This weekend, Return of the Jedi returns to theaters for its 40th anniversary. (Actually a little early, Return of the Jedi was actually released on May 25th.) Unfortunately it will not be the version that was released in 1983, but, instead, the Special Edition version that was released in theaters in March of 1997. (To get technical, the film has even been updated since then, but most of the changes happened in 1997.) I could go my whole life without seeing Jedi Rocks again, but, alas, it looks like I will be.
Return of the Jedi is a weird one for me as it’s my least favorite Star Wars movie of the Original Trilogy – and Luke’s plan to rescue Han Solo still makes absolutely no sense – but at the same time invokes the most nostalgia. I somehow have the ability to separate these two things. I saw The Empire Strikes Back in theaters when I was five, my first movie ever in a theater, but my memory of this is hazy. But I was eight when Return of the Jedi was released, which is kind of the perfect age for a Star Wars movie like this one to come out. And even for Star Wars, the marketing was in hyperdrive. Return of the Jedi was everywhere. From my memory, the only movie to maybe come close to this level of marketing was The Phantom Menace 16 years later.
Also being amped up, and adding to the nostalgia, were the action figures. The original Star Wars had a grand total of 21 action figures made. (Technically 20 from the movie, as Kenner made a Boba Fett figure before its The Empire Strikes Back line. Even then there were some odd choices. There would be no Tarkin action figure, even though he’s the main villain from the movie. But you could get Snaggletooth, who had about one second of screen time in the movie during the cantina scene. The Empire Strikes Back had a grand total of 29 action figures. Return of the Jedi would feature a whopping 47* action figures (if you count the Max Rebo band, and I do) from that movie alone. But like Tarkin from the first movie, there would be no Mon Mothma, literally the leader of the Rebel Alliance. But you could buy someone named “Prune Face.”
*We are getting into the weeds a bit here, but since I don’t want people yelling at me on Twitter, the last wave of Return of the Jedi** figures were released in 1985 on packaging titled “The Power of the Force.” Which, at the time, was very confusing – leading kids like me to think a new Star Wars movie called The Power of the Force was coming. In reality, Kenner just didn’t want to try to sell toys for a two-year-old movie and tried to rebrand it into something hip and fun. In fact, Kenner proposed a whole new Star Wars storyline to Lucasfilm and whole new toy line based on this story. Lucasfilm wasn’t interested. And this last line of Star Wars toys found their way to the bargain bins as kids had moved on to G.I. Joe and Transformers. Today, this last line commands the highest prices on auction sites.
**One figure from this last line is Luke Skywalker in a Stormtrooper outfit, which is from the original Star Wars. I know this. Again, just avoiding being yelled at.
Anyway, having said all that, in honor of the sweet nectar of nostalgia and the return of Return of the Jedi to theaters, here’s a list of the ten Return of the Jedi figures that were the strangest to make in the first place. Think of it like this. Let’s say you work at Kenner during this time period and you say, “Hey, we should make a Mon Mothma figure, right? She’s the leader of the Rebel Alliance.” And you are told, “Nah, we need to make this one instead.” This list is, from ten to one, how irritated you’d be at this decision. And we are going to leave any expanded universe or what would come later out of this ranking since that didn’t exist then.
10. R2-D2 (with pop-up lightsaber)
Nothing against R2-D2, but this marks the third R2-D2 figure released at this point. The first one was just R2-D2. The second was with a sensor scope like he used in The Empire Strikes Back. And now this one lets you put a little green stick in his head that looks nothing like an actual lightsaber, even from this era. Anyway, this Artoo is basically like the others, but with a green stick coming out of his head. I’d have much rather had a Mon Mothma. But, I will add this as a caveat: a few years ago I decided to try and rebuild my vintage Star Wars action figure collection with all the original accessories. No piece gave me more trouble than then R2-D2. The figure itself isn’t that hard to find, but the lightsaber he comes with is extremely difficult. Making it harder, there are a lot of reproductions out there and not everyone is upfront about that. I bought one online from a trusted dealer (I am not about to admit what I paid for a green plastic stick, but in my defense it was literally the last thing I needed to complete the set) and read the instructions on how to tell if it’s real or a reproduction – but the problem is the item has to be in your possession to test it. With vintage Star Wars accessories, there’s something called the water test. For whatever reason, accessories float. But the people who make the reproductions make them too heavy, and they sink. Now, this lightsaber has an even more fine level of buoyancy: If you put it in a glass of water it floats, but if you push it under, it then sinks. So there I am, a grown adult, floating a green stick on water, then pushing it under, watching it sink and then celebrating.
9. Han Solo (Trench Coat)
Overall I don’t mind this figure, it’s more the culmination of Kenner never quite getting a Han Solo figure right. (Honestly, I could write a whole piece on this.) The first Han Solo figure from the original Star Wars line is, for some reason, much skinnier than every other figure. On top of that, his head is too small for his body. To the point, Kenner then replaced his head with a bigger version that then looked too big for his body and also resembled Butthead more than Harrison Ford. (Also, this was very confusing as a kid because the new larger head Han didn’t match the figure on the back of the package.)
Hasbro
The second Han was in his Hoth gear. This was the first Star Wars action figure I ever owned and it was difficult to explain to my parents why I needed another Han Solo, in that he wouldn’t be wearing a heavy coat on every adventure. This figure is fine enough, it’s just his face is a little off and he always has his hood up. The third is probably the best, labeled “Bespin Outfit” even though he wears the same outfit on Hoth. The only problem is, for whatever reason, his boots are tan, the same color as his pants. With black boots, this figure might be about perfect. And then that brings us to trench coat Han, who for some reason is wearing gray slacks (black boots this time though) and his face looks like Bill Clinton circa 1994. Anyway, all of this has bothered me since the 1980s.
8. Anakin Skywalker
Yeah, I get it, how can you have no Anakin Skywalker? Again, if we aren’t going to have a Tarkin, I don’t fully understand why they made a figure of the guy we only see has a Force Ghost at the very end of the movie. Also, Lucasfilm has effectively removed poor Sebastian Shaw as full-on Anakin from the movie. If you see Return of the Jedi this weekend, you will not see Force Ghost Sebastian Shaw. You will see Force Ghost Hayden Christensen. (Shaw still has his scene after Luke takes off Vader’s mask.) It’s weird, with the timeline we have now, during the events of Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader would be around 46 or so. Sebastian Shaw was born in 1905. He was almost 80. (I should point out that 80 in the 1980s was very different than 80s today. At least, not many people that age were making brand new Indiana Jones movies.)
7. Rebel Commando
I get why “generic Rebel soldier” gets made over Mon Mothma, in that they want kids to beg their parents for ten of these to build an army. (Yeah, at least in my house, this didn’t work. I had one. It took everything to convince my mom to buy me a Stormtrooper after I already had a Hoth version.) It’s more the design, it doesn’t really fit in with the rest. It feels more like a G.I. Joe figure with less articulation. Also, I never understood why we got this guy, but we never got the Rebel trooper (aka Fleet Trooper) from the original movie that we see fighting Stormtroopers as the movie opens. The first generic Rebel soldier was in his Hoth gear. Good figure! But also very specialized.
6. Warok/Lumat
I’m not advocating both of these Ewoks should not have been made, just that one or the other shouldn’t have been made. And, look, I get it there was a huge Ewok village playset they were selling and the more Ewoks to fill it with, the better. But these two look almost exactly the same. To the point, as I said earlier, I have both of them right now and I can hardly tell a difference. There were so many Ewoks! Make one that has different color fur! Now take Teebo, there’s a distinct-looking Ewok. Though, during the first wave of Jedi figures, the only two Ewoks were Chief Chirpa and Logray. Logray is very distinct looking, but Chief Chirpa was just a gray Ewok with no real unique characteristics. So parents buying their kids Ewoks would get multiple Chief Chirpas as “army builders.” Which, in retrospect, is kind of weird since he was the Ewok leader. It would be like buying five Emperor figures just to fill out the base.
5. Romba/Paploo
Same as above. But, I will add, when Return of the Jedi action figures started coming out, before the movie was released, the first two Ewoks released, Chief Chirpa and Logray, were blobbed out on the back of the card in an effort to keep their design secret. What’s weird is, these weren’t just black boxes over them. It looked like an ink blob of some sort. So, at the time, my friends and I just assumed this is what Ewoks would look like … ghastly blobs.
Hasbro
4. Imperial Dignitary
In 1995, Kenner, now owned by Hasbro, started releasing Star Wars figures again. For 10 years there was just nothing, which seems kind of absurd today in that it’s hard to go anywhere without seeing some sort of Star Wars-themed product. I remember being in college and a friend, Tony, was like “I was at Toys ‘R’ Us today and they had new Star Wars figures.” I honestly didn’t believe him. I had to see these. They were very … muscular, as a lot of stuff was from that era. Anyway, Hasbro has released pretty much a never-ending onslaught of Star Wars action figures and vehicles since then. They have made pretty much every action figure you can possibly imagine over the last almost 30 years now multiple times. As far as I can tell they haven’t made the Imperial Dignitary in 20 years. He is a character who gives advice to the characters, as a kid, you would like to play with.
3. Prune Face
When I originally had this action figure, I just assumed he was one of Jabba’s goons. Though he is wearing Rebel Alliance military fatigues, so maybe that should have been a clue. But with no internet, there was really no way to know who this guy even was, or who he sided with. Apparently, when Mon Mothma gives her speech about how to defeat the second Death Star, Prune Face (later given the name Orrimaarko) is … well he’s there listening. That’s about it. In 1983, you could create an entire display of the people who listened to Mon Mothma’s speech, with the only problem being not having a figure of the person who gave the speech. I digress.
2. Klaatu (Skiff Guard Outfit)
Klaatu here has the honor of being the only non-main character in the first three movies to be bestowed two action figures. Now, I have no problem with the first Klaatu being made as he appears in Jabba’s throne room. Again, kids like monsters. And it’s fun to have as many of these aliens as possible to fill out displays or whatever. But if we’re going back to the original question, imagine pitching that non-existent Mon Mothma figure. Again, the leader of the Rebel Alliance! And the answer is, “Hm, I think we should make a second Klaatu figure. This time, he’s in an all-white outfit. Kids will want him to be more comfortable in the hot Tatooine sun.”
1. General Madine
He’s just some guy. Actually, his job in the movie is literally to introduce Mon Mothma, the actual important person. Looking back on there being no Tarkin in the original run of figures, a case could be made, well, he’s just some guy. Kids would rather have a monster from the cantina than just a guy in a uniform. Well, now here’s an action figure of just some guy, only way less important than Tarkin. And did he at least come with a cool weapon of some sort? Nope … one white stick. Watch out, Darth Vader, here comes General Madine and his pointing stick, so he can point at all the plans the Rebel Alliance has to defeat you. Anyway, did I own General Madine? Yes, of course I did. Someone had to stay behind at the base and guard it with a stick.
Subscribers to Bhad Bhabie’s surprisingly lucrative OnlyFans account may notice some changes the next time they log in. The Florida-born rapper said she plans to get a half-dozen of her signature tattoos removed — and that all of them pertain to Chicago rapper Chief Keef. Bhad Bhabie was a guest on Emily Ratajkowski’s podcast, High Low With Emrata, and told the host that she had accumulated six tattoos dedicated to Keef, but intended to get rid of them because she was “sick of his sh*t.” Bhabie and Keef were rumored to have dated in 2020.
“I have Chief Keef’s birthday, his last name, his name, his nickname, and I have ‘CK’ on my ankle, then I have his last name right here,” she said. “Actually, I just covered his birthday, and then I have ‘So’ on my ear, and then I have ‘Keef’ on my wrist… I’m getting them removed. I’m just tired of being delusional. I’m so over it.”
Later in the interview, she also addressed the plastic surgeries that drew criticism from fans throughout her career. “I had two rounds of [silicone] ass shots when I was 16 that did nothing,” she said. “I didn’t start getting any kind of shape to my body until I started gaining weight. I gained, like, 25 pounds in, like, two weeks. It just happened. I don’t know how it happened. I’ve never gotten my boobs done. I’ve had lip filler.” The criticism and accusations of “Blackfishing” led to her taking a social media hiatus and later getting into a heated debate with Lil Yachty about cultural appropriation.
The internet is whispering that there’s a new hip-hop/R&B power couple brewing. According to social media users, The Little Mermaid star Halle isn’t the only Bailey sister with a rapper boyfriend.
Quavo and Chlöe might play stargazed love interests in their latest Peacock Original film Praise This, but fans believe there’s much more to their on-screen chemistry. Not only has the “Hotel Lobby” rapper been spotted partying with the singer following her In Pieces Tour stop in Atlanta, but after clips of the duo’s latest interview with Complex hit social media, users are riled up.
Although the “How Does It Feel” singer has denied that they were dating during her appearance on Latto’s Apple Music show 777 Radio, fans are calling bullsh*t. Quavo’s latest song, “Honey Bun,” may pay homage to Drake and 21 Savage, but some believe it’s an inside reference to Chlöe’s sweet tooth.
Users across Twitter have made up their minds, and the pair is the latest rumored romance to focus on. Check out a few responses below.
On the other hand, some aren’t sold on the idea of the two being romantically linked, claiming that they read their on-screen chemistry as sibling energy. This wouldn’t be the first time Chlöe supposedly dated a fellow musician and those rumors also turned out to be quite false.
I’m watching this Chloe & Quavo interview & I think y’all have a hard time grasping platonic relationships. It’s not giving flirty, it’s giving bro & sis at best
I just watched Quavo and Chloe’s Goat Talk lil interview….. I absolutely do NOT think they are dating… I would give them more brother & sister vibes. They seem VERY comfortable with each other tho I will say that. But men & women can be friends without dating.
The internet is whispering that there’s a new hip-hop/R&B power couple brewing. According to social media users, The Little Mermaid star Halle isn’t the only Bailey sister with a rapper boyfriend.
Quavo and Chlöe might play stargazed love interests in their latest Peacock Original film Praise This, but fans believe there’s much more to their on-screen chemistry. Not only has the “Hotel Lobby” rapper been spotted partying with the singer following her In Pieces Tour stop in Atlanta, but after clips of the duo’s latest interview with Complex hit social media, users are riled up.
Although the “How Does It Feel” singer has denied that they were dating during her appearance on Latto’s Apple Music show 777 Radio, fans are calling bullsh*t. Quavo’s latest song, “Honey Bun,” may pay homage to Drake and 21 Savage, but some believe it’s an inside reference to Chlöe’s sweet tooth.
Users across Twitter have made up their minds, and the pair is the latest rumored romance to focus on. Check out a few responses below.
On the other hand, some aren’t sold on the idea of the two being romantically linked, claiming that they read their on-screen chemistry as sibling energy. This wouldn’t be the first time Chlöe supposedly dated a fellow musician and those rumors also turned out to be quite false.
I’m watching this Chloe & Quavo interview & I think y’all have a hard time grasping platonic relationships. It’s not giving flirty, it’s giving bro & sis at best
I just watched Quavo and Chloe’s Goat Talk lil interview….. I absolutely do NOT think they are dating… I would give them more brother & sister vibes. They seem VERY comfortable with each other tho I will say that. But men & women can be friends without dating.
Full disclosure, I’m a head judge at this competition. I sampled just north of 300 pours of spirits over the three days (200 plus of which were American whiskeys). While I sampled a ton of these bourbons, I didn’t try them all in San Francisco. There were over 6,000 total entries (all spirits can be found here). Plus, it was double-blind and I still don’t know what I tasted, for obvious reasons. Still, I’ve added my own tasting notes to all the double gold-winning bourbons where I could. Otherwise, I’ve included tasting notes from the bottler or distiller.
One caveat here, many of these whiskeys are very local. You’ll either have to live in a certain region or visit at the right time to get some of these. I look at it this way: The hyper-regional whiskeys are a good guide to what to drink when you do meander around the country. Otherwise, read those tasting notes and find the more widely available whiskeys that spark your interest.
Then hit that price link to try something totally new — let’s dive in!
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months
This new whiskey from the father and son team is a blend of two carefully sourced barrels. The mix blends a 13-year and 15-year barrel together to make a sharp and delicious bourbon.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Soft orchard fruits and maple syrup lead the way on the nose as roasted almonds and vanilla/caramel tobacco pipe tobacco round things out.
Palate: The palate balances creamy vanilla sauce with a dark and bitter chocolate powder that’s nearly espresso bean oil.
Finish: The finish is subtle but deep with a hazelnut vibe that blends with the chocolate for a lush Nutella feel next to woody maple, rum-soaked raisins, and a hint of old porch wicker draped in old leather.
Bottom Line:
These releases always slap. They’re rare which makes them fleeting outside of Kentucky but they’re worth the hunt.
World Whiskey Society Class Collection Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished In Port Cask Aged 10 Years
This whiskey is distilled in Oklahoma but bottled in Georgia. The whiskey in the bottle is made from a mash bill (recipe) of 51% corn, 45% wheat, and 4% malted barley. That hot juice was then aged for almost a decade before going into a huge port cask for a final rest.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a sense of grape soda and orange zest on the nose with a hint of crafty bourbon grains, dry grass, and old oak.
Palate: The palate sort of leans into red fruit and dry grass with a light sense of orange and vanilla.
Finish: The end is short and has a touch of vanilla cake and holiday spice.
Bottom Line:
I’m not the biggest fan of this one, but I can see how the crafty graininess works with the port finish in a balanced and enticing way.
Angel’s Envy Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in Port Wine Barrels Cask Strength
This modern classic is a yearly limited release from the beloved Lousiville distiller. The juice is made from a mix of locally sourced barrels that are finished in Ruby Port casks. The best of the best are hand-selected by Angel’s Envy’s team for as-is batching and bottling with only 14,000 odd bottles making out this year.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This opens with a deep sense of blackberry jam over a Southern biscuit with plenty of brown butter, vanilla sauce, and apple fruit leather with a dash of cinnamon, allspice, and star anise next to a whisper of cherry cream soda and orange-chocolate tobacco packed into a cedar box.
Palate: The palate is soft and supple with a brandy butter vibe next to mince meat pie with powdered sugar icing, meaty dates, black tea, and rich Black Forest cake.
