Award-Winning Bourbon from One of the Best New Distillers in America Was the Best Thing I Drank This Month

Every month, a huge amount of booze moves through the Gear Patrol offices (or, as of right now, our apartments) — beer, wine and a whole lot of whiskey. Here are a few of our favorites.

Woodinville Straight Bourbon Whiskey

If you don’t know Woodinville yet, you will soon. The distillery has earned numerous accolades, including Craft Whiskey of the Year and, more recently, Best Straight Bourbon at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition this year. Bourbon authority Fred Minnick said he’d “buy every single bottle of Woodinville.” Its straight bourbon is an easy-drinking 90 proof that’s aged in standard 53-gallon drums for five years which, for a non-major distillery (like Jim Beam, Buffalo Trace or Brown-Forman), is a rarity. What’s rarer, the booze is better than its stats. It’s rich, buttery and sweet, and, at $40, it won’t cost you a fortune.

Threes Brewing x Modist Brewing Mutually Exclusive

Threes Brewing has been absolutely holding it down during shelter-in-place by continually putting out delicious beers and delivering them across New York. Mutually Exclusive is hazy like a New England IPA, but more crisp than juicy. The beer is brewed with oro blanco, essentially a white grapefruit, that provides a nice delicate bitterness that makes me want to drink this on a stoop in the summer… six feet away from anyone else.

Whitcraft Winery Lagrein

Drake Whitcraft has made a big name for himself by making really stunning, hyper low intervention Pinot Noirs in Santa Barbara County. The only downside is that you won’t find them for less than about $65/bottle. However, Whitcraft also bottles a Lagrein — a red native to northern Italy, that’s zippy and intense but not overtly juicy — that’s $34 and absolutely rips. Grab a few bottles and drink ’em slightly chilled on your stoop on a spring evening. (It’s also worth begging them to throw a bottle of their recently bottled Gamay on the order, you won’t regret it)

Sufferfest Gut Check IPA

Apple cider vinegar in beer? Yeah, I was a little skeptical at first as well. I expected to get some very sharp acidity at some point through a sip, but that was not the case at any point. Instead, it provides a bright hop-like tang that blends well into the hop character of the beer itself. It’s also a gluten-free beer, which means it only packs 100 calories and 6 carbs — and for someone like me who limits his gluten intake, it’s a nice change of pace. While Gut Check is certainly no hazy New England IPA, at just 4 percent ABV it’s a clean-drinking complement for these quarantine times.

Athletic Brewing Free Way N.A. Double Hop IPA

Before shelter-in-place, the majority of my beer drinking was being done either at breweries, in the office sampling with co-workers or at beer bars — I honestly didn’t keep all that much beer at home. Now that all of my beer drinking is happening at home, I don’t want to overdo it, which is where non-alcoholic beer comes in. Thankfully, back in February we published a big guide on the best N.A. beers and discovered that Athletic Brewing’s Free Way Double Hop IPA is one of the best out there. Hopped with Amarillo, Citra and Mosaic hops, it’s a refreshing break that tastes really similar to a well-balanced double IPA but removes the drunk factor.

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

A $20 Buffalo Trace Bourbon Available Everywhere Is Now $200 and Nowhere to Be Found. What Happened?

“I can vividly remember this,” says Fred Minnick, founder of Bourbon+ magazine. “I was at a bar called Jack’s Lounge, no longer in business. The bartender was Joy Perrine, an amazing, brilliant woman in the whiskey hall of fame, since passed away. She was making cocktails. I liked them fine, but they were never my thing. I said, ‘Joy, I wanna drink a really nice bourbon.’ She pulled out Weller 12 Year Old. And that’s what I drank.”

There aren’t many whiskeys that can make someone sigh like Minnick sighs after he tells that story.

