) Review

Single barrel releases have more variability than many people would like to admit, and this release is absolute proof of that. The nose is spicy without being overwhelming, far less drying and aggressive than the 2024 bottling, with a clear pop of mint plus a richer layer of ginger. There’s still plenty of rye on the nose here — obfuscating some of the fruit that makes Baker’s 7 so enjoyable — but compared to the 2024 version, it’s moderately toned down.

The palate is effusive and bright, that mint a clear through-line alongside cherry and chocolate elements — classic Baker’s stuff. The rye isn’t shy and it pushes plenty of herbaceous notes of rosemary and bay leaf, here diverging less from the 2024 expression. The whiskey turns boldly chocolatey as it develops in the glass, developing to muddle its spice with vanilla-fueled sweetness and a late-game hint of currants and more cherry. The over-the-top aggressive greenery of the 2024 release is absent here, as if someone got the memo that the “high rye” bit got taken a little too far. I will take full credit, and happily give this more nuanced expression a well-deserved bump up in grade.

107 proof. Reviewed: Bottle #000224992, distilled 1-2017, 7 years, 6 months old.

A- / $75 [BUY IT NOW FROM FROOTBAT]

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