Finish: The end subtly meanders through shaved dark chocolate and stewed cherry, eventually landing on a vanilla-laced tobacco leaf rolled up with apple-cider-soaked cinnamon sticks and old wicker canes.
Bottom Line:
This was just delicious and really feels like a holiday vibe whiskey.
Art of the Spirits Whiskey Cask Strength “Frogman” Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This is a sourced whiskey with a Navy SEAL theme but also… old-timey pinup girls. The brand supports vets. Otherwise, they don’t really say much about what’s in the bottle.
Tasting Notes:
None available.
Bottom Line:
A lot of the “bullet bros & pinup girls” branding by this crew brand feels like a time machine back to the 1990s in a war machine/ misogynistic sort of way. I’ll just leave it at that.
Art of the Spirits Whiskey Cask Strength “Final Run” Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in a Ruby Port Cask
This is a very niche brand that’s sourcing old barrels. The whiskey in the bottle is a Kentucky straight bourbon that rest for 13 years before it was bottled pretty much as-is with a touch of proofing water.
Nose: “A haunting combination of antique wood, wet soil, and dry corn pulls forward from a honeyed vanilla palate. This introduction immediately suggests a rare complexity that can only be found in a true Kentucky bourbon with properly aged maturity.”
Palate: “Exotic spice and caramel notes are directly complemented by hints of buttery cream and cured tea leaves.”
Finish: “Each sip provides an unforgettable experience that instantly returns you to the limestone hills of Kentucky only to demand further exploration.”
Bottom Line:
This sounds nice enough. Though there’s going to be a pretty bold oakiness.
Axe and the Oak Distillery First Stake Cask Strength Bourbon Whiskey
This whiskey from Colorado Springs is a new crafty on the bourbon stage. The whiskey is three years old and rendered from a high-rye bourbon mash bill. Those barrels are blended and bottled as-is without any proofing.
This sourced whiskey comes from Kentucky. The juice is a blend of 70% corn, 21% rye, and 9% malted barley whiskey that’s aged for up to four years before proofing and bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This smells like “bourbon” on the nose with hints of caramel, vanilla, oak, and a dollop of maple syrup.
Palate: The palate has a thick winter spice vibe with dusty cinnamon and eggnog-heavy nutmeg with a creamy edge next to vanilla tobacco with a whisper of cedar humidor.
Finish: That spice really amps up toward the finish with a Red Hot tobacco chew and dry wicker finish.
Bottom Line:
This is nice. That said, I always forget this on the shelf. At the end of the day, I’d mix this into a highball with good fizzy water or ginger ale.
This is the same bourbon as above but finished in toasted French oak. Those barrels are blended in Memphis and proofed down to a little higher proof, allowing more of that toasted barrel to shine through.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: That oak comes through on the nose with a mix of dry cedar and resin-heavy pine as more standard notes of toffee, vanilla, and cherry shine.
Palate: The palate largely follows that path with the mid-palate leaning into dried fruit and more of a dry tobacco leaf.
Finish: The finish is short and sweet with a dry woodiness that’s part old cedar box and part moldy wicker deck furniture with a hint of hot mulled wine.
Bottom Line:
This is one of those whiskeys where you sip it and say, “yeah, that’s nice” and then kind of forget it exists. Though I have to admit, our editor — less of a bourbon head than me — always talks about how he likes it. Palate differ,yo! [Also, he never gets to try the $5000 bottles you get. –ed.]
Bainbridge Whiskey Forty Saloon Bourbon Whiskey Small Batch Organic Bottled In Bond
Bainbridge Organic has been making seriously great whiskey for years now up in Washington. This whiskey is their first foray into bourbon. Overall, the mash bill is a classic 60% heirloom corn., 25% old variety Triticale (a rye-wheat hybrid), and 15% soft white wheat mix. The whiskey is left alone for five years and six months before batching and bottling.
This bourbon is a blend of 12-year-old, low-rye bourbon from Kentucky and 10-year-old, very-low-rye bourbon from Tennessee. The whiskeys were re-barreled into Armagnac casks from the famed Chateau de Laubade. One set spent two years mellowing on the bottom floor of the rickhouse while another set spent 16 months mellowing on the top floor. After that, the barrels were vatted and bottled as-is.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This hits on complex notes on the nose from old leather, dried sage, cellared oak, roasted almonds rolled in toffee, sultanas, and then deep winter spice: freshly ground nutmeg, mace, cardamom, sharp cinnamon.
Palate: The palate has a silky vanilla foundation with more sultanas over top, fresh and meaty dates, ginger snaps, and prunes mingle.
Finish: The end has a gingerbread vibe next to cherry bark and grape must with more of those spices pouring into an old cedar humidor that used to hold tobacco.
Bottom Line:
This release from Bardstown Bourbon Company might truly get you hooked on rare whiskey.
1845 Distilling Company Preemption Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Buffalo Trace’s Blanton Single Barrel is made up of hand-selected single barrels that meet the sky-high standards of former Master Distiller Elmer T. Lee, who created the expression back in 1984.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a clear sense of Christmas spices right away, leaning towards honey spiked with vanilla and an old cedar cigar humidor.
Palate: The taste holds onto the spice, especially nutmeg, as caramel kettle corn, more fresh honey, fresh red berries, and vanilla husks dominate the palate.
Finish: The end doesn’t overstay its welcome as hints of eggnog spice, dry vanilla, and popped corn surface on the fade.
Bottom Line:
It’s Blanton’s. It’s iconic for a reason and everyone should have at least one bottle on their bar cart at all times.
Blanton’s Straight From The Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Blanton’s is “The Original Single Barrel” bourbon, and this expression is the purest form of that whiskey. The whiskey in this case is from the barrels that need no cutting with water and are excellent as-is, straight from the barrel. All the barrels will come from Warehouse H (where Elmer T. Lee stored his private stash of barrels back in the day) and arrive with varying proofs. The through-line is the excellent taste of that single, unadulterated barrel in each sip.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose is full of very bespoke dark chocolate-covered salted hard caramel toffees encrusted with almonds and pecans — the kind you get from a chocolate shop that imports their goodies from somewhere like Belgium.
Palate: The nutty toffee carries through into the taste as oily vanilla pods mingle with cedar boxes of dried tobacco leaves and a touch of floral honey.
Finish: The end is very long and lingers in your senses, with a hot buzzing that subtly fades through all that sweetness.
Bottom Line:
Standard Blanton’s is a delicious whiskey that is proofed way down (93-proof to be exact). The whiskey simply shines more brightly at cask strength. If you’re even remotely attracted to standard Blanton’s, then it’s time to graduate to this.
Colorado’s mountain-high Breckenridge made a modern classic with this one. The whiskey is a blend of three-year-old Colorado bourbons made up in the Rocky Mountains and proofed with water from the glaciers.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This is sweet on the nose with apple orchards, corn mush, vanilla cake, and honeyed biscuits.
Palate: The palate builds on the sweet nose with dark winter spices, soft oak, and a nice balance of vanilla and caramel.
Finish: The end is short and sweet but sticks with you with a classic orchard fruit/vanilla/caramel vibe.
Bottom Line:
This is a nice and easy whiskey that’s built for mixing.
This is Breckenridge’s classic blended bourbon amped up a tad. The whiskey is aged for over three years before batching a kiss of proofing with local Rocky Mountain water.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose runs deep with burnt orange, marzipan, and woody winter spices next to a hint of toffee dipped in dark chocolate.
Palate: The palate largely follows the nose with buttery toffee leading to marzipan and eventually a mix of cedar and cinnamon bark with a whisper of tobacco.
Finish: The end leans into the woodiness of the spices and tobacco with a nice counterbalance of rich and sweet toffee with a nutty edge.
Bottom Line:
This is just nice, easy, and smooth. It makes a hell of a cocktail too.
Brother’s Bond Straight Bourbon Whiskey Original Cask Strength
The newest release from Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley is an evolution of their brand. The whiskey in the bottle is a blend of three bourbons which create a four-grain bourbon. That blend was then bottled as-is.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This opens with a balance of old leather boots and freshly cracked black pepper next to a hint of walnut shell, vanilla pod, and orange zest.
Palate: The palate leans into what feels like star fruit as orange marmalade, salted butter, and fresh honey drip over rye bread crusts.
Finish: The end comes with a good dose of peppery spice and old leather as those walnuts and orange combine with a handful of dried fruit and a dusting of winter spices on the finish.
Bottom Line:
This latest version of Brother’s Bond proved the brand was about more than celebs white labeling booze. It proved that Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley truly care about this industry and the whiskey in their bottle.
Russell’s Reserve Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey 13 Years Old
This whiskey was made by Eddie Russell to celebrate his 40th year of distilling whiskey with his dad, Jimmy Russell. The blend is a collection of a minimum of 13-year-old barrels that Eddie Russell hand-picked. Those barrels were married and then bottled as-is with no proofing or filtration.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Sweet and dried fruits invite you on the nose as a touch of fresh, creamy, and dark Black Forest cake mingles with mild holiday spices, dried almonds, and a sense of rich pipe tobacco just kissed with sultanas.
Palate: That dark chocolate and cherry fruit drive the palate as a hint of charred cedar lead towards vanilla tobacco with more of that dark chocolate and a small touch of honey, orange blossom, and a whisper of dried chili flake.
Finish: That honey leads back to the warmth and spice with a thin line of cherry bark smoke lurking on the very backend with more bitter chocolate, buttery vanilla, and dark cherry all combining into chewy tobacco packed into an old pine box and wrapped up with worn leather thread.
Bottom Line:
This is one of the best Wild Turkey releases of all time. It’s on shelves now and still (kind of) gettable. Basically, if you’re a fan of Wild Turkey in any way, this is a no-brainer addition to your bar cart.
Wilderness Trail High Rye Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Wilderness Trail is the whiskey nerd’s whiskey. Their High Rye Bourbon is a mash of 64% corn, 24% rye, and 12% barley grains that are fermented with a proprietary Wildness Trail yeast using the sweet mash process. The whiskey then spends four years and nine months aging before it’s bottled without any filtration and barely proofed.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a mild holiday cake vibe with brown spice, nuts, and dried fruit mingling with touches of oak, chocolate-covered berries, and biscuits.
Palate: The taste becomes a sort of buttered-biscuit-smothered-with-berry-jam that’s been touched with spice as a note of sweetened vanilla lurks in the background.
Finish: The end is long and leans back into the fruit as the vanilla and spice create a silken mouthfeel.
Bottom Line:
Every home bar cart should have at least one Wilderness Trail on it. And I really got into mixing Manhattans and Sazeracs with this. It’s a great bold whiskey that truly shines when mixed.
Pinhook Vertical Series Straight Bourbon Whiskey Aged 7 Years
This is an instant classic from Kentucky’s Pinhook. The whiskey is hewn from a mash bill of 75% corn, 20.5% rye, and 4.5% malted barley, distilled at MGP of Indiana and aged at Castle & Key (in Kentucky). The whiskey was left alone for seven years before batching and bottling as-is.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens. with toasted raisin bread, cinnamon butter, dates, prunes, and figs with a nice layer of leathery dark berries.
Palate: Soft caramel opens the palate before sharp winter spice barks, sticky toffee pudding, and vanilla buttercream lead to fresh gingerbread.
Finish: The end leans into the rich buttercream and woody spices with a soft sense of pipe tobacco and Christmas cakes.
Bottom Line:
This is another great release from a brand that just keeps getting better and better.
Clyde May’s Special Reserve Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This whiskey is sourced from an “undisclosed” distillery in Indiana (cough, cough, MGP, cough, cough). It’s aged for about three years and proofed a tad before bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Spice and wet brown sugar mix on the nose with a sense of apple crumble with plenty of butter and maybe a little too much clove and allspice.
Palate: The palate has a sense of savory fruit (think cantaloupe) with black peppercorns, pancake syrup, and woodiness.
Finish: The whole sip is very “general” and ends with cornbread meets brown butter cut with dark sugar, vanilla, and tobacco vibe.
Bottom Line:
This is pretty damn good overall, especially if you’re looking for something that leans classic and easy to sip. It’s a little sweet for me but that’s not a knock. That’s just my palate.
Kentucky Owl The Wiseman Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This new-ish release from Kentucky Owl is meant to be an affordable and accessible Kentucky Owl from the otherwise elite brand. The whiskey is a blend of contract distilled whiskey from Bardstown Bourbon Company and sourced barrels from around Kentucky that are four to eight years old.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This is very interesting on the nose with a mix of circus peanut, garam masala, sweet grass, and pine resin next to a hint of rich buttery toffee sauce with a flake of salt.
Palate: The palate leans into that toffee and then layers in raspberry sorbet, vanilla beans, masa azul, and wet cedar planks.
Finish: A leathery tobacco pouch rounds out the sip near the end with more of that cedar, dry sweet grass, and a hint more of the spice.
Bottom Line:
This is a home run. It’s awesome on the rocks but really kills in a cocktail. Try it in your next Manhattan.
This sourced whiskey (from MGP of Indiana) is all about finding the best barrels and batching them to create something more. The whiskey in this small batch bourbon is rendered from MGP’s 21% and 36% rye bourbon mash bills. The barrels are between eight and 15 years old. Once vatted, the whiskey is just touched with water before bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: A rich buttery note comes through on the nose with a hint of salted corn next to savory figs with a hint of honey and freshly ground nutmeg mixed with some vanilla cream.
Palate: The palate turns that butteriness into salted caramel with a hint of sticky toffee pudding with plenty of cinnamon and nutmeg next to a thin line of charred oak underneath it all.
Finish: The end dries out with a sense of old leather wrapped around an old and dry tobacco leaf with a twinge of raisin.
Bottom Line:
This is just a well-made whiskey. It’s easy to sip and, well, that’s it.
Joseph Magnus Murray Hill Club Bourbon Whiskey, A Blend
This is a masterfully sourced whiskey. The whiskey is a mix of 18 and 11-year-old bourbon with a nine-year-old light whiskey (a high-proof whiskey aged in lightly toasted, uncharted barrels). That blend is then just touched with water before bottling without any fussing.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a rich sense of buttery toffee on the nose with plenty of cinnamon/nutmeg/allspice next to a hint of savory fig and some vanilla cream.
Palate: The palate merges the spices into a lush eggnog vibe as hints of old cedar planks mix with a black peppercorn sharpness.
Finish: The end mixes the spices into a buttery cookie with hints of singed cinnamon bark, old pine, and soft vanilla tobacco leaves.
Bottom Line:
This was solid all around. It felt like the perfect cool-weather drinker thanks to all that wintry spice. That also means this would make a hell of a Manhattan.
The whiskey in this bottle is all about craft distilling. The juice is made of 68% corn, 27% rye, and 5% specialty roasted barley malts. All of the grains are locally and sustainably sourced. The whiskey spends a few years in the barrel before it’s “double-barreled” into hand-smoked Michigan northern oak barrels for a final rest. It’s then barely proofed down to 100 proof.
I’m very intrigued by this whiskey. Smoked barrels are going to be a big thing in the coming years in bourbon (yes, I’m calling it now) and this feels ahead of the curve on that front.
This whiskey is a blend of two MGP bourbons — their classic 75/21/4 corn/rye/malted barley mash bill with their very high rye 60/36/4 corn/rye/malted barley mash. Those whiskeys rested for 5.5 years before blending and re-barrelling into new French oak from Taransaud Cooperages that’s made with trees from the famous Troncaise forest. After about three months, those barrels were batched and this whiskey was bottled.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a creamy almost maltiness to the nose with a deep vanilla coffee cake, clove-studded orange, and pecan waffles with more creaminess with a buttery edge.
Palate: Apricot leather and apple fritters drive the palate with a spiced cinnamon toastiness next to a light drizzle of salted dark chocolate.
Finish: Cinnamon bark and sweet orange marmalade mingle on the finish with a light sense of spiced apple cider, wet orchards in the late fall, and creamy pear pudding.
Bottom Line:
This is a wild bourbon. It presents much more like an old Scotch whisky for cognac lovers with hints of American bourbon peaking in from time to time. It’s fascinating, delicious (like, really delicious), and a true outlier. Get some before it’s gone forever.
Wyoming Whiskey Single Barrel Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This is the famed Wyoming craft bourbon in a single-barrel format. The whiskey is still proofed down but comes straight from the barrel, one at a time.
This is the second major holiday release from Chicken Cock. This year’s super rare whiskey is made from a classic mash of 70% corn, 21% rye, and 9% malted barley. That whiskey was aged for an undisclosed amount of years before it was re-barreled into 32 French cognac barrels. Those 32 barrels were then batched, proofed, and bottled as-is for this release.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose is supple and full of creamed honey, moist marzipan, peaches and cream ice cream with a hint of waffle cone, and fresh plums dashed with clove and star anise.
Palate: The palate leans into the plums with a spiced cake vibe next to rich Black Forest Cake, candied dates, rum-raisin, and banana bread with plenty of butter, cinnamon, and walnut with a twist of fresh orange zest.
Finish: The end embraces the orange and adds in salted dark chocolate tobacco with a hint of brown butter, pecan shells, and cedar boughs.
Bottom Line:
Yes, it’s expensive but it’s also delicious.
Filmland Spirits Moonlight Mayhem! Small Batch Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This new brand blends the worlds of Hollywood B-movies and Ohio Valley whiskey-making in one brand. The Indiana whiskey is made from a mash bill of 75% corn, 21% rye, and 4% malted barley. Those whiskeys aged four to five years before they’re sent to Kentucky for batching and bottling with a touch of that limestone water.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Orange oils and cherry pie dominate the nose with mild hints of Saigon cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove next to a rush of caramel and maple syrup sweetness next to a hint of oak.
Palate: The taste opens sweet with more of that caramel leading to a lush vanilla base accented by cherry tobacco and cinnamon bark — in short, a classic bourbon palate.
Finish: The end gets creamy and soft with a sense of salted toffee and chocolate-covered espresso beans next to toasted tobacco and old oak.
Bottom Line:
This is a nice start and makes me pretty excited to see where Filmland takes us next with these releases.