Weller 12 is one of them. These days, it’s about as hard to find as Jack’s Lounge or Joy Perrine. Demand for this delicious wheated bourbon has driven the liquid underground. In 2017, it topped the list of sought-after spirits on the massive booze search tool Wine-Searcher — and in 2019 it was a close second to Blanton’s. This rise in interest has had consequences on supply. In 2014, the average price of Weller 12’s on the legal market was $47. In 2019 it was $238, according to the site’s data.

Technically, today it retails for around $30, but good luck finding it on a liquor store shelf. This year, while reporting a story about Facebook’s illegal black market whiskey selling groups, I watched an entire case of it sell in less than two minutes, at $150 a pop — a drinker’s bliss, vanishing in a puff of cash and smoke.

The tale of Weller 12 in the past decade is a melancholy one for bourbon drinkers — a story of beautiful flavors, secondary hype and a tragedy of price increase, says Blake Riber, founder of the blog Bourbonr and the whiskey service Seelbach’s. “Probably after Pappy, Weller 12’s the hardest one to get.”

The Weller line of whiskeys is named for William Larue Weller, a whiskey salesman in the late 1800s who had a hand in the famed Stitzel-Weller distillery. Buffalo Trace says he was one of the first distillers to offer a bourbon with a high content of wheat rather than rye for flavor — a claim that has been disputed.

Stitzel-Weller closed in 1992, and Buffalo Trace bought the Weller name in 1999. They introduced Weller 12 in 2001, and it was eventually joined by a number of other Wellers, including Antique 107, Special Reserve, CYPB (Create Your Perfect Bourbon) and Full Proof as Buffalo Trace’s premiere wheaters, after Pappy and William Larue Weller, an especially rare, and especially expensive, bottle. Weller 12 was a wheated whiskey, its barrels aged at least 12 years in Buffalo Trace’s rickhouses. It retailed for around $20.

Buffalo Trace refuses to release the specifics of their mash bills, to some drinkers’ chagrin. But we know for a fact that their wheated mashbill is used for all of their wheaters, including both the Weller and Van Winkle line (exceptions being the CYPB Weller and Van Winkle Rye). That means Weller 12 is the same mash bill, age, and proof as Van Winkle Lot B — which goes for more than $400 these days on the secondary market. In fact, Buffalo Trace told me that the difference between the two is simply that the Van Winkle family selects barrels to be included in Van Winkle Lot B; Buffalo Trace tasters select the barrels for Weller 12.

The previous generation of Weller 12’s bottle (before a 2016 refresh) felt decidedly like a $20 bottle of whiskey. Plastic screw top and all.

“We use a lower distillation and entry proof, which contributes to the soft, round, almost ‘creamy’ taste and mouthfeel of the whiskey,” Amy Preske, who handles PR at Buffalo Trace, wrote me in an email. Tasters have different ways of describing the unique flavor profile of good wheaters — “sweet,” “round,” and “smooth” are common ones — but whatever it is, Weller 12 seems to have it.

Then there’s the age. Plenty of good $30 bourbons these days have five- or six- year age statements. Weller 12 doubles them.

“In my opinion, the sweet spot of bourbon is between eight and twelve years old,” Minnick says. Age tends to marry whiskey’s most delicious flavors together and mellow any off-notes — up to a point. Any more time risks “overoaking,” when tannin flavors, which the oak barrel imbues in the whiskey, become too strong. “Eight to twelve years old is when the magic happens,” Minnick says.

What flavor profile does twelve years of sweet wheated liquid provide?

“Weller 12 is strong and smooth,” says Harlan Wheatley, Buffalo Trace’s master distiller.

“Caramel, dark cherry, and orange,” says Riber.

“The thing I’ve always liked,” says Minnick, “is that I can put on my tongue, and the flavor just sits there. Even the very best barrel-proof whiskeys, I can appreciate and enjoy them when I put them on my tongue, but eventually I feel that barrel strength. With Weller 12, I’d almost compare it to melted butter.”

