The world’s best whisky for 2021 was named today. Okay, that’s a heady sentence in the wide world of whisk(e)y, but, we’re talking about the iconic and much-respected Jim Murray and his Whisky Bible 2021, which dropped this morning. So, what is the best whisky in the world, according to the master?
Drum roll… Alberta Premium Cask Strength! Yes, a Canadian rye was named the best whisky in the world. And, you know what, we can’t argue. We actually called out an Alberta Premium Rye bottle earlier this year as one of our favorites. The stuff it legit. Also, if you’ve drunk rye from an American blender — like WhistlePig — then you’ve drunk the good stuff from Alberta Distillers.
Alberta Premium Cask Strength has a mash bill of malted and unmalted rye, is aged in Alberta Distillery’s wintry warehouses, and then goes into the bottle uncut at a whopping 65.1 percent ABV. It’s gonna have some kick, making it a great cocktail base for those wintry Manhattans and nogs. Overall, Murray gave the juice a score of 97.5 out of 100.
Right now, the bottle is retailing in Canada for around $60 ($45 USD) a bottle. Expect that to change immediately. The last time Murray named a Canadian whisky his “world’s best” (Crown Royal’s Northern Harvest Rye) fights broke out in Canadian liquor stores over the last bottles.
Since Alberta Premium is a Beam Suntory shingle, expect to see these bottles to start popping up a little more regularly stateside soon. Just don’t expect it to be cheap.