Four Roses Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Four Rose’s standard single barrel expression is an interesting one. This is their “number one” recipe, meaning it’s the high-rye mash bill that’s fermented with a yeast that highlights “delicate fruit.” The whiskey is then bottled at 100 proof, meaning you’re getting a good sense of that single barrel in every bottle.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Woody maple syrup and cinnamon sticks lead to a hint of pear candy, rich vanilla, and a leathery dark fruit with this faint whisper of floral herbs on the nose.
Palate: The palate lets the pear shine as the spices lean into woody barks and tart berries next to leathery dates and plums with a butteriness tying everything together.
Finish: A spicy tobacco chewiness leads the mid-palate toward a soft fruitiness and a hint of plum pudding at the end with a slight nuttiness and green herbal vibe.
Bottom Line:
This is unique but made total sense from nose to finish. It offered something extra and felt fresh without sacrificing taste.
Frank August Case Study: 01 Mizunara Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
For this first “case study,” the team at Frank August picked five bourbon barrels to finish in Japanese Mizunara casks. While those barrels were finishing the elixir within, the team checked the whiskey every 30 days to assure they batched and bottled the whiskey at just the right moment.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a rich sense of butterscotch candy on the nose with freshly fried sourdough doughnuts dusted in brown sugar, cinnamon, and maybe some spearmint next dusting of white pepper.
Palate: The taste starts off creamy and full of toffee as apple pie filling with plenty of cloves and cinnamon leads to peppery mint chocolate and salted caramel drizzle with a twinge of pine resin.
Finish: The end is lush and spicy with a hint of caraway-encrusted rye next to cinnamon bark and clove buds next to warm menthol tobacco dipped in dark chocolate and wrapped with cedar bark and wild sage.
Bottom Line:
This is a whiskey that goes somewhere new with its bourbon profile. It’s funky and fun with a hint of malt whisky in the mix. Get this if you’re looking for a bourbon with subtle hints of malted whisky — definitely a win for anyone eager to expand their bourbon-drinking palates!
George Dickel Handcrafted Small Batch Bourbon Whisky Aged 8 Years
The whisky in the bottle is the same Dickel Tennessee whiskey but pulled from barrels that leaned more into classic bourbon flavor notes instead of Dickel’s iconic Tennessee whisky notes. The barrels are a minimum of eight years old before they’re vatted. The whiskey is then cut down to a manageable 90-proof and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with creamy vanilla next to spiced tobacco with plenty of apple pie vibe and winter spices with a butter underbelly.
Palate: The palate has a light bran muffin with a molasses vibe next to vanilla/nougat wafers that then leads to peach skins and gingerbread.
Finish: The end leans into the nutty chocolate and vanilla wafer with a touch of orange zest, marzipan, and mint tobacco with a hint of garden store earthiness.
Bottom Line:
This is a bit of an outlier taste-wise. If you’re looking for a classic bourbon, this isn’t it. If you’re looking for something fresh and new with a Tennessee whiskey vibe, then you’ll dig this.
This whiskey comes from Milwaukee’s Great Lakes Distillery. The whiskey is made with Wisconsin grains (67% corn, 22% malted barley, and 11% rye) and rested for over four years before batching, proofing, and bottling.
This is what you get when you take standard Elijah Craig and let it rest in just the right spot for 18 years. The 18-year-old barrel is hand-selected after a long search through the warehouses. Once selected, the whiskey is cooled slightly with that soft Kentucky limestone water and then bottled.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: You get a sense of oak with a touch of a rock-hewn cellar next to notes of dark chocolate oranges, mild brown spices, a touch of vanilla cream, and a hint of honey.
Palate: That vanilla takes on a nutty edge as the spices build and the wood softens towards cedar with a hint of fruity tobacco chew.
Finish: The vanilla creaminess really drives the finish towards a silken mouthfeel with plenty of spicy/fruity tobacco leaving you with a mild buzz across your senses.
Bottom Line:
This is one of those “smooth” whiskeys that doesn’t even need water — it’s that easy to drink. Still, this bottle has a lot going on that you need to take your time with. Explore the layers by adding water, learning from the nose, and giving the sip time to wash across your senses.
This is more of an entry point for Evan Williams. The whiskey is a mix of four to seven-year-old barrels of the standard Heaven Hill bourbon. The difference in this bottle is that it’s proofed at a slightly higher 86 proof, giving it a slight edge against Evan Williams Green Label at 80 proof.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose is very light but does meander through apple candy, dry corn, vanilla, and a touch of caramel.
Palate: The taste stays on a similar path with a hint of brown spice and “oak.”
Finish: The end is short but does touch on more vanilla and oak with a hint of cherry tobacco way in the background before an ethanol note takes over.
Bottom Line:
Overall, this is a highball whiskey.
Heaven Hill Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Bottled-In-Bond
This expression has been a touchstone “bottled-in-bond” since 1939 and remains a go-to for many bourbon lovers. The whiskey is the classic Heaven Hill bourbon mash bill that’s left to age for an extra three years compared to Evan Williams Bottled-in-Bond (also from Heaven Hill and the same base spirit).
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose draws you in with this rich and creamy vanilla ice cream (you know the kind that’s likely labeled “Tahitian”) that’s drizzled with a buttery and salty caramel sauce next to soft leather and dried apple blossoms with a hint of old cedar bark braids.
Palate: A floral honey vibe melds with Graham Crackers on the palate as creamy toffee covered in crushed almonds mingles with vanilla-laced pipe tobacco and old leather-bound books.
Finish: There’s a bit of freshly ground nutmeg near the end that leads to a light cherry tobacco note with whispers of old cellar beams and winter spices on the finish.
Bottom Line:
This is really good. It’s not amazing but it works wonders as a cocktail whiskey.
William Heavenhill 9th Edition 15-Year-Old Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
The latest edition of Heaven Hill’s super exclusive William Heavenhill release was made from just 34 barrels. Those barrels were from a specific floor of a specific warehouse where they rested for 15 long years before batching and bottling as-is.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: That oak comes through like a dank old cigar box with a sense of cinnamon bark, whole nutmeg bulbs, and stewed cherry syrup with a whisper of sassafras and marzipan.
Palate: The palate is lush with a sense of old rye bread crusts next to huckleberry cobbler, more marzipan, orange oils, vanilla oils, and a touch of singed cedar kindling.
Finish: Salted caramel peanut clusters and thick cherry tobacco chewiness mingle with old oak cellars with dirt floors and a fleeting sense of falling fall leaves.
Bottom Line:
This is delicious, hard to get, and very rare. That said, I walked into the Heaven Hill bottle shop and it was right there behind the cash registers. So it’s not impossible. Otherwise, expect very high, unicorn whiskey prices.
Heaven’s Door Aged 10 Years Decade Series Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This is the first release in the new series from Bob Dylan’s Heaven’s Door Tennessee whiskeys. The whiskey is a 10-year-old straight bourbon that was made in Tennessee but wasn’t charcoal filtered before or after aging. The sourced barrels were blended and just proofed down before bottling without any other fussing.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a tannic old oakiness on the nose (this is older) with hints of pecan waffles covered in maple syrup with vanilla butter.
Palate: The taste is pure silk with salted caramel, vanilla cream, black licorice, marzipan, and a hint of cinnamon-pecan ice cream with a dusting of powdery chocolate in malt.
Finish: The end has a moment of warmth thanks to that cinnamon before lunging toward old porch wicker, cinnamon bark, star anise, pear tobacco, and old leather with a hint of potting soil.
Bottom Line:
This was simply delicious. It was so vibrant and classic while taking you on a journey. And hey, at least I knew it was a Tennessee bourbon.
This whiskey marries Hillrock’s own estate bourbon with a carefully sourced barrel or two. The whiskey is partially aged in Oloroso sherry casks before it’s finished in rare tawny port casks. Finally, those barrels are batched, proofed, and bottled as-is.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This opens with a nose full of deep vanilla oils, rich caramel with a hint of salt, orange florals, and a deep creamy honey sweetness with a whisper of lemon oil.
Palate: Moist marzipan drizzled with buttery toffee mingles with vanilla cake and more of that honey before a counterpoint of savory melon, slightly bitter marmalade, and dried leathery apricot arrives.
Finish: The end arrives with a hint of spicy old oak (think cinnamon bark and nutmeg) with deeper and creamier honey attached to burnt orange and marzipan on a velvety finish.
Bottom Line:
This is the whiskey you pour when you want something that tastes … classy. It has a 20-year-old single malt vibe that’s filtered through a really accessible sip of bourbon. If you’re a fan of higher-end single malt, then 100% try this bottle. You will like it.
Ben Holladay One Barrel Bourbon Missouri Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This small craft whiskey is made with a mash of 56% corn, 30% rye, and 14% malted barley. The whiskey was left to age for six years before batching, proofing, and bottling.
Nose: “Aromas of tart fruits upfront – lemon oil, apple pie, clove, and hints of maple.”
Palate: “Flavors on the pallet led by sweet fruit including dark cherry and plum. A very rich, elegant, and buttery texture with flavors of cigar smoke, cornbread, and cotton candy.”
Finish: “The finish is loaded with complex flavors of honey-cinnamon, dark-roast coffee, vanilla, caramel, and sea salt. There’s a rich, malty, lingering effect that is reminiscent of a stout beer.”
Bottom Line:
This feels like something I’d seek out and really enjoy.
Jack Daniel’s 10 Years Old Tennessee Whiskey, Batch 2
This age statement released from Jack Daniel’s is a throwback to a bygone era in Tennessee Whiskey. The whiskey is aged for at least 10 years before batching. During that time, the barrels spend time in the “Buzzard’s Roost” at the top of the rickhouse. Once they hit the right flavor profile, those barrels are moved to the bottom floors of other warehouses to slow the aging down. Finally, the whiskey is batched, proofed, and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This opens with a rich matrix of cherry syrup, apple cores, sticky toffee, vanilla ice cream, and a bold line of wet and sweet oak with a mild earthiness.
Palate: The palate opens up towards the dark fruit but dries it out and marries it to a woody and spicy tobacco leaf alongside toasted cedar soaked in salted caramel paired with dry corn husks that are just singed.
Finish: The finish really takes its time as the cherry attaches to an old cinnamon stick and the tobacco takes on a sticky chewiness with an almost smoked oak woodiness.
Bottom Line:
This was an oaky whiskey with a nice fruitiness to balance things out. I’d say if you’re looking for something oaky but more fruity than spiced, then get this.
Jack Daniel’s 12-Year-Old Tennessee Whiskey, Batch 1
Jack Daniel’s doesn’t hide any of its processes. The mash at the base of this whiskey is a mix of 80% corn, 12% barley, and 8% rye. Those grains are milled in-house and mixed with cave water pulled from an on-site spring and Jack Daniel’s own yeast and lactobacillus that they also make/cultivate on-site. Once fermented, the mash is distilled twice in huge column stills. The hot spirit is then filtered through 10 feet of sugar maple charcoal that’s also made at the distillery. Finally, the filtered whiskey is loaded into charred new American oak barrels and left alone in the warehouse. After 12 years, a handful of barrels were ready; so they were batched, barely proofed, and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose is creamy with deep notes of old boot leather, dark and woody winter spices, black-tea-soaked dates, plum jam with clove, and an underbelly of chewy toffee-laced tobacco.
Palate: That creaminess presents on the palate with a soft sticky toffee pudding drizzled in salted caramel and vanilla sauce next to flakes of salt and a pinch of orange zest over dry Earl Grey tea leaves with a whisper of singed wild sage.
Finish: The end leans into the creamy toffee chewy tobacco with a hint of pear, cherry, and bananas foster over winter spice barks and a deep embracing warmth.
Bottom Line:
This is so well-balanced, nuanced, and just freaking tasty. It leaned more into the sweet fruit yeasty flavor notes while still holding onto classic and deep bourbon flavor notes. This is the good stuff, folks.
Kings County Distillery Bottled-In-Bond Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This crafty whiskey from New York is a grain-to-glass bourbon experience. The mash bill on this one eschews rye and wheat for 80% locally grown corn supported by 20% malted barley from England. The juice is then aged for four years in small 15-gallon barrels and treated according to the law and bottled in Kings County’s signature hip flask bottles.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This draws you in with a strawberry shortcake with a cornmeal base, topped with fresh berries, buttery vanilla whipped cream, and then dipped in a caramel sauce.
Palate: The palate veers away from all of that and touches on bitter black coffee syrup with brown sugar and butter notes next to oatcakes and vanilla sauce with a hint of spice lingering in the background.
Finish: The end is long and full of chocolate malts, leather, and more of that creamy and buttery vanilla whipped cream.
Bottom Line:
This is a quintessential craft bourbon. There’s a deep layer of sweet graininess that leans into fresh fruit and classic bourbon vanilla and spice notes. Overall, that makes this the perfect whiskey for someone looking for something local, tasty, and more on the crafty side of things.
A.D. Laws out in Colorado is renowned for its award-winning four-grain bourbons. The whiskey is made from 60% corn, 20% heirloom wheat, 10% heirloom rye, and 10% heirloom malted barley. That hot juice is then aged for over six years before it’s batched and cut down to 100 proof per bonded whiskey laws.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This feels more crafty on the nose with a balance between bitter black tea that’s been cut with a summery and floral honey as touches of cinnamon and orange pop in the background.
Palate: The orange and spice thickens and leans into an orange pound cake with a buttery and spicy streusel crumble as that black tea bitterness circles back to cut through all that butter, spice, and orange.
Finish: The end leans into the spice with more of a cinnamon candy vibe that leads towards a final dusting of dark cocoa.
Bottom Line:
This is a nice outlier on the list. It’s a great entry point for Laws’ wider selection while also being a nice, summery sipper over some rocks or in a bright cocktail.
Old Ezra Aged 7 Years Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This brand from Luxco is still sourced whiskey though they did start distilling their own in 2018. This bottle is a seven-year-old blend of barrels with a bourbon mash bill of 78% corn, 12% malted barley, and 10% rye, which just so happens to be Heaven Hill’s bourbon mash bill. These barrels are blended down and left as-is at cask strength for bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This is a pretty classic bourbon from nose to finish with a strong sense of rich caramel, pancakes with plenty of vanilla, sweet oak, wet brown sugar, and a whiff of cherry tobacco.
Palate: The palate leans into the woody brown spices as a dark cherry vibe sweetens the mid-palate.
Finish: The end circles back to that sweet oak and spicy cherry tobacco on a short finish.
Bottom Line:
This is good, classic, and strong bourbon. For me, those higher ABVs scream “cocktails” but this does work as a sipper with plenty of ice to calm down that high proof.
Maker’s Mark Cask Strength Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky
This special release from Maker’s Mark is their classic wheated bourbon turned up a few notches. The batch is made from no more than 19 barrels of whiskey. Once batched, that whiskey goes into the barrel at cask strength with no filtering, just pure whiskey-from-the-barrel vibes.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Burnt caramel candies and lush vanilla lead the way on the nose with hints of dry straw, sour cherry pie, and spiced apple cider with a touch of eggnog lushness.
Palate: The palate has a sense of spicy caramel with a vanilla base that leads to apricot jam, southern biscuits, and a flake of salt with a soft mocha creaminess.
Finish: The end is all about the buzzy tobacco spiciness with a soft vanilla underbelly and a hint of cherry syrup.
Bottom Line:
This is delicious whiskey. It’s so clearly a good and lush bourbon, even the newcomer can taste the excellence (and the flavors are dialed, which makes analyzing it a little more clear-cut). Get some!
This wheated bourbon — 68% corn, 18% wheat, and 14% malted barley — is contract distilled whiskey and very reminiscent of wheated bourbons from both Heaven Hill and Luxco (though we’ll never know where it really comes from). That whiskey spends an undisclosed amount of years aging before it goes into 15 Casknolia Pedro Ximenez sherry casks per batch (a truly small batch bourbon). Those barrels are then blended and touched with that soft Kentucky limestone water before bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Fruit shines through on the nose with fresh raspberries mingling with strawberry jam, Bing cherries, and dried plums and apricots with a hint of leather and winter spice baking that fruit up.
Palate: The palate really embraces those fruits with a tart and sour vibe to the cherries and red berries while the leather leans raw and the spices lean toward cinnamon and tobacco with a caramel mid-palate.
Finish: The sweetness fades quickly as the finish continues with berries and spice while the cherry attaches to the tobacco and soft cedar on the end.
Bottom Line:
If you’re in the mood for a fruit-bomb bourbon, this is the play.
This new whiskey from Nashville Barrel Company is a marriage of Kentucky spirit and Tennessee ingenuity. The whiskey is made and preliminary aged in Kentucky before the barrels are sent to Nashville to continue the maturation process in a different climate. After five years, the barrels are bottled one at a time at cask strength with no filtering or fussing.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This opens with a nice mix of old porch wicker (hardcore nostalgia really) next to supple caramel sauce, white pepper, and a sense of savory fruits like figs and maybe some starfruit.
Palate: The palate holds onto that savory fruit before some ABVs kick in with a nice mix of woody spices and burnt sugars.
Finish: The mid-palate leans into green sweetgrass, savory herbs, and a hint of sweet fruit candy that subtly morphs into strawberry soda at the very end.
Bottom Line:
This is another delicious whiskey that proves that sourcing whiskey is more than just putting whiskey in a bottle. The care that the selection process takes and then the aging of this whiskey in a different place adds a whole new dimension to the whiskey. Seriously, this is special stuff for anyone looking for something both new and delicious in the world of bourbon right now.
Neeley Family Distillery The Old Jett Brothers Sauternes Finished Bourbon
Neeley Family Distillery
ABV: 54.56%
Average Price: Coming Soon
The Whiskey:
This is an old-school Kentucky family brand. The whiskey in the bottle is made from a wheated mash bill that was left for 5 years to age before rebarrelling in Barbados rum barrels for another nine months.
Tasting Notes:
None available.
Bottom Line:
These tend to be very crafty (a lot of sweet grain) but well-balanced. Again though, unless you’re in Kentucky, you’re probably not going to find this.
New Riff Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Bottled in Bond
This four-year-old whiskey is rendered from a mash bill of 65% corn, 30% rye, and 5% malted barley. That whiskey is then blended under the bottled-in-bond laws and proofed down to 100 proof before bottling in New Riff’s flashy bottles.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Freshly baked sourdough cinnamon rolls with a butter and vanilla frosting draw you in on the nose with a hint of baked apple pies drizzled in caramel sauce.