Drinkers quickly caught onto this mix of age, wheat and affordability. By the mid-2000s, Weller 12 popularity was booming, but you could still find it on liquor store shelves at retail price, or for fair rates at good whiskey bars.

Then the Pappy hype train rolled in. By the late 2000s and early 2010s, celebrities and chefs had turned Pappy Van Winkle 15, 20, and 23 year old into prized collectors’ items. After those disappeared from shelves and found their way to secondary market sales at astronomical price markups, the other Van Winkle releases were next to go.

Other members of the core Weller family include Weller Antique (center) bottled at a higher 107 proof and without an age statement (but it’s generally around 7 years old) and the most “affordable” of the bunch — Weller Special Reserve — which is 90-proof, NAS bottle that’s still often findable below $50.

And when people started asking liquor store owners what was “like Pappy,” but available, well… they told the truth. Same mashbill, almost as old. Weller 12.

Affordable, available Weller 12 went the way of the Dodo. Today, even much more affordable (and frankly, less good) Wellers like Antique are marked up and hard to find, as demand works its way down the food chain.

This is not to say the decline of Weller 12 is Pappy’s fault. The finding and hoarding of underpriced excellent whiskeys is a reverberation of the Bourbon Boom — the bottles that are hunted down after the initial unicorns were made extinct. It’s supply and demand, plain and simple. Buffalo Trace points out that a 12-year lag between barrelling and bottling makes it hard to respond to demand. Any Weller 12 you find today was bottled in 2008, after all. But it sure would be nice if there were more of it.

In its way, the extirpation of Weller 12 was sadder than what happened to Pappy. “Pappy attracts people who don’t really follow bourbon,” Minnick says. “People don’t understand that Weller was the go-to bourbon for people who were in the trenches of the bourbon community. It was an incredible bourbon, and it was loved in the bourbon community before Pappy was ‘Pappy.’”

“The story of what happened to Weller 12 is a great example of the bourbon ecosystem we have now,” says Riber. “Weller 12 was the reason bourbon was so popular — you could get something that was so delicious for so cheap. Compared to a 12-year Scotch, it was cheap for so long. But everything has kinda caught up.”

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

The 18 Best Bourbon Whiskeys You Can Buy in 2020

Bourbon has never been more popular than it is right now. This definitive guide of the best bourbons of 2020 explores everything you need to know about America’s favorite brown spirit, including important terminology and, of course, a list of the best bottles you can buy at your local liquor store.

Prefer to skip directly to the picks? Click here.

The Short List

Best All-Around Bourbon: Buffalo Trace, $25+

Good as a sipper and in cocktails, Buffalo Trace’s namesake bourbon is the perfect do-it-all whiskey. What’s more, each bottle is a kind of lottery. Given Buffalo Trace’s lineage of excellent whiskeys from W.L. Weller, George T. Stagg and Van Winkle, there’s a chance you stumble upon something special.

Tasting Notes: Strong notes of caramel and nutmeg, with hints of hay and apricot on the nose and a “snap-crackle-pop mouthfeel.”
Average Price: $25 – $35

Best Value Bourbon: Evan Williams Black Label, $15+

“If Evan Williams were to sell this whiskey to someone else, that brand would mark it up to $40, and people would be happy buying it,” says expert whiskey reviewer Fred Minnick. But Evan Williams is a value brand. So its whiskey, at a great proof point of 86 and an age that Minnick says is roughly five-and-a-half years old, goes for less than $20. “It’s a fantastic bourbon, especially for the money,” he says.

Tasting Notes: Well rounded, with a range of flavors including brown sugar and nutmeg atop the standard range of vanilla and caramel.
Price: ~$15

Bourbon 101

Bourbon, the Great American Spirit, is not as simple as one might think. Yes, its definition is writ in but a few sentences on the holy stone of Federal Decree: It must be made in the United States; its grain bill must include at least 51 percent corn; it must be produced at not more than 80 percent alcohol (160 proof) and stored in charred new oak containers at no more than 62.5 percent (125 proof). And yes, it is a blue-collar spirit, made by thirsty farmers, for thirsty farmers. But underneath these fundamentals swims a deep sea of factors — additional rules and regulations, hype machines and deceptive marketing, false myths and a boom that began in 2008 and is still going strong today — that make bourbon more complex than it seems. Sour mash and Bottled-in-Bond, non-distiller-producers and high-ryes. Where’s the thirsty modern man, farmer or otherwise, to begin?