Palate: The palate has a hint of mulled wine spice layered into those stewed apples with vanilla pudding, salted caramel, and old cedar rounding things out.
Finish: The finish has a touch of cotton candy next to more wintry spice (especially sharp cinnamon and ginger) next to lush vanilla tobacco stuffed into a cedar box.
Bottom Line:
This was above and beyond average small batch pours. This sip is one of those “instant love” whiskeys.
Hidden Barn Whiskey Kentucky Straight Bourbon Small Batch Series One Batch #5
Former Master Taster for Old Forester, Jackie Zykan, just left her post at Brown-Forman and her new whiskey is already on my desk. Zykan’s first release at her own shingle is a sourced whiskey from Neeley Family Distillery in rural Kentucky. The bourbon is made from a sweet mash (a brand new mash with every cook instead of reusing mash for a sour mash) with a high-ish rye content over pot stills (a true rarity in bourbon these days). Those barrels aged for four to five years before Zykan picked a handful for this inaugural release at batch proof.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose is full of digestive biscuits and whole wheat pancakes cut with vanilla and pecan next to hints of anise, caramel candy, and cinnamon-toast tobacco.
Palate: The palate holds onto the massive graininess with a clear sense of rye bread crumb next to thick oatmeal cookies with more of those pecans and plenty of raisins and spice.
Finish: Later, a hint of white pepper arrives and leads the finish to soft espresso cream with a dash of nutmeg and creamy toffee.
Bottom Line:
This was so engaging and out of left field in the best possible way. It also delivered on what was promised with a grain-forward bourbon unlike any other. It was so unique while also hitting nostalgic bourbon notes kind of like you were drinking from inside of your grandmother’s cookie jar.
Old Louisville Whiskey Co. Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This is from a brand new (opened in August 2022) blending and bottling house in Louisville, Kentucky. The whiskey in the bottle is a small-batch blend of seven to 10-year-old rye mash bourbon from MGP of Indiana. Those barrels are married and bottled with no proofing or filtering.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with a classic sense of bourbon vanilla and caramel with a hint of sour cherry and pancake batter next to a whisper of leather and old marshmallow.
Palate: The palate has a sense of apple wood followed by black peppercorns, vanilla sauce, marzipan, and black cherries.
Finish: It finishes a little warm with a hint of winter spice and more of that cherry wrapped up in tobacco.
Bottom Line:
MGP barrels are some of the most coveted right now. This is a great example of why. This is just an all-around solid sipper with real depth and nice character. I did want to add a rock, but it wasn’t necessary.
Peg Leg Porker Spirits Straight Tennessee Bourbon Whiskey
This is a sourced whiskey created by a BBQ pitmaster. The whiskey is made with a mash of 84% corn, 8% rye, and 8% malted barley and aged for at least four years.
Tasting Notes:
None available.
Bottom Line:
I’d definitely give this a try at a BBQ joint in Nashville.
This new-ish whiskey from Penelope really helps solidify the brand as a powerhouse in blending. The whiskey in the bottle is a blend of three bourbon mash bills (one is 21% rye, another 90% corn, and a 45% wheated bourbon — all from MGP), which create a four-grain (corn, wheat, rye, and barley) bourbon. Beyond that, this is about masterfully blending of four to five-year-old barrels into something bigger than the individual parts.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: You get a sense of dry cornmeal on the nose next to apple crumble, plenty of wintry spice, a hint of mulled wine, wet brown sugar, and a thin layer of wet yet sweet cedar.
Palate: A hint of brandy-soaked cherries arrives on the palate with a dusting of dark chocolate powder next to more apple pie filling, spice, and buttery crust alongside a sweet, toffee-heavy mid-palate.
Finish: The end arrives with a dry wicker vibe, cherry tobacco chewiness, and a hint of that dark chocolate.
Bottom Line:
These tend to be stellar one-offs. They’re great for a neat pour after a long day or mixing into a simple whiskey cocktail. You can’t go wrong here.
This whiskey is a celebration of golf legend Bobby Jones. The whiskey in this bottle is a sourced (from an undisclosed distillery) single barrel of whiskey that’s bottled with a touch of proofing water.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This is very basic on the nose with leather next to banana Necco Wafer, a hint of cherry, and maybe some caramel.
Palate: The palate is grainy like a bran muffin with a sense of cherry protein powder, some almond, and a vanilla wafer.
Finish: The end has a sense of toasted cedar next to vanilla and cherry.
Bottom Line:
This is fine. May I suggest that if you have a bottle, you mix it into a hard Arnold Palmer? That feels like the right use.
2XO The Phoenix Blend Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This is the new whiskey from famed blender Dixon Dedman (former head of Kentucky Owl). The whiskey is sourced and highlights the best of the best barrels that Dedman was able to get his hands on.
This is batched from 40 total barrels from three different states, making it a “blended” straight bourbon whiskey. While the team at Pursuit United doesn’t release the Tennessee distillery name, we know the whiskeys from Kentucky and New York are from Bardstown Bourbon Company and Finger Lakes Distilling, respectively.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with a rush of cedar next to Christmas spices steeped in sweet red wine.
Palate: That sweetness tends to lean into fresh honey with a touch of caramel and maybe a little dark chocolate on the end. The taste holds onto the honeyed sweetness with burnt sugars, light cedar, chocolate tobacco leaves, and a hint of orange oils.
Finish: That orange is what builds and powers the finish to its silken end, concluding with an orange-choco vibe and a very soft landing.
Bottom Line:
This is really solid bourbon, that said — it got a rougher score from me on a recent blind test.
Red Line Cask Strength Single Barrel Straight Bourbon
This whiskey from Red Line is sourced from hand-selected barrels from MGP of Indiana. The team at Red Line picked six-year-old barrels of MGP’s iconic high-rye bourbon mash of 75% corn, 21% rye, and only 4% malted barley. Those barrels were vatted and then bottled as-is at cask strength.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a lovely sweetness that arrives on the nose with a hint of burnt sugars and brown butter just starting to coalesce into caramel with a flake of salt and a sense of rum-raisin and an echo of charred oak.
Palate: The palate leans into a light apple compote with a hint of plum and plenty of wintry spices next to vanilla and wicker before the warmth of the ABVs peak on the mid-palate.
Finish: The end is soft and supple with a sense of spiced prune jam, old porch wicker, and allspice berries.
Bottom Line:
This seemingly small and bespoke bottler killed the awards circuit this year with this expression of finely sourced Indiana bourbon.
This Colorado grain-to-glass whiskey is made with a mash of local corn and wheat (70/30 split). That whiskey is left to age in variously charred oak for over three years before batching and bottling.
“A sweeter whiskey with caramel, butterscotch, and honey notes up front coupled with a light citrus and moderate oak finish. Nose comes across as sweet, creamy cereal. Enjoyably long warm finish.”
Bottom Line:
This is another one that I’d look for if I was in Colorado but that’s about it.
FEW Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This expression from Illinois’ FEW Spirits marks the 125th anniversary of the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897. The juice is made from 70% corn, 20% rye, and 10% malted barley. That whiskey spends four years resting before it’s proofed down to 100 proof and bottled as-is.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with a sense of vanilla cream pie with an extra thick vanilla pudding next to dry cedar bark with a touch of white moss, a touch of black licorice, and a hint of barrel smoke.
Palate: The palate leans into cherry bark with a light cherry tobacco spiciness that melds with the vanilla pudding, a pan of fresh sticky buns with plenty of cinnamon and walnuts, and a hint of black pepper and more of that dry cedar bark.
Finish: The finish has a bit of an oatmeal cookie vibe that leads back to the spicy cherry tobacco and white moss.
Bottom Line:
FEW Spirits perfected their bourbon craft with this expression.
This is sourced from Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee bourbons (though that’s likely to change since Heaven Hill bought the brand). The hand-selected barrels are sent to New York where they’re blended in small batches of no more than five barrels, proofed with New York limestone mine water, and bottled. What you’re paying for here is the exactness of a whiskey blender finding great barrels and knowing how to marry them to make something bigger and better.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a raw pancake batter note on the nose next to mulled red wine with plenty of spice and orange next to a vanilla pudding and light mint waxiness.
Palate: The taste has a mix of marzipan next to dark chocolate and real, almost woody maple syrup.
Finish: The finish adds some cherry to that dark chocolate and layers in woody birch water on the end.
Bottom Line:
This is really damn nice, especially as a sipper on a rock or two. It definitely lives up to the hype.
Eagle Rare Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Aged 10 Years
This might be one of the most beloved (and still accessible) bottles from Buffalo Trace. This whiskey is made from their very low rye mash bill. The hot juice is then matured for at least ten years in various parts of the warehouse. The final mix comes down to barrels that hit just the right notes to make them “Eagle Rare.” Finally, this one is proofed down to a fairly low 90 proof.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Old leather boots, burnt orange rinds, oily sage, old oak staves, and buttery toffee round out the nose.
Palate: Marzipan covered in dark chocolate opens the palate as floral honey and ripe cherry lead to a winter cake vibe full of raisins, dark spices, and toffee sauce.
Finish: The end has a balance of all things winter treats as the marzipan returns and the winter spice amp up alongside a hint of spicy cherry tobacco and old cedar.
Bottom Line:
It’s amazing that you can still find these (sort of). If you can, buy a case. This is a perfect house pour that’ll always deliver. I tend to drink it over a single large ice cube. It rules.
E. H. Taylor, Jr. Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Bottled In Bond
Buffalo Trace’s Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. Small Batch is an entry point to the other 12 expressions released under the E.H. Taylor, Jr. label. The whiskey is made from Buffalo Trace’s iconic Mash Bill No. 1 (which is a low rye recipe). The final whiskey in the bottle is a blend of barrels that meet the exact right flavor profiles Buffalo Trace’s blenders are looking for in a classic bottled-in-bond bourbon for Taylor.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with a sense of soft corn mush with a hint of fresh green chili, Saigon cinnamon (a little sweet), orchard tree bark, and the black mildew that grows on all the whiskey warehouses in Kentucky.
Palate: The palate leans into buttery toffee with a twinge of black licorice next to cinnamon-spiced dark chocolate tobacco and a hint of huckleberry pie with vanilla ice cream.
Finish: The end has a salted caramel sweetness that leads back to a hint of sweet cinnamon and dark tobacco with a light sense of the fermentation room with a hint of sweet gruel.
Bottom Line:
This is a great, classic bourbon whiskey. It’s also a $40 bottle at MSRP and you really need to keep that in mind when buying and comparing it. It certainly punches above its price point, hence the inflated secondary price. Still, this is an essential cocktail bourbon far more than a deep sipper.
Weller The Original Wheated Bourbon Aged 12 Years Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This is the main age-statement whiskey from Weller. The barrels spend at least 12 years mellowing (some say the barrels can reach into the 20-year range) before they’re vatted, proofed down, and bottled as-is.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with soft orchard fruits — think old peaches and bruised pears — that lead to a spun wool, vanilla-heavy pancake batter, and really good marzipan with an echo of rose water and orange oils next to soft and worn wicker canes wrapped in old leather sheets.
Palate: The taste is a perfect balance of cherry wood, dried cranberry, buttery Southern biscuits, salted toffee candy, and Christmas spices (clove and nutmeg heavy).
Finish: The end lets those sharp spices shine but isn’t hot by any stretch alongside moist angel food cake, apple-cider-soaked cinnamon sticks, and orange-infused marzipan with a hint of dark chocolate coating and a mild sense of old (damn near musty) cherry tobacco leaves.
Bottom Line:
This is an iconic whiskey at an extremely approachable ABV. It’s just an easy AF sipper without water or ice. Adding some, and you’ll get this silky and luxurious pour of Weller that’s damn near second to none.
Southern Star Paragon Single Barrel Cask Strength Wheated Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This North Carolina bourbon is starting to make some serious waves. This very limited batch of single-barrel bourbon is made from wheated bourbon mash bill with 70% corn, 16% wheat, and 14% malted barley. The hot juice was left for around four years before the barrel was hand-pocked and bottled as-is at cask strength.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with a sense of orange blossoms and an apple orchard with a hint of pear and plum next to walnut shells, old honey bottles, and rich vanilla sauce with a hint of poppy seed.
Palate: The palate has a touch of dark chocolate powder sweetness that melds with walnuts and honey to make a cluster before the brown spice kicks in with sharp cinnamon and a touch of root beer.
Finish: The end leaves the spice and warmth behind for smooth vanilla walnut cake with a hint of apple-honey tobacco wrapped up with old cedar bark.
Bottom Line:
This is just plain ‘ol solid. It also tends to rack up awards because of that. It will be hard to find outside of the main bourbon markets (and North Carolina), but I’d argue it’s worth the effort to find. This is quality bourbon with a deep richness.
Still Austin Whiskey Co The Musician Cask Strength Straight Bourbon Whiskey
The folks at Still Austin have spent the last six years perfecting their grain-to-glass whiskey experience. The juice is rendered with grains from Texas and water from the ground beneath their feet, all imbued with a crafty Texas vibe in every sip. The actual whiskey is a two-year-old bourbon that’s batched to highlight the bright fruits of the new and crafty whiskey.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This is really fruity. Think a tropical, hazy IPA with clear notes of pineapple, lemon-lime, and maybe a slight hint of savory papaya next to more a-typical bourbon notes of vanilla, holiday spices, and caramel.
Palate: There’s a clear sense of those spices on the palate with a hint of dark chocolate leading back to all that fruit, a touch of marzipan, and a dash of vanilla cream pie.
Finish: The end warms a bit with the fruitiness waning towards a spicy, choco-tobacco end.
Bottom Line:
This is very very fruity. Still, it works since the fruits mostly stay on the nose to entice you into the sip. All of that being said, this really shines best as a cocktail or highball base.
BLACKENED x Wes Henderson Master of Whiskey Series Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This new collaboration from Metallica’s whiskey finds Master Distillers Rob Dietrich of BLACKENED working with Wes Henderson, Co-Founder of Angel’s Envy, to create a new expression. The whiskey is a classic Kentucky bourbon aged for six years. Those barrels are vatted and then refilled into white port wine casks for a final rest. Finally, the port barrels are batched and the whiskey is bottled at cask strength.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a good bit of fruit on the nose with pear skins, rum-raisin, and burnt orange next to dried-up old cinnamon sticks and tobacco leaves.
Palate: The palate stews the pear with honey and wintry spices while a hint of dried chili flake leads to walnut cake and a very mild echo of old wet straw.
Finish: The end is lush and full of oranges studded with cloves and allspice next to pear tobacco and old cedar humidors.
Bottom Line:
This is great. It’s a party-hard-yet-classic-feeling bourbon with a truly well-built flavor profile.
This whiskey is bottled in South Carolina from sourced barrels. The whiskey in those barrels is a mash of 75% corn, 21% rye, and 4% malted barley that’s left to age before small batch bottling after six years.
This is a classic sourced bourbon made from a mash of 75% corn, 21% rye, and 4% malted barley. The whiskey is aged for at least four years before batching and bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: “Aromas of vanilla, citrus, and wood.”
Palate: “The marriage and proofing of barrels is evident as the bourbon starts somewhat hot and sweet with flavors of dried fruit, vanilla, cream caramel, and wood.”
Finish: “The finish is layered with caramel, orange peel, spice, and wood.”
Bottom Line:
The next time I’m in West Virginia I’ll definitely try this one.
Traverse City Whiskey Co. Barrel Proof Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This Michigan whiskey is made to highlight a true grain-to-glass experience. The juice is made from a mash of 71% corn, 25% rye, and 4% barley. It’s aged for four years in the extreme weather of the Great Lakes. Barrels are then hand-picked and bottled with no fussing.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The milled corn comes through with a touch of orange zest, vanilla, toffee, and lemon jam.
Palate: The taste amps up the toffee with a caramel kettle corn vibe next to hints of cedar and orchard fruit.
Finish: The end is long and very clearly all about the velvety vanilla and toffee sweetness with a slight alcohol warmth, thanks to a touch of spice and citrus.
Bottom Line:
This is an always fun crafty bourbon with great depth.
Traverse City Whiskey Co. Sherry Barrel Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This newer whiskey from WhistlePig mixes locally made Vermont whiskey with Indiana whiskey to create a bespoke bourbon. The mash bill leans into the corn with a good measure of rye in the mix. The whiskey barrels are left alone for six years before batching, proofing, and bottling on the farm in Vermont.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a soft leathery nose that leads to caramel corn and a nutty spiciness with a hint of old oak.
Palate: The nuttiness drives the palate toward fresh maple syrup that turns creamy with an almond vibe, plenty of winter spice, and a hint of black tea.
Finish: That tea calms down toward a wet chamomile with a dollop of honey, a twist of orange, and a pinch of sweet cinnamon with a lingering sense of oak in the background.
Bottom Line:
This is a pretty good whiskey. If you’re a fan of WhistlePig, you’re going to dig this. If you like classic bourbon vibes, you’ll be a fan too. I’d sip this over some ice or in a simple cocktail.
This is a celebrity-owned bourbon from UFC’s Bruce Buffer. The whiskey in the bottle is a blend of four to six-year-old bourbons from Kentucky that are touched with a little proofing water after blending.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This has a slightly tannic nose (think old, red-wine-soaked oak) with woody vanilla, nutmeg, and a lush vibe.
Palate: The palate mixes up the sweet vanilla with sweet yet sharp spice, some dark chocolate, and a hint of orange zest.
Finish: The end combines everything into a lush finish that highlights old oak, soft nutmeg, and a soft orange-chocolate vibe with a hint of clove and anise.
Bottom Line:
This is a really easy-to-drink whiskey that offers a deep and distinct flavor profile.
The new release from Old Forester leans into heavy char and special charcoal filtering. The heavily charred barrels hold classic Old Forester bourbon that’s filtered through mesquite charcoal from Texas’ King Ranch before batching and bottling with a touch of proofing water.
The mash bill on this bourbon is mid-range rye heavy with 18% of the grain in the bill for support. Triple distilling in pot stills (like Irish whiskey) and blending with column-distilled whiskey is utilized. The bourbon then rests for six to seven years — taking time to mature before barrels are pulled for blending, proofing, and bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This opens with a rush of Martinelli’s Sparkling Apple Cider, pear candy, and vanilla cake with a hint of dark chocolate, orange zest, salted caramel, and some sour red berries tossed with fresh tobacco and mint.
Palate: The palate opens with some dried apple skins next to cinnamon sticks floating in hot and spicy apple cider, a hint of mint tobacco, and salted orange dark chocolate bars.
Finish: The end has a nougat wafer vibe next to caramel and vanilla cookies with a hint of old porch wicker and boot leather.
Bottom Line:
This was pretty damn good but felt like a quintessential cocktail base more than anything else. Plus, it just felt classic from top to bottom.
This expression takes standard Woodford Bourbon and gives it a finishing touch. The bourbon is blended and moved into new barrels that have been double-toasted but only lightly charred. The juice spends a final nine months resting in those barrels before proofing and bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a welcoming aroma of marzipan, blackberry, toffee, and fresh honey next to a real sense of pitchy, dry firewood.
Palate: The taste drills down on those notes as the sweet marzipan becomes more choco-hazelnut, the berries become increasingly dried and apple-y, the toffee becomes almost burnt, and the wood softens to a cedar bark.
Finish: A rich spicy and chewy tobacco arrives late as the vanilla gets super creamy and the fruit and honey combine on the slow fade.
Bottom Line:
This is another bourbon that’s really solid through and through. Pour it over some rocks or mix it into your favorite cocktail. Either way, you’ll be all set.
Full disclosure, I’m a head judge at this competition. I sampled just north of 300 pours of spirits over the three days (200 plus of which were American whiskeys). While I sampled a ton of these bourbons, I didn’t try them all in San Francisco. There were over 6,000 total entries (all spirits can be found here). Plus, it was double-blind and I still don’t know what I tasted, for obvious reasons. Still, I’ve added my own tasting notes to all the double gold-winning bourbons where I could. Otherwise, I’ve included tasting notes from the bottler or distiller.
One caveat here, many of these whiskeys are very local. You’ll either have to live in a certain region or visit at the right time to get some of these. I look at it this way: The hyper-regional whiskeys are a good guide to what to drink when you do meander around the country. Otherwise, read those tasting notes and find the more widely available whiskeys that spark your interest.
Then hit that price link to try something totally new — let’s dive in!
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months
This new whiskey from the father and son team is a blend of two carefully sourced barrels. The mix blends a 13-year and 15-year barrel together to make a sharp and delicious bourbon.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Soft orchard fruits and maple syrup lead the way on the nose as roasted almonds and vanilla/caramel tobacco pipe tobacco round things out.
Palate: The palate balances creamy vanilla sauce with a dark and bitter chocolate powder that’s nearly espresso bean oil.
Finish: The finish is subtle but deep with a hazelnut vibe that blends with the chocolate for a lush Nutella feel next to woody maple, rum-soaked raisins, and a hint of old porch wicker draped in old leather.
Bottom Line:
These releases always slap. They’re rare which makes them fleeting outside of Kentucky but they’re worth the hunt.
World Whiskey Society Class Collection Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished In Port Cask Aged 10 Years
This whiskey is distilled in Oklahoma but bottled in Georgia. The whiskey in the bottle is made from a mash bill (recipe) of 51% corn, 45% wheat, and 4% malted barley. That hot juice was then aged for almost a decade before going into a huge port cask for a final rest.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a sense of grape soda and orange zest on the nose with a hint of crafty bourbon grains, dry grass, and old oak.
Palate: The palate sort of leans into red fruit and dry grass with a light sense of orange and vanilla.
Finish: The end is short and has a touch of vanilla cake and holiday spice.
Bottom Line:
I’m not the biggest fan of this one, but I can see how the crafty graininess works with the port finish in a balanced and enticing way.
Angel’s Envy Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in Port Wine Barrels Cask Strength
This modern classic is a yearly limited release from the beloved Lousiville distiller. The juice is made from a mix of locally sourced barrels that are finished in Ruby Port casks. The best of the best are hand-selected by Angel’s Envy’s team for as-is batching and bottling with only 14,000 odd bottles making out this year.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This opens with a deep sense of blackberry jam over a Southern biscuit with plenty of brown butter, vanilla sauce, and apple fruit leather with a dash of cinnamon, allspice, and star anise next to a whisper of cherry cream soda and orange-chocolate tobacco packed into a cedar box.
Palate: The palate is soft and supple with a brandy butter vibe next to mince meat pie with powdered sugar icing, meaty dates, black tea, and rich Black Forest cake.
Finish: The end subtly meanders through shaved dark chocolate and stewed cherry, eventually landing on a vanilla-laced tobacco leaf rolled up with apple-cider-soaked cinnamon sticks and old wicker canes.
Bottom Line:
This was just delicious and really feels like a holiday vibe whiskey.
Art of the Spirits Whiskey Cask Strength “Frogman” Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This is a sourced whiskey with a Navy SEAL theme but also… old-timey pinup girls. The brand supports vets. Otherwise, they don’t really say much about what’s in the bottle.
Tasting Notes:
None available.
Bottom Line:
A lot of the “bullet bros & pinup girls” branding by this crew brand feels like a time machine back to the 1990s in a war machine/ misogynistic sort of way. I’ll just leave it at that.
Art of the Spirits Whiskey Cask Strength “Final Run” Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in a Ruby Port Cask
This is a very niche brand that’s sourcing old barrels. The whiskey in the bottle is a Kentucky straight bourbon that rest for 13 years before it was bottled pretty much as-is with a touch of proofing water.
Nose: “A haunting combination of antique wood, wet soil, and dry corn pulls forward from a honeyed vanilla palate. This introduction immediately suggests a rare complexity that can only be found in a true Kentucky bourbon with properly aged maturity.”
Palate: “Exotic spice and caramel notes are directly complemented by hints of buttery cream and cured tea leaves.”
Finish: “Each sip provides an unforgettable experience that instantly returns you to the limestone hills of Kentucky only to demand further exploration.”
Bottom Line:
This sounds nice enough. Though there’s going to be a pretty bold oakiness.
Axe and the Oak Distillery First Stake Cask Strength Bourbon Whiskey
This whiskey from Colorado Springs is a new crafty on the bourbon stage. The whiskey is three years old and rendered from a high-rye bourbon mash bill. Those barrels are blended and bottled as-is without any proofing.
This sourced whiskey comes from Kentucky. The juice is a blend of 70% corn, 21% rye, and 9% malted barley whiskey that’s aged for up to four years before proofing and bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This smells like “bourbon” on the nose with hints of caramel, vanilla, oak, and a dollop of maple syrup.
Palate: The palate has a thick winter spice vibe with dusty cinnamon and eggnog-heavy nutmeg with a creamy edge next to vanilla tobacco with a whisper of cedar humidor.
Finish: That spice really amps up toward the finish with a Red Hot tobacco chew and dry wicker finish.
Bottom Line:
This is nice. That said, I always forget this on the shelf. At the end of the day, I’d mix this into a highball with good fizzy water or ginger ale.
This is the same bourbon as above but finished in toasted French oak. Those barrels are blended in Memphis and proofed down to a little higher proof, allowing more of that toasted barrel to shine through.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: That oak comes through on the nose with a mix of dry cedar and resin-heavy pine as more standard notes of toffee, vanilla, and cherry shine.
Palate: The palate largely follows that path with the mid-palate leaning into dried fruit and more of a dry tobacco leaf.
Finish: The finish is short and sweet with a dry woodiness that’s part old cedar box and part moldy wicker deck furniture with a hint of hot mulled wine.
Bottom Line:
This is one of those whiskeys where you sip it and say, “yeah, that’s nice” and then kind of forget it exists. Though I have to admit, our editor — less of a bourbon head than me — always talks about how he likes it. Palate differ,yo! [Also, he never gets to try the $5000 bottles you get. –ed.]
Bainbridge Whiskey Forty Saloon Bourbon Whiskey Small Batch Organic Bottled In Bond
Bainbridge Organic has been making seriously great whiskey for years now up in Washington. This whiskey is their first foray into bourbon. Overall, the mash bill is a classic 60% heirloom corn., 25% old variety Triticale (a rye-wheat hybrid), and 15% soft white wheat mix. The whiskey is left alone for five years and six months before batching and bottling.
This bourbon is a blend of 12-year-old, low-rye bourbon from Kentucky and 10-year-old, very-low-rye bourbon from Tennessee. The whiskeys were re-barreled into Armagnac casks from the famed Chateau de Laubade. One set spent two years mellowing on the bottom floor of the rickhouse while another set spent 16 months mellowing on the top floor. After that, the barrels were vatted and bottled as-is.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This hits on complex notes on the nose from old leather, dried sage, cellared oak, roasted almonds rolled in toffee, sultanas, and then deep winter spice: freshly ground nutmeg, mace, cardamom, sharp cinnamon.
Palate: The palate has a silky vanilla foundation with more sultanas over top, fresh and meaty dates, ginger snaps, and prunes mingle.
Finish: The end has a gingerbread vibe next to cherry bark and grape must with more of those spices pouring into an old cedar humidor that used to hold tobacco.
Bottom Line:
This release from Bardstown Bourbon Company might truly get you hooked on rare whiskey.
1845 Distilling Company Preemption Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Buffalo Trace’s Blanton Single Barrel is made up of hand-selected single barrels that meet the sky-high standards of former Master Distiller Elmer T. Lee, who created the expression back in 1984.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a clear sense of Christmas spices right away, leaning towards honey spiked with vanilla and an old cedar cigar humidor.
Palate: The taste holds onto the spice, especially nutmeg, as caramel kettle corn, more fresh honey, fresh red berries, and vanilla husks dominate the palate.
Finish: The end doesn’t overstay its welcome as hints of eggnog spice, dry vanilla, and popped corn surface on the fade.
Bottom Line:
It’s Blanton’s. It’s iconic for a reason and everyone should have at least one bottle on their bar cart at all times.
Blanton’s Straight From The Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Blanton’s is “The Original Single Barrel” bourbon, and this expression is the purest form of that whiskey. The whiskey in this case is from the barrels that need no cutting with water and are excellent as-is, straight from the barrel. All the barrels will come from Warehouse H (where Elmer T. Lee stored his private stash of barrels back in the day) and arrive with varying proofs. The through-line is the excellent taste of that single, unadulterated barrel in each sip.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose is full of very bespoke dark chocolate-covered salted hard caramel toffees encrusted with almonds and pecans — the kind you get from a chocolate shop that imports their goodies from somewhere like Belgium.
Palate: The nutty toffee carries through into the taste as oily vanilla pods mingle with cedar boxes of dried tobacco leaves and a touch of floral honey.
Finish: The end is very long and lingers in your senses, with a hot buzzing that subtly fades through all that sweetness.
Bottom Line:
Standard Blanton’s is a delicious whiskey that is proofed way down (93-proof to be exact). The whiskey simply shines more brightly at cask strength. If you’re even remotely attracted to standard Blanton’s, then it’s time to graduate to this.
Colorado’s mountain-high Breckenridge made a modern classic with this one. The whiskey is a blend of three-year-old Colorado bourbons made up in the Rocky Mountains and proofed with water from the glaciers.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This is sweet on the nose with apple orchards, corn mush, vanilla cake, and honeyed biscuits.
Palate: The palate builds on the sweet nose with dark winter spices, soft oak, and a nice balance of vanilla and caramel.
Finish: The end is short and sweet but sticks with you with a classic orchard fruit/vanilla/caramel vibe.
Bottom Line:
This is a nice and easy whiskey that’s built for mixing.
This is Breckenridge’s classic blended bourbon amped up a tad. The whiskey is aged for over three years before batching a kiss of proofing with local Rocky Mountain water.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose runs deep with burnt orange, marzipan, and woody winter spices next to a hint of toffee dipped in dark chocolate.
Palate: The palate largely follows the nose with buttery toffee leading to marzipan and eventually a mix of cedar and cinnamon bark with a whisper of tobacco.
Finish: The end leans into the woodiness of the spices and tobacco with a nice counterbalance of rich and sweet toffee with a nutty edge.
Bottom Line:
This is just nice, easy, and smooth. It makes a hell of a cocktail too.
Brother’s Bond Straight Bourbon Whiskey Original Cask Strength
The newest release from Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley is an evolution of their brand. The whiskey in the bottle is a blend of three bourbons which create a four-grain bourbon. That blend was then bottled as-is.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This opens with a balance of old leather boots and freshly cracked black pepper next to a hint of walnut shell, vanilla pod, and orange zest.
Palate: The palate leans into what feels like star fruit as orange marmalade, salted butter, and fresh honey drip over rye bread crusts.
Finish: The end comes with a good dose of peppery spice and old leather as those walnuts and orange combine with a handful of dried fruit and a dusting of winter spices on the finish.
Bottom Line:
This latest version of Brother’s Bond proved the brand was about more than celebs white labeling booze. It proved that Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley truly care about this industry and the whiskey in their bottle.
Russell’s Reserve Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey 13 Years Old
This whiskey was made by Eddie Russell to celebrate his 40th year of distilling whiskey with his dad, Jimmy Russell. The blend is a collection of a minimum of 13-year-old barrels that Eddie Russell hand-picked. Those barrels were married and then bottled as-is with no proofing or filtration.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Sweet and dried fruits invite you on the nose as a touch of fresh, creamy, and dark Black Forest cake mingles with mild holiday spices, dried almonds, and a sense of rich pipe tobacco just kissed with sultanas.
Palate: That dark chocolate and cherry fruit drive the palate as a hint of charred cedar lead towards vanilla tobacco with more of that dark chocolate and a small touch of honey, orange blossom, and a whisper of dried chili flake.
Finish: That honey leads back to the warmth and spice with a thin line of cherry bark smoke lurking on the very backend with more bitter chocolate, buttery vanilla, and dark cherry all combining into chewy tobacco packed into an old pine box and wrapped up with worn leather thread.
Bottom Line:
This is one of the best Wild Turkey releases of all time. It’s on shelves now and still (kind of) gettable. Basically, if you’re a fan of Wild Turkey in any way, this is a no-brainer addition to your bar cart.
Wilderness Trail High Rye Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Wilderness Trail is the whiskey nerd’s whiskey. Their High Rye Bourbon is a mash of 64% corn, 24% rye, and 12% barley grains that are fermented with a proprietary Wildness Trail yeast using the sweet mash process. The whiskey then spends four years and nine months aging before it’s bottled without any filtration and barely proofed.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a mild holiday cake vibe with brown spice, nuts, and dried fruit mingling with touches of oak, chocolate-covered berries, and biscuits.
Palate: The taste becomes a sort of buttered-biscuit-smothered-with-berry-jam that’s been touched with spice as a note of sweetened vanilla lurks in the background.
Finish: The end is long and leans back into the fruit as the vanilla and spice create a silken mouthfeel.
Bottom Line:
Every home bar cart should have at least one Wilderness Trail on it. And I really got into mixing Manhattans and Sazeracs with this. It’s a great bold whiskey that truly shines when mixed.
Pinhook Vertical Series Straight Bourbon Whiskey Aged 7 Years
This is an instant classic from Kentucky’s Pinhook. The whiskey is hewn from a mash bill of 75% corn, 20.5% rye, and 4.5% malted barley, distilled at MGP of Indiana and aged at Castle & Key (in Kentucky). The whiskey was left alone for seven years before batching and bottling as-is.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens. with toasted raisin bread, cinnamon butter, dates, prunes, and figs with a nice layer of leathery dark berries.
Palate: Soft caramel opens the palate before sharp winter spice barks, sticky toffee pudding, and vanilla buttercream lead to fresh gingerbread.
Finish: The end leans into the rich buttercream and woody spices with a soft sense of pipe tobacco and Christmas cakes.
Bottom Line:
This is another great release from a brand that just keeps getting better and better.
Clyde May’s Special Reserve Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This whiskey is sourced from an “undisclosed” distillery in Indiana (cough, cough, MGP, cough, cough). It’s aged for about three years and proofed a tad before bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Spice and wet brown sugar mix on the nose with a sense of apple crumble with plenty of butter and maybe a little too much clove and allspice.
Palate: The palate has a sense of savory fruit (think cantaloupe) with black peppercorns, pancake syrup, and woodiness.
Finish: The whole sip is very “general” and ends with cornbread meets brown butter cut with dark sugar, vanilla, and tobacco vibe.
Bottom Line:
This is pretty damn good overall, especially if you’re looking for something that leans classic and easy to sip. It’s a little sweet for me but that’s not a knock. That’s just my palate.
Kentucky Owl The Wiseman Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This new-ish release from Kentucky Owl is meant to be an affordable and accessible Kentucky Owl from the otherwise elite brand. The whiskey is a blend of contract distilled whiskey from Bardstown Bourbon Company and sourced barrels from around Kentucky that are four to eight years old.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This is very interesting on the nose with a mix of circus peanut, garam masala, sweet grass, and pine resin next to a hint of rich buttery toffee sauce with a flake of salt.
Palate: The palate leans into that toffee and then layers in raspberry sorbet, vanilla beans, masa azul, and wet cedar planks.
Finish: A leathery tobacco pouch rounds out the sip near the end with more of that cedar, dry sweet grass, and a hint more of the spice.
Bottom Line:
This is a home run. It’s awesome on the rocks but really kills in a cocktail. Try it in your next Manhattan.
This sourced whiskey (from MGP of Indiana) is all about finding the best barrels and batching them to create something more. The whiskey in this small batch bourbon is rendered from MGP’s 21% and 36% rye bourbon mash bills. The barrels are between eight and 15 years old. Once vatted, the whiskey is just touched with water before bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: A rich buttery note comes through on the nose with a hint of salted corn next to savory figs with a hint of honey and freshly ground nutmeg mixed with some vanilla cream.
Palate: The palate turns that butteriness into salted caramel with a hint of sticky toffee pudding with plenty of cinnamon and nutmeg next to a thin line of charred oak underneath it all.
Finish: The end dries out with a sense of old leather wrapped around an old and dry tobacco leaf with a twinge of raisin.
Bottom Line:
This is just a well-made whiskey. It’s easy to sip and, well, that’s it.