“Because of bourbon’s continued growth in popularity, the misinformed malcontents are spreading like a bad virus,” writes Fred Minnick in his 2015 standout guide, Bourbon Curious. Minnick loves bourbon; now the editor in chief of Bourbon+ magazine, he’s written seven books and three of them involve America’s brown spirit. But he’s not afraid to dissect its misguided marketing and secretive practices. Bourbon Curious opens with plenty of stick (“the proof, age, and whiskey type are the only things you can trust on an American whiskey label”) before getting to its carrot: hundreds of pages of information and mouthwatering tasting notes on just about any bourbon you’ll find on liquor store shelves. The key to understanding it all, Minnick says, is transparency from brands combined with an understanding of a term most bourbon drinkers don’t use: terroir.

“Spirits tend to gravitate toward branding, whereas wine gravitates toward terroir,” Minnick says. “But an educated bourbon consumer can piece together terroir — and really, it’s by distillery.” The top bourbon distilleries — Four Roses, Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill, Wild Turkey, Jim Beam, Brown-Forman and others — distill the bourbon that makes up a large number of brands you’ll find on liquor store shelves that are worth drinking. Minnick’s recommendation for the novice: Familiarize yourself with those distilleries and try to pick apart the distinct flavors produced by each, whether that’s Wild Turkey’s funky note or Four Roses’ spicy flavors. “If someone really wants to get into this hobby and this world, they have to immerse themselves,” he says.

To help you in your bourbon journey, we asked Minnick to discuss the absolute best bourbons across three price points — everyday values, mid-range palate builders and rare gems. Before we get to the bottles, however, a quick primer on terminology and pricing. If you prefer to skip directly to the picks, click here.

How Bourbon is Made

Bourbon Terms to Know

Bourbon Whiskey: Whiskey produced in the U.S. at not exceeding 80 percent alcohol by volume (160 proof) from a fermented mash of not less than 51 percent of corn and stored at not more than 62.5 percent alcohol by volume (125 proof) in charred new oak containers.”

Straight Bourbon Whiskey: “Bourbon whiskey stored in charred new oak containers for two years or more. ‘Straight bourbon whiskey’ may include mixtures of two or more straight bourbon whiskeys provided all the whiskeys are produced in the same state.”

Bottled in Bond: “The spirit must be the product of one distillation season by one distiller at one distillery. It must have been stored in a federally bonded warehouse for at least four years and be bottled at 100 proof. The bottled product’s label must identify the distillery where it was distilled and bottled.”

Sour Mash: A fermentation technique used by almost all bourbon distillers that employs pre-fermented mash from a previous distilling in a new mash. The sour mash prevents wild yeast from entering the mash and causing infections.

Proof: The percentage of alcohol, displayed as double that of the alcohol percentage.

High Rye: A bourbon with a higher than normal percentage of mash bill made up of rye (as opposed to using more corn, wheat, or barley, the other main grains used in bourbon mash). This tends to produce spicier flavors in the bourbon.

Wheated: A bourbon with a higher than normal percentage of mash bill made up of wheat (the main grain remains corn). This tends to produce a softer, less spicy whiskey.

Small Batch: A subjective term signaling a bourbon made using a select number of barrels or recipes in a blended bottling.

Single Barrel: A bourbon made using single barrels, providing a higher range of variation in flavor, and the chance at specific, unique characteristics.

Non-Distiller Producers (NDP): Companies that purchase their whiskey from someone else rather than making it themselves. This is not a new phenomenon and it plays a large role in blended bourbons.