Joseph Magnus Murray Hill Club Bourbon Whiskey, A Blend
This is a masterfully sourced whiskey. The whiskey is a mix of 18 and 11-year-old bourbon with a nine-year-old light whiskey (a high-proof whiskey aged in lightly toasted, uncharted barrels). That blend is then just touched with water before bottling without any fussing.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a rich sense of buttery toffee on the nose with plenty of cinnamon/nutmeg/allspice next to a hint of savory fig and some vanilla cream.
Palate: The palate merges the spices into a lush eggnog vibe as hints of old cedar planks mix with a black peppercorn sharpness.
Finish: The end mixes the spices into a buttery cookie with hints of singed cinnamon bark, old pine, and soft vanilla tobacco leaves.
Bottom Line:
This was solid all around. It felt like the perfect cool-weather drinker thanks to all that wintry spice. That also means this would make a hell of a Manhattan.
The whiskey in this bottle is all about craft distilling. The juice is made of 68% corn, 27% rye, and 5% specialty roasted barley malts. All of the grains are locally and sustainably sourced. The whiskey spends a few years in the barrel before it’s “double-barreled” into hand-smoked Michigan northern oak barrels for a final rest. It’s then barely proofed down to 100 proof.
I’m very intrigued by this whiskey. Smoked barrels are going to be a big thing in the coming years in bourbon (yes, I’m calling it now) and this feels ahead of the curve on that front.
This whiskey is a blend of two MGP bourbons — their classic 75/21/4 corn/rye/malted barley mash bill with their very high rye 60/36/4 corn/rye/malted barley mash. Those whiskeys rested for 5.5 years before blending and re-barrelling into new French oak from Taransaud Cooperages that’s made with trees from the famous Troncaise forest. After about three months, those barrels were batched and this whiskey was bottled.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a creamy almost maltiness to the nose with a deep vanilla coffee cake, clove-studded orange, and pecan waffles with more creaminess with a buttery edge.
Palate: Apricot leather and apple fritters drive the palate with a spiced cinnamon toastiness next to a light drizzle of salted dark chocolate.
Finish: Cinnamon bark and sweet orange marmalade mingle on the finish with a light sense of spiced apple cider, wet orchards in the late fall, and creamy pear pudding.
Bottom Line:
This is a wild bourbon. It presents much more like an old Scotch whisky for cognac lovers with hints of American bourbon peaking in from time to time. It’s fascinating, delicious (like, really delicious), and a true outlier. Get some before it’s gone forever.
Wyoming Whiskey Single Barrel Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This is the famed Wyoming craft bourbon in a single-barrel format. The whiskey is still proofed down but comes straight from the barrel, one at a time.
This is the second major holiday release from Chicken Cock. This year’s super rare whiskey is made from a classic mash of 70% corn, 21% rye, and 9% malted barley. That whiskey was aged for an undisclosed amount of years before it was re-barreled into 32 French cognac barrels. Those 32 barrels were then batched, proofed, and bottled as-is for this release.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose is supple and full of creamed honey, moist marzipan, peaches and cream ice cream with a hint of waffle cone, and fresh plums dashed with clove and star anise.
Palate: The palate leans into the plums with a spiced cake vibe next to rich Black Forest Cake, candied dates, rum-raisin, and banana bread with plenty of butter, cinnamon, and walnut with a twist of fresh orange zest.
Finish: The end embraces the orange and adds in salted dark chocolate tobacco with a hint of brown butter, pecan shells, and cedar boughs.
Bottom Line:
Yes, it’s expensive but it’s also delicious.
Filmland Spirits Moonlight Mayhem! Small Batch Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This new brand blends the worlds of Hollywood B-movies and Ohio Valley whiskey-making in one brand. The Indiana whiskey is made from a mash bill of 75% corn, 21% rye, and 4% malted barley. Those whiskeys aged four to five years before they’re sent to Kentucky for batching and bottling with a touch of that limestone water.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Orange oils and cherry pie dominate the nose with mild hints of Saigon cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove next to a rush of caramel and maple syrup sweetness next to a hint of oak.
Palate: The taste opens sweet with more of that caramel leading to a lush vanilla base accented by cherry tobacco and cinnamon bark — in short, a classic bourbon palate.
Finish: The end gets creamy and soft with a sense of salted toffee and chocolate-covered espresso beans next to toasted tobacco and old oak.
Bottom Line:
This is a nice start and makes me pretty excited to see where Filmland takes us next with these releases.
Four Roses Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Four Rose’s standard single barrel expression is an interesting one. This is their “number one” recipe, meaning it’s the high-rye mash bill that’s fermented with a yeast that highlights “delicate fruit.” The whiskey is then bottled at 100 proof, meaning you’re getting a good sense of that single barrel in every bottle.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Woody maple syrup and cinnamon sticks lead to a hint of pear candy, rich vanilla, and a leathery dark fruit with this faint whisper of floral herbs on the nose.
Palate: The palate lets the pear shine as the spices lean into woody barks and tart berries next to leathery dates and plums with a butteriness tying everything together.
Finish: A spicy tobacco chewiness leads the mid-palate toward a soft fruitiness and a hint of plum pudding at the end with a slight nuttiness and green herbal vibe.
Bottom Line:
This is unique but made total sense from nose to finish. It offered something extra and felt fresh without sacrificing taste.
Frank August Case Study: 01 Mizunara Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
For this first “case study,” the team at Frank August picked five bourbon barrels to finish in Japanese Mizunara casks. While those barrels were finishing the elixir within, the team checked the whiskey every 30 days to assure they batched and bottled the whiskey at just the right moment.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a rich sense of butterscotch candy on the nose with freshly fried sourdough doughnuts dusted in brown sugar, cinnamon, and maybe some spearmint next dusting of white pepper.
Palate: The taste starts off creamy and full of toffee as apple pie filling with plenty of cloves and cinnamon leads to peppery mint chocolate and salted caramel drizzle with a twinge of pine resin.
Finish: The end is lush and spicy with a hint of caraway-encrusted rye next to cinnamon bark and clove buds next to warm menthol tobacco dipped in dark chocolate and wrapped with cedar bark and wild sage.
Bottom Line:
This is a whiskey that goes somewhere new with its bourbon profile. It’s funky and fun with a hint of malt whisky in the mix. Get this if you’re looking for a bourbon with subtle hints of malted whisky — definitely a win for anyone eager to expand their bourbon-drinking palates!
George Dickel Handcrafted Small Batch Bourbon Whisky Aged 8 Years
The whisky in the bottle is the same Dickel Tennessee whiskey but pulled from barrels that leaned more into classic bourbon flavor notes instead of Dickel’s iconic Tennessee whisky notes. The barrels are a minimum of eight years old before they’re vatted. The whiskey is then cut down to a manageable 90-proof and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with creamy vanilla next to spiced tobacco with plenty of apple pie vibe and winter spices with a butter underbelly.
Palate: The palate has a light bran muffin with a molasses vibe next to vanilla/nougat wafers that then leads to peach skins and gingerbread.
Finish: The end leans into the nutty chocolate and vanilla wafer with a touch of orange zest, marzipan, and mint tobacco with a hint of garden store earthiness.
Bottom Line:
This is a bit of an outlier taste-wise. If you’re looking for a classic bourbon, this isn’t it. If you’re looking for something fresh and new with a Tennessee whiskey vibe, then you’ll dig this.
This whiskey comes from Milwaukee’s Great Lakes Distillery. The whiskey is made with Wisconsin grains (67% corn, 22% malted barley, and 11% rye) and rested for over four years before batching, proofing, and bottling.
This is what you get when you take standard Elijah Craig and let it rest in just the right spot for 18 years. The 18-year-old barrel is hand-selected after a long search through the warehouses. Once selected, the whiskey is cooled slightly with that soft Kentucky limestone water and then bottled.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: You get a sense of oak with a touch of a rock-hewn cellar next to notes of dark chocolate oranges, mild brown spices, a touch of vanilla cream, and a hint of honey.
Palate: That vanilla takes on a nutty edge as the spices build and the wood softens towards cedar with a hint of fruity tobacco chew.
Finish: The vanilla creaminess really drives the finish towards a silken mouthfeel with plenty of spicy/fruity tobacco leaving you with a mild buzz across your senses.
Bottom Line:
This is one of those “smooth” whiskeys that doesn’t even need water — it’s that easy to drink. Still, this bottle has a lot going on that you need to take your time with. Explore the layers by adding water, learning from the nose, and giving the sip time to wash across your senses.
This is more of an entry point for Evan Williams. The whiskey is a mix of four to seven-year-old barrels of the standard Heaven Hill bourbon. The difference in this bottle is that it’s proofed at a slightly higher 86 proof, giving it a slight edge against Evan Williams Green Label at 80 proof.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose is very light but does meander through apple candy, dry corn, vanilla, and a touch of caramel.
Palate: The taste stays on a similar path with a hint of brown spice and “oak.”
Finish: The end is short but does touch on more vanilla and oak with a hint of cherry tobacco way in the background before an ethanol note takes over.
Bottom Line:
Overall, this is a highball whiskey.
Heaven Hill Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Bottled-In-Bond
This expression has been a touchstone “bottled-in-bond” since 1939 and remains a go-to for many bourbon lovers. The whiskey is the classic Heaven Hill bourbon mash bill that’s left to age for an extra three years compared to Evan Williams Bottled-in-Bond (also from Heaven Hill and the same base spirit).
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose draws you in with this rich and creamy vanilla ice cream (you know the kind that’s likely labeled “Tahitian”) that’s drizzled with a buttery and salty caramel sauce next to soft leather and dried apple blossoms with a hint of old cedar bark braids.
Palate: A floral honey vibe melds with Graham Crackers on the palate as creamy toffee covered in crushed almonds mingles with vanilla-laced pipe tobacco and old leather-bound books.
Finish: There’s a bit of freshly ground nutmeg near the end that leads to a light cherry tobacco note with whispers of old cellar beams and winter spices on the finish.
Bottom Line:
This is really good. It’s not amazing but it works wonders as a cocktail whiskey.
William Heavenhill 9th Edition 15-Year-Old Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
The latest edition of Heaven Hill’s super exclusive William Heavenhill release was made from just 34 barrels. Those barrels were from a specific floor of a specific warehouse where they rested for 15 long years before batching and bottling as-is.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: That oak comes through like a dank old cigar box with a sense of cinnamon bark, whole nutmeg bulbs, and stewed cherry syrup with a whisper of sassafras and marzipan.
Palate: The palate is lush with a sense of old rye bread crusts next to huckleberry cobbler, more marzipan, orange oils, vanilla oils, and a touch of singed cedar kindling.
Finish: Salted caramel peanut clusters and thick cherry tobacco chewiness mingle with old oak cellars with dirt floors and a fleeting sense of falling fall leaves.
Bottom Line:
This is delicious, hard to get, and very rare. That said, I walked into the Heaven Hill bottle shop and it was right there behind the cash registers. So it’s not impossible. Otherwise, expect very high, unicorn whiskey prices.
Heaven’s Door Aged 10 Years Decade Series Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This is the first release in the new series from Bob Dylan’s Heaven’s Door Tennessee whiskeys. The whiskey is a 10-year-old straight bourbon that was made in Tennessee but wasn’t charcoal filtered before or after aging. The sourced barrels were blended and just proofed down before bottling without any other fussing.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a tannic old oakiness on the nose (this is older) with hints of pecan waffles covered in maple syrup with vanilla butter.
Palate: The taste is pure silk with salted caramel, vanilla cream, black licorice, marzipan, and a hint of cinnamon-pecan ice cream with a dusting of powdery chocolate in malt.
Finish: The end has a moment of warmth thanks to that cinnamon before lunging toward old porch wicker, cinnamon bark, star anise, pear tobacco, and old leather with a hint of potting soil.
Bottom Line:
This was simply delicious. It was so vibrant and classic while taking you on a journey. And hey, at least I knew it was a Tennessee bourbon.
This whiskey marries Hillrock’s own estate bourbon with a carefully sourced barrel or two. The whiskey is partially aged in Oloroso sherry casks before it’s finished in rare tawny port casks. Finally, those barrels are batched, proofed, and bottled as-is.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This opens with a nose full of deep vanilla oils, rich caramel with a hint of salt, orange florals, and a deep creamy honey sweetness with a whisper of lemon oil.
Palate: Moist marzipan drizzled with buttery toffee mingles with vanilla cake and more of that honey before a counterpoint of savory melon, slightly bitter marmalade, and dried leathery apricot arrives.
Finish: The end arrives with a hint of spicy old oak (think cinnamon bark and nutmeg) with deeper and creamier honey attached to burnt orange and marzipan on a velvety finish.
Bottom Line:
This is the whiskey you pour when you want something that tastes … classy. It has a 20-year-old single malt vibe that’s filtered through a really accessible sip of bourbon. If you’re a fan of higher-end single malt, then 100% try this bottle. You will like it.
Ben Holladay One Barrel Bourbon Missouri Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This small craft whiskey is made with a mash of 56% corn, 30% rye, and 14% malted barley. The whiskey was left to age for six years before batching, proofing, and bottling.
Nose: “Aromas of tart fruits upfront – lemon oil, apple pie, clove, and hints of maple.”
Palate: “Flavors on the pallet led by sweet fruit including dark cherry and plum. A very rich, elegant, and buttery texture with flavors of cigar smoke, cornbread, and cotton candy.”
Finish: “The finish is loaded with complex flavors of honey-cinnamon, dark-roast coffee, vanilla, caramel, and sea salt. There’s a rich, malty, lingering effect that is reminiscent of a stout beer.”
Bottom Line:
This feels like something I’d seek out and really enjoy.
Jack Daniel’s 10 Years Old Tennessee Whiskey, Batch 2
This age statement released from Jack Daniel’s is a throwback to a bygone era in Tennessee Whiskey. The whiskey is aged for at least 10 years before batching. During that time, the barrels spend time in the “Buzzard’s Roost” at the top of the rickhouse. Once they hit the right flavor profile, those barrels are moved to the bottom floors of other warehouses to slow the aging down. Finally, the whiskey is batched, proofed, and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This opens with a rich matrix of cherry syrup, apple cores, sticky toffee, vanilla ice cream, and a bold line of wet and sweet oak with a mild earthiness.
Palate: The palate opens up towards the dark fruit but dries it out and marries it to a woody and spicy tobacco leaf alongside toasted cedar soaked in salted caramel paired with dry corn husks that are just singed.
Finish: The finish really takes its time as the cherry attaches to an old cinnamon stick and the tobacco takes on a sticky chewiness with an almost smoked oak woodiness.
Bottom Line:
This was an oaky whiskey with a nice fruitiness to balance things out. I’d say if you’re looking for something oaky but more fruity than spiced, then get this.
Jack Daniel’s 12-Year-Old Tennessee Whiskey, Batch 1
Jack Daniel’s doesn’t hide any of its processes. The mash at the base of this whiskey is a mix of 80% corn, 12% barley, and 8% rye. Those grains are milled in-house and mixed with cave water pulled from an on-site spring and Jack Daniel’s own yeast and lactobacillus that they also make/cultivate on-site. Once fermented, the mash is distilled twice in huge column stills. The hot spirit is then filtered through 10 feet of sugar maple charcoal that’s also made at the distillery. Finally, the filtered whiskey is loaded into charred new American oak barrels and left alone in the warehouse. After 12 years, a handful of barrels were ready; so they were batched, barely proofed, and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose is creamy with deep notes of old boot leather, dark and woody winter spices, black-tea-soaked dates, plum jam with clove, and an underbelly of chewy toffee-laced tobacco.
Palate: That creaminess presents on the palate with a soft sticky toffee pudding drizzled in salted caramel and vanilla sauce next to flakes of salt and a pinch of orange zest over dry Earl Grey tea leaves with a whisper of singed wild sage.
Finish: The end leans into the creamy toffee chewy tobacco with a hint of pear, cherry, and bananas foster over winter spice barks and a deep embracing warmth.
Bottom Line:
This is so well-balanced, nuanced, and just freaking tasty. It leaned more into the sweet fruit yeasty flavor notes while still holding onto classic and deep bourbon flavor notes. This is the good stuff, folks.
Kings County Distillery Bottled-In-Bond Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This crafty whiskey from New York is a grain-to-glass bourbon experience. The mash bill on this one eschews rye and wheat for 80% locally grown corn supported by 20% malted barley from England. The juice is then aged for four years in small 15-gallon barrels and treated according to the law and bottled in Kings County’s signature hip flask bottles.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This draws you in with a strawberry shortcake with a cornmeal base, topped with fresh berries, buttery vanilla whipped cream, and then dipped in a caramel sauce.
Palate: The palate veers away from all of that and touches on bitter black coffee syrup with brown sugar and butter notes next to oatcakes and vanilla sauce with a hint of spice lingering in the background.
Finish: The end is long and full of chocolate malts, leather, and more of that creamy and buttery vanilla whipped cream.
Bottom Line:
This is a quintessential craft bourbon. There’s a deep layer of sweet graininess that leans into fresh fruit and classic bourbon vanilla and spice notes. Overall, that makes this the perfect whiskey for someone looking for something local, tasty, and more on the crafty side of things.
A.D. Laws out in Colorado is renowned for its award-winning four-grain bourbons. The whiskey is made from 60% corn, 20% heirloom wheat, 10% heirloom rye, and 10% heirloom malted barley. That hot juice is then aged for over six years before it’s batched and cut down to 100 proof per bonded whiskey laws.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This feels more crafty on the nose with a balance between bitter black tea that’s been cut with a summery and floral honey as touches of cinnamon and orange pop in the background.
Palate: The orange and spice thickens and leans into an orange pound cake with a buttery and spicy streusel crumble as that black tea bitterness circles back to cut through all that butter, spice, and orange.
Finish: The end leans into the spice with more of a cinnamon candy vibe that leads towards a final dusting of dark cocoa.
Bottom Line:
This is a nice outlier on the list. It’s a great entry point for Laws’ wider selection while also being a nice, summery sipper over some rocks or in a bright cocktail.
Old Ezra Aged 7 Years Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This brand from Luxco is still sourced whiskey though they did start distilling their own in 2018. This bottle is a seven-year-old blend of barrels with a bourbon mash bill of 78% corn, 12% malted barley, and 10% rye, which just so happens to be Heaven Hill’s bourbon mash bill. These barrels are blended down and left as-is at cask strength for bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This is a pretty classic bourbon from nose to finish with a strong sense of rich caramel, pancakes with plenty of vanilla, sweet oak, wet brown sugar, and a whiff of cherry tobacco.