Best Budget Bourbons

These bourbons are all under $25. They have some of the same flavors found in the world’s best, most sought-after whiskeys. They just don’t carry the same level of complexity; the flavors tend to come and go more quickly.

“A more expensive whiskey might have this rich note that lasts for ten to twelve seconds,” Minnick says, “whereas a cheaper bottle has that note just for one to two seconds.” Still, this price range has the best value of the entire market, and it also provides opportunities for bourbon to be used in cocktails — or as gifts.

Best Value Bourbon: Evan Williams Black Label

“If Evan Williams were to sell this whiskey to someone else, that brand would mark it up to $40, and people would be happy buying it,” Minnick says. But Evan Williams is a value brand. So its whiskey, at a great proof point of 86 and an age that Minnick says is roughly five-and-a-half years old, goes for less than $20. “It’s a fantastic bourbon, especially for the money,” he says. “You can get a lot of satisfaction out of that.”

Proof: 86
Distilled By: Heaven Hill
Tasting Notes: Well rounded, with a range of flavors including brown sugar and nutmeg atop the standard range of vanilla and caramel.
Price: $11 – $15

Best Bourbon for Cocktails: Four Roses Yellow Label

“This is such a dynamic whiskey,” Minnick says. “And it’s the best cocktail bourbon out there.” Four Roses is a highly regarded distillery, with a high-rye mash bill that produces an extra spiciness and a concentration on yeast that has been “eye-opening” for the bourbon world. They’ve also led the way in transparency. “They’ll tell you everything there is to know about their whiskey — they don’t hide the mash bill, the distillation proof. I presume you could ask ’em how much their CEO makes and they’d tell you,” Minnick says.

Proof: 80
Distilled By: Four Roses
Tasting Notes: An earthy nose, but spicy on the tongue, with immediate and pleasant notes of cinnamon and baking spices.
Price: $12 – $20

Best Kept Secret: Old Grand-Dad 114

In 2017, Jim Beam’s Old Grand-Dad line of whiskeys was nearly axed. Now, thanks to rising whiskey prices and a consistently strong product, the brand — shortened to OGD by fans — has a cult following. Because it’s not a “hype” whiskey, doesn’t have a famous name and isn’t a limited release, it doesn’t get talked about — but I challenge you to find a bourbon with this much firepower at the price point. Its relatively low-corn mashbill (only 63 percent) is also unique, utilizing a staggering amount of rye and malted barley, creating a spicy bourbon ideal for drinking on the rocks or in a cocktail.

Proof: 114
Distilled By: Jim Beam
Tasting Notes: Cinnamon, pepper, rye, butterscotch.
Price: $25 – $35

Best Budget Sipper: Larceny Bourbon

“This has an incredible sweetness to it,” Minnick says. “It’s not complex, but the sweetness is really nice — the way it hits the palate. It’s a good, inexpensive, wheated everyday sipper.”

Proof: 92
Distilled By: Heaven Hill
Tasting Notes: It’s a wheated bourbon, with loads of bready sweetness, butterscotch, and toffee.
Price: $20 – $25

Best Everyday Bourbons

According to Minnick, this is where the majority of the bourbon world lives. “You start with the six- to twelve-year-old bourbons that you can find regularly.” What changes from the entry-level spirits is complexity. The very best bourbons in this range “will have note after note after note after note, and then you can still taste that dominant note on your palate,” Minnick says.

Best Gateway Bourbon: Four Roses Small Batch

Four Roses’s upgrade over Yellow blends 180 barrels of four different recipes per bottling. “If you love cinnamon notes, you’ll love this,” Minnick says. It’s more complex than Yellow, but still drinks easy. “It’s what I want to sip at a ballgame.”