Palate: The palate leans into the woody brown spices as a dark cherry vibe sweetens the mid-palate.
Finish: The end circles back to that sweet oak and spicy cherry tobacco on a short finish.
Bottom Line:
This is good, classic, and strong bourbon. For me, those higher ABVs scream “cocktails” but this does work as a sipper with plenty of ice to calm down that high proof.
Maker’s Mark Cask Strength Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky
This special release from Maker’s Mark is their classic wheated bourbon turned up a few notches. The batch is made from no more than 19 barrels of whiskey. Once batched, that whiskey goes into the barrel at cask strength with no filtering, just pure whiskey-from-the-barrel vibes.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Burnt caramel candies and lush vanilla lead the way on the nose with hints of dry straw, sour cherry pie, and spiced apple cider with a touch of eggnog lushness.
Palate: The palate has a sense of spicy caramel with a vanilla base that leads to apricot jam, southern biscuits, and a flake of salt with a soft mocha creaminess.
Finish: The end is all about the buzzy tobacco spiciness with a soft vanilla underbelly and a hint of cherry syrup.
Bottom Line:
This is delicious whiskey. It’s so clearly a good and lush bourbon, even the newcomer can taste the excellence (and the flavors are dialed, which makes analyzing it a little more clear-cut). Get some!
This wheated bourbon — 68% corn, 18% wheat, and 14% malted barley — is contract distilled whiskey and very reminiscent of wheated bourbons from both Heaven Hill and Luxco (though we’ll never know where it really comes from). That whiskey spends an undisclosed amount of years aging before it goes into 15 Casknolia Pedro Ximenez sherry casks per batch (a truly small batch bourbon). Those barrels are then blended and touched with that soft Kentucky limestone water before bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Fruit shines through on the nose with fresh raspberries mingling with strawberry jam, Bing cherries, and dried plums and apricots with a hint of leather and winter spice baking that fruit up.
Palate: The palate really embraces those fruits with a tart and sour vibe to the cherries and red berries while the leather leans raw and the spices lean toward cinnamon and tobacco with a caramel mid-palate.
Finish: The sweetness fades quickly as the finish continues with berries and spice while the cherry attaches to the tobacco and soft cedar on the end.
Bottom Line:
If you’re in the mood for a fruit-bomb bourbon, this is the play.
This new whiskey from Nashville Barrel Company is a marriage of Kentucky spirit and Tennessee ingenuity. The whiskey is made and preliminary aged in Kentucky before the barrels are sent to Nashville to continue the maturation process in a different climate. After five years, the barrels are bottled one at a time at cask strength with no filtering or fussing.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This opens with a nice mix of old porch wicker (hardcore nostalgia really) next to supple caramel sauce, white pepper, and a sense of savory fruits like figs and maybe some starfruit.
Palate: The palate holds onto that savory fruit before some ABVs kick in with a nice mix of woody spices and burnt sugars.
Finish: The mid-palate leans into green sweetgrass, savory herbs, and a hint of sweet fruit candy that subtly morphs into strawberry soda at the very end.
Bottom Line:
This is another delicious whiskey that proves that sourcing whiskey is more than just putting whiskey in a bottle. The care that the selection process takes and then the aging of this whiskey in a different place adds a whole new dimension to the whiskey. Seriously, this is special stuff for anyone looking for something both new and delicious in the world of bourbon right now.
Neeley Family Distillery The Old Jett Brothers Sauternes Finished Bourbon
Neeley Family Distillery
ABV: 54.56%
Average Price: Coming Soon
The Whiskey:
This is an old-school Kentucky family brand. The whiskey in the bottle is made from a wheated mash bill that was left for 5 years to age before rebarrelling in Barbados rum barrels for another nine months.
Tasting Notes:
None available.
Bottom Line:
These tend to be very crafty (a lot of sweet grain) but well-balanced. Again though, unless you’re in Kentucky, you’re probably not going to find this.
New Riff Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Bottled in Bond
This four-year-old whiskey is rendered from a mash bill of 65% corn, 30% rye, and 5% malted barley. That whiskey is then blended under the bottled-in-bond laws and proofed down to 100 proof before bottling in New Riff’s flashy bottles.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Freshly baked sourdough cinnamon rolls with a butter and vanilla frosting draw you in on the nose with a hint of baked apple pies drizzled in caramel sauce.
Palate: The palate has a hint of mulled wine spice layered into those stewed apples with vanilla pudding, salted caramel, and old cedar rounding things out.
Finish: The finish has a touch of cotton candy next to more wintry spice (especially sharp cinnamon and ginger) next to lush vanilla tobacco stuffed into a cedar box.
Bottom Line:
This was above and beyond average small batch pours. This sip is one of those “instant love” whiskeys.
Hidden Barn Whiskey Kentucky Straight Bourbon Small Batch Series One Batch #5
Former Master Taster for Old Forester, Jackie Zykan, just left her post at Brown-Forman and her new whiskey is already on my desk. Zykan’s first release at her own shingle is a sourced whiskey from Neeley Family Distillery in rural Kentucky. The bourbon is made from a sweet mash (a brand new mash with every cook instead of reusing mash for a sour mash) with a high-ish rye content over pot stills (a true rarity in bourbon these days). Those barrels aged for four to five years before Zykan picked a handful for this inaugural release at batch proof.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose is full of digestive biscuits and whole wheat pancakes cut with vanilla and pecan next to hints of anise, caramel candy, and cinnamon-toast tobacco.
Palate: The palate holds onto the massive graininess with a clear sense of rye bread crumb next to thick oatmeal cookies with more of those pecans and plenty of raisins and spice.
Finish: Later, a hint of white pepper arrives and leads the finish to soft espresso cream with a dash of nutmeg and creamy toffee.
Bottom Line:
This was so engaging and out of left field in the best possible way. It also delivered on what was promised with a grain-forward bourbon unlike any other. It was so unique while also hitting nostalgic bourbon notes kind of like you were drinking from inside of your grandmother’s cookie jar.
Old Louisville Whiskey Co. Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This is from a brand new (opened in August 2022) blending and bottling house in Louisville, Kentucky. The whiskey in the bottle is a small-batch blend of seven to 10-year-old rye mash bourbon from MGP of Indiana. Those barrels are married and bottled with no proofing or filtering.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with a classic sense of bourbon vanilla and caramel with a hint of sour cherry and pancake batter next to a whisper of leather and old marshmallow.
Palate: The palate has a sense of apple wood followed by black peppercorns, vanilla sauce, marzipan, and black cherries.
Finish: It finishes a little warm with a hint of winter spice and more of that cherry wrapped up in tobacco.
Bottom Line:
MGP barrels are some of the most coveted right now. This is a great example of why. This is just an all-around solid sipper with real depth and nice character. I did want to add a rock, but it wasn’t necessary.
Peg Leg Porker Spirits Straight Tennessee Bourbon Whiskey
This is a sourced whiskey created by a BBQ pitmaster. The whiskey is made with a mash of 84% corn, 8% rye, and 8% malted barley and aged for at least four years.
Tasting Notes:
None available.
Bottom Line:
I’d definitely give this a try at a BBQ joint in Nashville.
This new-ish whiskey from Penelope really helps solidify the brand as a powerhouse in blending. The whiskey in the bottle is a blend of three bourbon mash bills (one is 21% rye, another 90% corn, and a 45% wheated bourbon — all from MGP), which create a four-grain (corn, wheat, rye, and barley) bourbon. Beyond that, this is about masterfully blending of four to five-year-old barrels into something bigger than the individual parts.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: You get a sense of dry cornmeal on the nose next to apple crumble, plenty of wintry spice, a hint of mulled wine, wet brown sugar, and a thin layer of wet yet sweet cedar.
Palate: A hint of brandy-soaked cherries arrives on the palate with a dusting of dark chocolate powder next to more apple pie filling, spice, and buttery crust alongside a sweet, toffee-heavy mid-palate.
Finish: The end arrives with a dry wicker vibe, cherry tobacco chewiness, and a hint of that dark chocolate.
Bottom Line:
These tend to be stellar one-offs. They’re great for a neat pour after a long day or mixing into a simple whiskey cocktail. You can’t go wrong here.
This whiskey is a celebration of golf legend Bobby Jones. The whiskey in this bottle is a sourced (from an undisclosed distillery) single barrel of whiskey that’s bottled with a touch of proofing water.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This is very basic on the nose with leather next to banana Necco Wafer, a hint of cherry, and maybe some caramel.
Palate: The palate is grainy like a bran muffin with a sense of cherry protein powder, some almond, and a vanilla wafer.
Finish: The end has a sense of toasted cedar next to vanilla and cherry.
Bottom Line:
This is fine. May I suggest that if you have a bottle, you mix it into a hard Arnold Palmer? That feels like the right use.
2XO The Phoenix Blend Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This is the new whiskey from famed blender Dixon Dedman (former head of Kentucky Owl). The whiskey is sourced and highlights the best of the best barrels that Dedman was able to get his hands on.
This is batched from 40 total barrels from three different states, making it a “blended” straight bourbon whiskey. While the team at Pursuit United doesn’t release the Tennessee distillery name, we know the whiskeys from Kentucky and New York are from Bardstown Bourbon Company and Finger Lakes Distilling, respectively.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with a rush of cedar next to Christmas spices steeped in sweet red wine.
Palate: That sweetness tends to lean into fresh honey with a touch of caramel and maybe a little dark chocolate on the end. The taste holds onto the honeyed sweetness with burnt sugars, light cedar, chocolate tobacco leaves, and a hint of orange oils.
Finish: That orange is what builds and powers the finish to its silken end, concluding with an orange-choco vibe and a very soft landing.
Bottom Line:
This is really solid bourbon, that said — it got a rougher score from me on a recent blind test.
Red Line Cask Strength Single Barrel Straight Bourbon
This whiskey from Red Line is sourced from hand-selected barrels from MGP of Indiana. The team at Red Line picked six-year-old barrels of MGP’s iconic high-rye bourbon mash of 75% corn, 21% rye, and only 4% malted barley. Those barrels were vatted and then bottled as-is at cask strength.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a lovely sweetness that arrives on the nose with a hint of burnt sugars and brown butter just starting to coalesce into caramel with a flake of salt and a sense of rum-raisin and an echo of charred oak.
Palate: The palate leans into a light apple compote with a hint of plum and plenty of wintry spices next to vanilla and wicker before the warmth of the ABVs peak on the mid-palate.
Finish: The end is soft and supple with a sense of spiced prune jam, old porch wicker, and allspice berries.
Bottom Line:
This seemingly small and bespoke bottler killed the awards circuit this year with this expression of finely sourced Indiana bourbon.
This Colorado grain-to-glass whiskey is made with a mash of local corn and wheat (70/30 split). That whiskey is left to age in variously charred oak for over three years before batching and bottling.
“A sweeter whiskey with caramel, butterscotch, and honey notes up front coupled with a light citrus and moderate oak finish. Nose comes across as sweet, creamy cereal. Enjoyably long warm finish.”
Bottom Line:
This is another one that I’d look for if I was in Colorado but that’s about it.
FEW Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This expression from Illinois’ FEW Spirits marks the 125th anniversary of the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897. The juice is made from 70% corn, 20% rye, and 10% malted barley. That whiskey spends four years resting before it’s proofed down to 100 proof and bottled as-is.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with a sense of vanilla cream pie with an extra thick vanilla pudding next to dry cedar bark with a touch of white moss, a touch of black licorice, and a hint of barrel smoke.
Palate: The palate leans into cherry bark with a light cherry tobacco spiciness that melds with the vanilla pudding, a pan of fresh sticky buns with plenty of cinnamon and walnuts, and a hint of black pepper and more of that dry cedar bark.
Finish: The finish has a bit of an oatmeal cookie vibe that leads back to the spicy cherry tobacco and white moss.
Bottom Line:
FEW Spirits perfected their bourbon craft with this expression.
This is sourced from Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee bourbons (though that’s likely to change since Heaven Hill bought the brand). The hand-selected barrels are sent to New York where they’re blended in small batches of no more than five barrels, proofed with New York limestone mine water, and bottled. What you’re paying for here is the exactness of a whiskey blender finding great barrels and knowing how to marry them to make something bigger and better.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a raw pancake batter note on the nose next to mulled red wine with plenty of spice and orange next to a vanilla pudding and light mint waxiness.
Palate: The taste has a mix of marzipan next to dark chocolate and real, almost woody maple syrup.
Finish: The finish adds some cherry to that dark chocolate and layers in woody birch water on the end.
Bottom Line:
This is really damn nice, especially as a sipper on a rock or two. It definitely lives up to the hype.
Eagle Rare Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Aged 10 Years
This might be one of the most beloved (and still accessible) bottles from Buffalo Trace. This whiskey is made from their very low rye mash bill. The hot juice is then matured for at least ten years in various parts of the warehouse. The final mix comes down to barrels that hit just the right notes to make them “Eagle Rare.” Finally, this one is proofed down to a fairly low 90 proof.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Old leather boots, burnt orange rinds, oily sage, old oak staves, and buttery toffee round out the nose.
Palate: Marzipan covered in dark chocolate opens the palate as floral honey and ripe cherry lead to a winter cake vibe full of raisins, dark spices, and toffee sauce.
Finish: The end has a balance of all things winter treats as the marzipan returns and the winter spice amp up alongside a hint of spicy cherry tobacco and old cedar.
Bottom Line:
It’s amazing that you can still find these (sort of). If you can, buy a case. This is a perfect house pour that’ll always deliver. I tend to drink it over a single large ice cube. It rules.
E. H. Taylor, Jr. Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Bottled In Bond
Buffalo Trace’s Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. Small Batch is an entry point to the other 12 expressions released under the E.H. Taylor, Jr. label. The whiskey is made from Buffalo Trace’s iconic Mash Bill No. 1 (which is a low rye recipe). The final whiskey in the bottle is a blend of barrels that meet the exact right flavor profiles Buffalo Trace’s blenders are looking for in a classic bottled-in-bond bourbon for Taylor.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with a sense of soft corn mush with a hint of fresh green chili, Saigon cinnamon (a little sweet), orchard tree bark, and the black mildew that grows on all the whiskey warehouses in Kentucky.
Palate: The palate leans into buttery toffee with a twinge of black licorice next to cinnamon-spiced dark chocolate tobacco and a hint of huckleberry pie with vanilla ice cream.
Finish: The end has a salted caramel sweetness that leads back to a hint of sweet cinnamon and dark tobacco with a light sense of the fermentation room with a hint of sweet gruel.
Bottom Line:
This is a great, classic bourbon whiskey. It’s also a $40 bottle at MSRP and you really need to keep that in mind when buying and comparing it. It certainly punches above its price point, hence the inflated secondary price. Still, this is an essential cocktail bourbon far more than a deep sipper.
Weller The Original Wheated Bourbon Aged 12 Years Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This is the main age-statement whiskey from Weller. The barrels spend at least 12 years mellowing (some say the barrels can reach into the 20-year range) before they’re vatted, proofed down, and bottled as-is.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with soft orchard fruits — think old peaches and bruised pears — that lead to a spun wool, vanilla-heavy pancake batter, and really good marzipan with an echo of rose water and orange oils next to soft and worn wicker canes wrapped in old leather sheets.
Palate: The taste is a perfect balance of cherry wood, dried cranberry, buttery Southern biscuits, salted toffee candy, and Christmas spices (clove and nutmeg heavy).
Finish: The end lets those sharp spices shine but isn’t hot by any stretch alongside moist angel food cake, apple-cider-soaked cinnamon sticks, and orange-infused marzipan with a hint of dark chocolate coating and a mild sense of old (damn near musty) cherry tobacco leaves.
Bottom Line:
This is an iconic whiskey at an extremely approachable ABV. It’s just an easy AF sipper without water or ice. Adding some, and you’ll get this silky and luxurious pour of Weller that’s damn near second to none.
Southern Star Paragon Single Barrel Cask Strength Wheated Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This North Carolina bourbon is starting to make some serious waves. This very limited batch of single-barrel bourbon is made from wheated bourbon mash bill with 70% corn, 16% wheat, and 14% malted barley. The hot juice was left for around four years before the barrel was hand-pocked and bottled as-is at cask strength.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with a sense of orange blossoms and an apple orchard with a hint of pear and plum next to walnut shells, old honey bottles, and rich vanilla sauce with a hint of poppy seed.
Palate: The palate has a touch of dark chocolate powder sweetness that melds with walnuts and honey to make a cluster before the brown spice kicks in with sharp cinnamon and a touch of root beer.
Finish: The end leaves the spice and warmth behind for smooth vanilla walnut cake with a hint of apple-honey tobacco wrapped up with old cedar bark.
Bottom Line:
This is just plain ‘ol solid. It also tends to rack up awards because of that. It will be hard to find outside of the main bourbon markets (and North Carolina), but I’d argue it’s worth the effort to find. This is quality bourbon with a deep richness.
Still Austin Whiskey Co The Musician Cask Strength Straight Bourbon Whiskey
The folks at Still Austin have spent the last six years perfecting their grain-to-glass whiskey experience. The juice is rendered with grains from Texas and water from the ground beneath their feet, all imbued with a crafty Texas vibe in every sip. The actual whiskey is a two-year-old bourbon that’s batched to highlight the bright fruits of the new and crafty whiskey.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This is really fruity. Think a tropical, hazy IPA with clear notes of pineapple, lemon-lime, and maybe a slight hint of savory papaya next to more a-typical bourbon notes of vanilla, holiday spices, and caramel.
Palate: There’s a clear sense of those spices on the palate with a hint of dark chocolate leading back to all that fruit, a touch of marzipan, and a dash of vanilla cream pie.
Finish: The end warms a bit with the fruitiness waning towards a spicy, choco-tobacco end.
Bottom Line:
This is very very fruity. Still, it works since the fruits mostly stay on the nose to entice you into the sip. All of that being said, this really shines best as a cocktail or highball base.