Proof: 90
Distilled By: Four Roses
Tasting Notes: cinnamon, citrus, caramel, vanilla, and an apple-pie sweetness.
Price: $30 – $35

Best Bourbon to Drink Neat: Four Roses Single Barrel

Made using a single recipe and barrel per bottle, it’s between 7 and 8 years old and has more complexity than the Small Batch. “For being the same brand as the Small Batch, they taste very different. This one is more of a sipper. I want to really sit there and think about it when I’m drinking it,” Minnick says.

Proof: 100
Distilled By: Four Roses
Tasting Notes: Toasted marshmallow and campfire on the nose, adding cinnamon, caramel and vanilla on the tongue, with a particularly creamy mouthfeel.
Price: $40 – $50

Best Bourbon to Pair with Food: Maker’s Mark

Minnick has a unique use for one of bourbon’s classic names. “I drink so much Makers with BBQ,” he says. Its mellow balance — helped by the prominent caramel notes of its wheated mash bill — doesn’t overpower meaty flavors.

Proof: 90
Distilled By: Maker’s Mark
Tasting Notes: On the nose, dried apricot, chocolate, coffee, and corn; on the tongue, bread pudding, caramel-apple, and pumpkin pie.
Price: $30 – $45

Best Rye Substitute: Knob Creek

Its “cornbread” note makes this Minnick’s stand-in for rye in Manhattans. That cornbread flavor profile is shared across many Jim Beam bourbons, but Knob Creek’s 100 proof is the perfect expression of the flavor, as opposed to Booker’s 126 and Jim Beam Black’s 86.

Proof: 100
Distilled By: Jim Beam
Tasting Notes: Nutty on the nose, with a distinct cornbread flavor on the tongue.
Price: $30 – $40

The Smoothest Bourbon: Elijah Craig Small Batch

Though it shares DNA with other Heaven Hill bourbons like Evan Williams and Henry McKenna, Elijah Craig Small Batch is balanced, with extra maltiness. “It’s got so much caramel, and a beautiful nutmeg note,” Minnick says. “This is all about the sweetness.”

Proof: 94
Distilled By: Heaven Hill
Tasting Notes: Caramel, chocolate, vanilla, caramel, and a distinct nutmeg flavor.
Price: $25 – $40

Best All-Around Bourbon: Buffalo Trace

Good as a sipper and in cocktails, it’s the perfect do-it-all whiskey. What’s more, each bottle is a kind of lottery, with a chance of something special, given Buffalo Trace’s lineage of “some of the greatest whiskies out there,” Minnick says — they include W.L. Weller, George T. Stagg, and Van Winkle. “Sometimes you get a bottle that just explodes in your mouth.”

Proof: 90
Distilled By: Buffalo Trace
Tasting Notes: Strong notes of caramel and nutmeg, with hints of baled hay and apricot on the nose and a “snap-crackle-pop mouthfeel.”
Price: $25 – $35

Best Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon: Henry McKenna Single Barrel

The McKenna distillery was established in 1855, founded by the noted Irish immigrant distiller. Seagrams closed the business in the 1970s, and Heaven Hill purchased the brand name in 1994, but no longer uses the original recipe; as Minnick notes in his book, “The original yeast, mashbill, and flavor profile are gone, lost with time.” But one thing the new bottle does have is time: its 10 year age statement makes it one of the older bourbons at this price range. Take heed, though, since it somewhat controversially took home “Best in Show, Whiskey” at last year’s San Francisco World Spirits Competition it’s been harder to come by, and more expensive than it used to be.

Proof: 100
Distilled By: Heaven Hill
Tasting Notes: Rye spiciness, caramel, and vanilla, with a steady undertone of oak.
Price: $50 – $55

Best Craft Bourbon: New Riff Kentucky Straight Bourbon

New Riff Distilling was founded in 2014. “Relative to Kentucky, they’ve been around for a few days. The rest of the nation is just kinda getting to know ’em,” Minnick says. The mash bill here, made entirely of non-GMO grains, is 65 percent corn, 30 percent rye and 5 percent malted barley.