BLACKENED x Wes Henderson Master of Whiskey Series Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This new collaboration from Metallica’s whiskey finds Master Distillers Rob Dietrich of BLACKENED working with Wes Henderson, Co-Founder of Angel’s Envy, to create a new expression. The whiskey is a classic Kentucky bourbon aged for six years. Those barrels are vatted and then refilled into white port wine casks for a final rest. Finally, the port barrels are batched and the whiskey is bottled at cask strength.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a good bit of fruit on the nose with pear skins, rum-raisin, and burnt orange next to dried-up old cinnamon sticks and tobacco leaves.
Palate: The palate stews the pear with honey and wintry spices while a hint of dried chili flake leads to walnut cake and a very mild echo of old wet straw.
Finish: The end is lush and full of oranges studded with cloves and allspice next to pear tobacco and old cedar humidors.
Bottom Line:
This is great. It’s a party-hard-yet-classic-feeling bourbon with a truly well-built flavor profile.
This whiskey is bottled in South Carolina from sourced barrels. The whiskey in those barrels is a mash of 75% corn, 21% rye, and 4% malted barley that’s left to age before small batch bottling after six years.
This is a classic sourced bourbon made from a mash of 75% corn, 21% rye, and 4% malted barley. The whiskey is aged for at least four years before batching and bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: “Aromas of vanilla, citrus, and wood.”
Palate: “The marriage and proofing of barrels is evident as the bourbon starts somewhat hot and sweet with flavors of dried fruit, vanilla, cream caramel, and wood.”
Finish: “The finish is layered with caramel, orange peel, spice, and wood.”
Bottom Line:
The next time I’m in West Virginia I’ll definitely try this one.
Traverse City Whiskey Co. Barrel Proof Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This Michigan whiskey is made to highlight a true grain-to-glass experience. The juice is made from a mash of 71% corn, 25% rye, and 4% barley. It’s aged for four years in the extreme weather of the Great Lakes. Barrels are then hand-picked and bottled with no fussing.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The milled corn comes through with a touch of orange zest, vanilla, toffee, and lemon jam.
Palate: The taste amps up the toffee with a caramel kettle corn vibe next to hints of cedar and orchard fruit.
Finish: The end is long and very clearly all about the velvety vanilla and toffee sweetness with a slight alcohol warmth, thanks to a touch of spice and citrus.
Bottom Line:
This is an always fun crafty bourbon with great depth.
Traverse City Whiskey Co. Sherry Barrel Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This newer whiskey from WhistlePig mixes locally made Vermont whiskey with Indiana whiskey to create a bespoke bourbon. The mash bill leans into the corn with a good measure of rye in the mix. The whiskey barrels are left alone for six years before batching, proofing, and bottling on the farm in Vermont.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a soft leathery nose that leads to caramel corn and a nutty spiciness with a hint of old oak.
Palate: The nuttiness drives the palate toward fresh maple syrup that turns creamy with an almond vibe, plenty of winter spice, and a hint of black tea.
Finish: That tea calms down toward a wet chamomile with a dollop of honey, a twist of orange, and a pinch of sweet cinnamon with a lingering sense of oak in the background.
Bottom Line:
This is a pretty good whiskey. If you’re a fan of WhistlePig, you’re going to dig this. If you like classic bourbon vibes, you’ll be a fan too. I’d sip this over some ice or in a simple cocktail.
This is a celebrity-owned bourbon from UFC’s Bruce Buffer. The whiskey in the bottle is a blend of four to six-year-old bourbons from Kentucky that are touched with a little proofing water after blending.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This has a slightly tannic nose (think old, red-wine-soaked oak) with woody vanilla, nutmeg, and a lush vibe.
Palate: The palate mixes up the sweet vanilla with sweet yet sharp spice, some dark chocolate, and a hint of orange zest.
Finish: The end combines everything into a lush finish that highlights old oak, soft nutmeg, and a soft orange-chocolate vibe with a hint of clove and anise.
Bottom Line:
This is a really easy-to-drink whiskey that offers a deep and distinct flavor profile.
The new release from Old Forester leans into heavy char and special charcoal filtering. The heavily charred barrels hold classic Old Forester bourbon that’s filtered through mesquite charcoal from Texas’ King Ranch before batching and bottling with a touch of proofing water.
The mash bill on this bourbon is mid-range rye heavy with 18% of the grain in the bill for support. Triple distilling in pot stills (like Irish whiskey) and blending with column-distilled whiskey is utilized. The bourbon then rests for six to seven years — taking time to mature before barrels are pulled for blending, proofing, and bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This opens with a rush of Martinelli’s Sparkling Apple Cider, pear candy, and vanilla cake with a hint of dark chocolate, orange zest, salted caramel, and some sour red berries tossed with fresh tobacco and mint.
Palate: The palate opens with some dried apple skins next to cinnamon sticks floating in hot and spicy apple cider, a hint of mint tobacco, and salted orange dark chocolate bars.
Finish: The end has a nougat wafer vibe next to caramel and vanilla cookies with a hint of old porch wicker and boot leather.
Bottom Line:
This was pretty damn good but felt like a quintessential cocktail base more than anything else. Plus, it just felt classic from top to bottom.
This expression takes standard Woodford Bourbon and gives it a finishing touch. The bourbon is blended and moved into new barrels that have been double-toasted but only lightly charred. The juice spends a final nine months resting in those barrels before proofing and bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a welcoming aroma of marzipan, blackberry, toffee, and fresh honey next to a real sense of pitchy, dry firewood.
Palate: The taste drills down on those notes as the sweet marzipan becomes more choco-hazelnut, the berries become increasingly dried and apple-y, the toffee becomes almost burnt, and the wood softens to a cedar bark.
Finish: A rich spicy and chewy tobacco arrives late as the vanilla gets super creamy and the fruit and honey combine on the slow fade.
Bottom Line:
This is another bourbon that’s really solid through and through. Pour it over some rocks or mix it into your favorite cocktail. Either way, you’ll be all set.
Today (April 27), the “Material Girl” singer announced Finally Enough Love: The Rainbow Edition. It’ll feature those same records, though in purple, yellow, orange, red, green, and blue. It arrives in June, and you’ll want to mark your calendars considering Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones sold out within three days.
FINALLY ENOUGH LOVE: THE RAINBOW EDITION! New Rainbow-Vinyl Version Of 6-LP Remix Collection Celebrating Madonna’s Record 50 #1 Club Hits Will Be Available On June 23rd. More details and pre-order info here: https://t.co/avDClRKkRhpic.twitter.com/c9fbHUDE5p
The pop legend is also getting ready to hit the road on her Celebration Tour. Last month, she added a date in Nashville and shared a statement about the recent anti-drag law.
“The oppression of the LGBTQ+ is not only unacceptable and inhumane; it’s creating an unsafe environment; it makes America a dangerous place for our most vulnerable citizens, especially trans women of color,” the statement read. “Also, these so-called laws to protect our children are unfounded and pathetic. Anyone with half a brain knows not to f*ck with a drag queen. Bob and I will see you from the stage in Nashville where we will celebrate the beauty that is the queer community.”
Finally Enough Love: The Rainbow Edition is out 6/23 via Rhino. Find more information here.
Madonna is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish shows available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
Amazon’s latest big-budget, globe-trotting binge-watch has plenty going for it. Sexy spies (hello Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas), intense action, an interesting (if a bit clunky) premise, and enough twists to keep you guessing until the end of its initial six-episode run. Will it change the game when it comes to espionage thrillers? Eh, probably not, but it’s got enough camp, and enough Stanley Tucci, to make it worth a watch.
Here’s the thing about Frog and Toad: they’re nice. They’re the Paddington of amphibians, and now the charming children’s book series has been turned into an Apple TV+ series starring Nat Faxon as Frog and Kevin Michael Richardson as Toad, as well as Ron Funches, Margaret Cho, Tom Kenny, and Aparna Nancherla, among other favorites. Succession is great and all, but sometimes you just want to watch a frog and a toad eat cookies, y’know?
Beef is about a road rage incident between two strangers, played by Steven Yeun and Ali Wong (it’s a Tuca and Bertie reunion!), that sparks a feud that unearths their darkest impulses. You will also have an impulse while watching Lee Sung Jin’s Netflix series: an impulse to binge the entire season in one day. Beef is getting a lot of Best TV Show of 2023 So Far buzz. Just don’t watch it on your phone while driving, OK? You don’t want to get into a Beef scenario in real life.
Awkwardness icon Dave Burd returns for the third season of Dave, taking Lil Dicky on the road for a star-studded cross-country adventure through the real America, spreading rhymes, sewing oats, and getting into trouble. The whole concept of the new season seems like a big swing that’s guaranteed to connect, taking Dave out of his more familiar setting while creating countless opportunities to have him go wild, free from the burdens of cutting a new album.
There’s a glut of good TV at the moment so even a modern remake of a bit of classic David Cronenberg-ian body horror needs some buzzwords to cut through the noise. Luckily, Dead Ringers has that. And we’ll list them out for you now: Rachel Weisz. Evil twins. Surrealist sci-fi. Fertility clinic. Power struggles. A shocking finale. And Rachel Weisz (again). Helmed by Alice Birch (Normal People) with a few episodes directed by horror maestro Karyn Kusama, this show takes Cronenberg’s central idea and gender-flips it, giving us twin obstetricians Beverly and Elliot Mantle whose day job sees them playing god at a cutting-edge fertility clinic. But, when their toxic relationship dynamics are threatened by both their professional success and personal entanglements, their bond reaches disturbing new depths.
Break out your biscuits and put on your custom-bedazzled Diamond Dogs silk bomber jackets because the best mustache on TV is back, baby. This might be the last season of Ted Lasso which is a bittersweet pill to swallow but it’s best not to dwell on all of the loose ends still in need of tying. Ted wouldn’t. Instead, let’s just enjoy these characters as long as we have them. And hope something awful (but not irreversible) and humiliating (but appropriately so) and devastating (but ultimately life-changing in a positive way) happens to Nate “not so great” Shelley.
Keri Russell isn’t quite an anxiety-provoking spy in this series, but this show does call back her old FX stomping grounds. Here, Russell portrays a career-consumed diplomat who’s also struggling to maintain a complicated marriage. Spy or not, this show still sits squarely within the same meat-and-potatoes, mainstream-appealing arena as the similarly-toned The Night Agent, so expect the binging to happen, along with the nostalgia associated with seeing Russell back on TV.
GLOW standout Betty Gilpin is teaming up with TV king Damon Lindelof in this seriously terrific show about a nun who fights an almighty algorithm. What’s not to enjoy about that, especially since it delivers upon a truly nutso premise? Gilpin plays Simone, not to be confused with the title character of the AI, and Margo Martindale co-stars as a booze-loving nun. If there’s anything that Damon Lindelof has taught us in his post-Lost days, you never know precisely what to expect from his projects. Never forget Lube Man.
Everyone’s favorite hitman-turned-actor-but-still-sometimes-hitman is back for a final season. Things get… bleak. Still funny, borderline silly in parts, but also just very, very bleak. As it probably should be given… you know… the murders that Barry has committed. A lot of them. Thank God we have NoHo Hank and Henry Winkler in there to break it all up for us. This is one of our best shows, people. Let’s enjoy it while we can.
It’s time to go back to the wilderness, where this season doubles down on the darkness and refuses to apologize for it. The show still puts forth one of the most solid examples of dual timelines in TV history. Not only that, but all four sets of leads are firing on all cylinders this year. Sure, Juliette Lewis can pull off this type of role in her sleep, but we love to see her do it. Christina Ricci chews everything up, and Melanie Lynskey is finally getting her due. Oh, and don’t forget about those earworms. Get ready for the return of the Antler Queen, gang. Spooky.
Good news and bad news, ladies and gentlemen. The good: The cretins and weasels of Succession are back for a fourth season full of drama and dark comedy and more than a little delightful flailing by Cousin Greg. The bad: This is also the final season. So… you’re going to have to come to terms with that as things play out. It’s a lot to deal with, especially with the frenetic pace things have been and are shaking down. This is one of our best shows. It’s going to sting to say goodbye. But let’s all agree to enjoy the ride while we can.
Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish movies available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
“It’s not cocky, it’s real,” says baseball legend Reggie Jackson in an archival clip during the trailer for his eponymous Amazon Prime documentary. The film promises to let Jackson tell his story, all the way from his youth in the segregated south to his time as a back page and on-field legend for the Yankees (where everyone quarreled with him even as he was establishing himself as the biggest star in sports and a pop culture juggernaut) onto his post-playing career and his role as an ambassador for the game. A lot of these authorized sports docs can feel one-sided or self-serving, but regardless of if Reggie follows that same path, we know one thing: at least it’ll be interesting.
Boston Strangler tells the true story of the, uh, Boston Strangler, which you probably guessed from the title. It’s all right there. Keira Knightley and Carrie Coon play a pair of journalists and amateur sleuths who put the pieces together and uncover one of the country’s most notorious cases of serial killing. Looking for a period piece about a couple people hunting a murder in 1960s Massachusetts? Well, here you go. That was easy.
Director Suzanne Hillinger talks with Adult entertainers and anti-porn crusaders in this documentary about the rise and near fall of PornHub. From a near economic apocalypse for those performers to questions about who is to blame for the rise of illegal and horrific content on the site, Hillinger works to lay out the details of this story with great care.
The trailer will give you international intrigue vibes, which might seem strange, considering the bare-bones concept of the video game, but as it turns out, this movie might not be serious enough for the dark themes that inhabit its walls. Taron Egerton plays the man who wishes to bring this game to living rooms everywhere, and weirdly enough, double-crossing begins to happen. The description promises “a Cold War–era thriller on steroids,” which is at least something that you don’t hear every day in 2023.
We’re never going back to the valley of existence between the fall of twisty mystery shows and movies (like Clue and Columbo) and the rise of a new class that’s inspired by those that came before (Knives Out, etc). We refuse. LFG Monk Movie! Keep pumping out Psychs and Poker Face seasons, Peacock! Let’s get Benoit Blanc and some muppets on a train, dammit! And yes, by all means, keep it going with these Murder Mystery romps that put Adam Sandler, Jennifer Anniston, and a fun supporting cast in breathtaking locales while navigating danger and trying to get to the bottom of a murder or, in this case, a kidnapping.
This one is pretty straightforward: The Broken Lizard comedy troupe, the wonderful little sickos that brought you movies like Super Troopers and Beerfest, are back once again, this time with a goofball take on the Middle Ages and the tale of Quasimodo. If that sounds like something you think you’ll enjoy, well… uh, it’s here now. Really just terrific news for you. And the Broken Lizard guys, who are still out there doing it. Good news for everybody. Congratulations to us all.
Cocaine Bear isn’t quite as non-stop as you might think from all the hype. It also occasionally feels the strain of trying to carry the story of a few too many characters, but there’s no denying that when it hits full speed, it’s unstoppable. The spectacle of some of the most intense, action-packed scenes and the outrageousness of the idea: “Hey, what happens when a bear becomes instantly addicted to and powered by cocaine?” are sure to win you over and paper over any possible flaws. You’ll laugh (at some really inappropriate and gruesome moments), you’ll cry (baby bear cubs!), you’ll be so glad you weren’t in the woods standing between the bear and her supply.
Peter Pan is back, once again, this time with a live-action version on Disney that focuses the story more on Wendy. Peter is still there, though. As is Captain Hook. And Tinkerbell. All the classics are out here doing it again, which is actually kind of nice. Check out the story again, or for the first time, depending on your experience with Never Land and ageless swashbuckling children and evil mustachioed pirates. Again, it’s nice. You earned a fun little watch this weekend.
The internet’s comedy boyfriend has had a notably hectic few years; weathering a drug relapse, stint in rehab, divorce, and the birth of his and Olivia Munn’s first child, but he’s back on these streets and back on top with a new special that is as revelatory as it is hilarious and on par with his previous specials. In fact, while the subject matter of Baby J certainly goes to some different and maybe even uncomfortable places about Mulaney’s odyssey, his sensibilities and storytelling mastery are as sharp and present as ever, allowing him to somehow create a special that is charmingly accessible even while being highly personal and, at times, painting himself in a less than likable light.
Chris Evans plays a hot farmer who has an amazing date with a woman he near-instantly deems to be “the one” (aka Ana de Armas) before she ghosts him, sparking a “romantic gesture” that involves flying to London to surprise her. For that cringey overreach, Farmer Chris is surprised to find out that “the one” is a CIA operative who has to then spend the rest of the film dodging explodey chaos while saving his ass (and that’s America’s ass, remember). A high-action rom-com that aims to evoke the best of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Ghosted gives Evans a chance to play in something a little lighter while expanding de Armas’ killer No Time To Die action hero presence across an entire film.
What’s the one menu item from Wendy’s that you’d be down to pick up at the grocery store? We’ll let you think about it for a second… Okay, you good?
Did you pick chili? Because that’s what we picked. Well, good news — it’s happening! Wendy’s branded chili will hit grocery store shelves nationwide as the fast food brand teams up with Conagra to bring the menu classic to a store near you. But this isn’t just a white label low-effort job, Conagra actually linked up with the Wendy’s culinary team to ensure they get the beloved recipe right.
At 29 grams of protein, Wendy’s chili features beef, peppers, and beans in a tomato-based sauce. The only major factor that will differentiate this chili from Wendy’s own is that Wendy’s fast food version is made with leftover burger beef. That flavor certainly adds something unique — tough to say if it’s better or worse but, for what it’s worth, Wendy’s does have some of the best burger beef in the game.
Sure, that’s ultimately going to have an effect on the flavor (one way or another) but just think of all the things you can do to a can of Wendy’s chili beans to elevate it to something next level. You could add cilantro! Cheese! Jalapeños! toss it on a hot dog! The sky is the limit!
Of course, while many are rejoicing, others are… taking the news with a grain of salt (actually a lot of salt, the chili is wildly high in sodium).
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And, of course, it wouldn’t be America in 2023 if there wasn’t some debate around this. In this case, a reopening of the argument about what chili actually is:
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Cans of the famous chili are set to hit grocery stores and online retailers sometime this spring at a suggested retail price of $4.99 per can.
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(@queenbrittxo) 
(@REIGNOFSIREN) 
he literally said “oh yeah, she loves cinnabun’s” like how do you know???
(@ADivineFemme) 
(@_tianajay) 