Proof: 100
Distilled By: New Riff Distilling
Tasting Notes: Oak tannins and vanillas, butterscotch, sweet corn and some rye spice at the finish.
Price: $40

Best Cheap High Proof Bourbon: Old Ezra 7-Year

Luxco’s Old Ezra line could have fit in the “best kept secret” category, too. Bourbon with an age statement and available at barrel strength for a good price? That’s nuts in today’s whiskey world.
Proof: 117
Distilled By: Unknown (rumoured to be Heaven Hill)
Tasting Notes: Butter, Vanilla, Orange peel.
Price: $40

Bucket List Bourbons

These run north of $60, all the way up to a month’s paycheck. Buying in this range is high risk, high reward. “Sometimes you’re gonna be disappointed,” Minnick says. “Just because a bourbon is 90 bucks doesn’t mean it’s good.” The benchmark bourbons at this range have upwards of 100 flavor notes to pick out, often happening at the same time and lingering on the tongue for ages. Or, as Minnick put it, the best should make you think, “If god gave birth to his bourbon child, this is what it would taste like.”

Best High-Proof Bourbon: Elijah Craig Barrel Proof

This bourbon just won Whisky Advocate’s whiskey of the year, and Minnick was on the tasting panel. “It was very, very nice bourbon,” he says, wistfully. It has none of the harshness you’d expect from a 133.2 proof bourbon, and doesn’t undergo chill filtering — instead just using light filtration to remove barrel char flakes.

Proof: 133.2 proof
Distilled By: Heaven Hill
Tasting Notes: Caramels are rich, vanillas powerful. Minnick calls its notes “a party of pies: apple, cherry, blueberry, and even pumpkin.”
Price: $55 – $100

Most Nuanuced Bourbon: Old Forester 1920 Prohibition Style

It’s bottled at 115 proof — “for this distillery, that’s the perfect proof,” Minnick says. “I’m going through a bottle a month. The notes kind of just linger. You can have five different notes hitting at once. I believe that to be the definition of nuance.”

Proof: 115
Distilled By: Brown-Forman
Tasting Notes: Dark notes of fruit and burnt brown sugar. Chocolate, creme brulee, and strong nuttiness on the palate.
Price: $60 – $80

Best Blended Bourbon: Barrell Craft Spirits

You might notice there isn’t a price, tasting notes or distillery information listed on this pick. That’s because Barrell is, at this moment, the best blended of American whiskey there is (they have the trophy case to prove it). Each of its releases makes clear what went into it — distillery location, whiskey age, proof, etc. — and all are worth seeking out. Barrell is a blender, not a distiller, and the flavor mastery of founder Joe Beatrice and master distiller Tripp Stimson have won the old bourbon guard over. “It won my American Whiskey of the Year award [in 2018] in a blind tasting,” Minnick says. “It’s got so much flavor to it, so much complexity — it’s just brilliant whiskey.”

Best Wheated Bourbon: Buffalo Trace William Larue Weller

“Are we including bottles that are impossible to find?” Minnick asks. Sure. This treasure from Buffalo Trace’s Antique collection does its namesake a service, representing some of the world’s best wheated bourbon, a style Weller himself pioneered. “If God gave birth to a bourbon child, this is what it would taste like,” Minnick says. “It’s so fucking amazing.”

Proof: 128.2
Distilled By: Buffalo Trace
Tasting Notes: A caramel bomb, with immense vanilla notes on the nose. Dried fruits, nutmeg, and honey on the palate.
Price: $800+

Most Complex Bourbon: Four Roses Al Young Limited Edition

File it under another bourbon you’ll never find on liquor store shelves. The 50th-anniversary whiskey is made in part of 23-year old bourbon and has, according to Four Roses brand ambassador Al Young himself, flavor profiles of “cinnamon, peaches and cherries, plus aromas of gardenias and magnolia blossoms.” Minnick scored it a 96 for Whiskey Advocate. “It’s just so complex,” he says. “Last I tasted it, I was up to 100 notes that I picked up on it. They have something special there.”

Proof: 109.98
Distilled By: Four Roses
Tasting Notes: On the nose, leather, maple syrup. On the palate, honeysuckle, cinnamon, and floral notes.
Price: $500+

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

Dear Whiskey Drinker, Drink Your Damn Whiskey

Fed by whiskey flippers who think they’re clever, there is a stigma attached to liquor store customers who ask “got anything good in the back?” On the hunt at my local shop in the fall of last year, I skirted that association and asked the shop owner about the bottle of Old Rip Van Winkle 10-Year on the shelf behind him. He said it wasn’t “for sale, for sale,” which he explained meant he’d only sell it to regulars. I pushed my luck. “Got anything interesting coming in?” I asked. “Sure,” he said. “Well, maybe. Write down your email.”

I was buying whiskey and wine from the store consistently for two years when I decided it was time to test the value of patronage. The owner is the cashier, the expert and the guy who replies to questions on Facebook. He’s nice, but he doesn’t have the patience for bullshit. A couple of days passed, and an email notification subject lined “WHISKEY?” popped up on my phone. The store owner remembered who I was and asked if I was interested in a bottle of Weller Full Proof.

When I picked up the bottle — for which I paid well above the official retail price, but well below what it’s worth on bourbon black markets — I wondered when I would drink it. Compared to most who would call themselves collectors, I am a total novice. I have some nice Michter’s put away, discontinued bottles of popular Suntory whisky, a handful of hard-to-find Blanton’s and one legitimately rare bottle of Booker’s 30th Anniversary. I wish this were a flex. My collection couldn’t hold the corks of those you’ll find on Instagram. But the first release of Weller Full Proof, a wheated bourbon that shares DNA with the Pappy back on the liquor store shelf, was a good find for me. I took it home and put it in a cool, dark cabinet with my nascent collection. And then came COVID-19.

During a moment that forces us to reckon with mortality, I recognize that philosophizing about drinking good whiskey feels, at best, twee. But as social distancing days turn to weeks and weeks to months, a helplessness set in — there’s no way to know when things will return to something close to what they were, meaning there is little to look forward to. For me, this hindered anticipation for anything other than my grocery delivery contributes to the hazy feeling many have described already, where Tuesday may as well be Sunday and 8 p.m. is indistinguishable from 3 a.m. So, because I can’t stop thinking about what comes next and coming up empty, and because of the wealth of superfluous shit I have in my cabinet, here’s a proposal: let’s drink the good stuff.

Though I still prefer the screwcap to the cork, the pointless luxury of popping a fresh cork is still satisfying.

Open your Google calendar, pick a day and time and mark yourself as busy. Get a notebook out and write down what it smells, looks and tastes like. Maybe send a small sample to a buddy (who wipes it down when he gets it) and share a drink over Facetime. Just drink it. As smartly outlined by Breaking Bourbon co-founder Eric Hasman, unless you’re holding onto a unicorn, it’s unlikely you’ll make out well selling it on Facebook. Follow the lead of industry veteran John Hansell, founder of Whisky Advocate magazine, who is spending time during self-isolation cracking bottles of whiskeys worth more than a nice sedan (and posting about them on Twitter). Be inspired by bourbon subreddit user /u/bferret’s neighbor, who gave a whiskey-illiterate redditor a pour of Willet Family Estate 27-Year Single Barrel, valued at roughly $3,000. Don’t have anything rare? Who cares. Give yourself an hour of quiet with something you like.

Beer people have already created a hashtag for the beer equivalent. Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade are Instagram Live-ing themselves drink through their stashes. And while one doesn’t need to create a hashtag or post somewhere for the moment to have significance, it does beg the question — what the hell are whiskey drinkers doing still sitting on mountains of great booze?

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I Want to Drink Buffalo Trace’s New Pappy-Like Bourbon with a Straw

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