Category: News

One of the most fun elements of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts has always been the crowd interactions — something that has been missing ever since the series went to an at-home format as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, as restrictions have eased up and vaccination levels increase, it looks like we’ll start to receive something of a hybrid approach whenever it’s possible. IDK’s new Tiny Desk Concert brings back the live audience feel as he invites neighbors and friends to his Los Angeles home to perform new songs from his recently released album Simple.

Opening with the soulful “Puerto Rico,” IDK opts to set the mood with the smooth, melodic gem from USEE4YOURSELF rather than one of his harder-hitting rap tracks, which allows him to present himself as a “sweet guy” and adds to the overall inviting mood. Meanwhile, Kaytranada’s jazzy, house-influenced production from Simple proves to translate beautifully to the stripped-down set, where some synthesized baby grand sets the groove as IDK’s friend thumps out the beat on a coffee table. Mike Dean also makes an appearance to contribute a ripping guitar solo to IDK’s latest single, “Breathe.”

Watch IDK’s Tiny Desk Concert above.

IDK is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

After Deadpool was noticeably missing from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness despite a fan theory to the contrary, the official Twitter account for the Merc with the Mouth films has provided an update on the highly anticipated Deadpool 3. In a new tweet on Wednesday morning, the Deadpool handle shared a Photoshopped image of Rob Delaney‘s character, Peter, from Deadpool 2 and made it clear that product placement will be king.

“Deadpool 3 update: We’ve nailed down brand integrations,” the official account tweeted. “Story, character, and script next!”

Eagle-eyed fans of Ryan Reynolds will notice the actor’s Aviator Gin and Mint Mobile have been added to the scene, and there appears to be a poster for Wembley Stadium, which could be a nod to the soccer team Reynolds purchased with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Rob McElhenney.

As for Delaney’s (possible) return as Peter, the actor previously pitched how his character could return back in November when he was promoting Home Sweet Home Alone. Via Comic Book:

“I know at the end of Deadpool 2 he asked if he can get Domino’s email address, so I think it might be funny to see him pursuing Domino quite earnestly, but with no skills at all to try and woo her. So that would be pretty funny and I think given a real challenge by Deadpool, if he really had to go take out a bad guy or something because say Deadpool had eaten some bad shrimp earlier. I think to see Peter and some genuine danger and also a little bit of romance, I think I’m just saying, you know what everybody else wants.”

Back in March, Reynolds announced that his Free Guy and The Adam Project director Shawn Levy will helm Deadpool 3 for Marvel Studios. More importantly, Kevin Feige has confirmed that the third film will be Rated-R, putting to bed concerns that the character would be watered down to score a PG-13 rating.

(Via Deadpool Movie on Twitter)

Everyone has their go-to cornbread recipe. The thing is, most of those recipes are probably for corn cakes or corn muffins and not cornbread. Say it with me, folks, real-deal cornbread does not need wheat flour or sugar (refined sugars, syrups, whatever). It just needs really good cornmeal that will shine through on its own.

Today’s “classic” cornbread is a simple mix of really good — naturally sweet — medium-to-coarse cornmeal (not corn flour), eggs, and buttermilk with a little salt, fat, and leavening agent (but even that last one is a matter of debate with hardcore purists). If you want to go back further, the cornbread we know today stems from Indigenous American culinary cultures across what’s now the Northeast, Southwest, Midwest, and South of the United States. Course cornmeal was mixed with salt, water, and fat and baked in hearth ovens for millennia before Europeans arrived on these shores (and Africans were abducted and brought here) and adjusted the recipe to suit their own cultures/palates/times.

For the recipe below, I’m adhering to the Sean Brock method because, well, he’s one of the foremost stewards of these types of recipes. Plus, Brock’s recipe feels like a good middle ground between the “historic” Indigenous cornbread of the past few thousand years and the “classic” cornbread of today’s American South. Moreover, this is a very straightforward recipe that only requires a little bit of skill, patience, and good timing. When you get it right, it’s wonderful.

Let’s get baking!

Cornbread

Ingredients:

• 3 cups medium-coarse yellow cornmeal
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 cup lard plus 2 tbsp.
• Butter

Get good buttermilk and eggs. Organic is fine, but if you have a farm store/farmer’s market near you, go with that. The fresher the better on that front.

As for the cornmeal, I go with a medium-coarse mill. I actually mix white hominy and yellow together for a half-and-half vibe. I’ve also done this with blue cornmeal to really amp up the sweetness. If you’re looking for real-deal and naturally sweet cornmeal, check out Anson Mills or Marsh Hen Mill for some serious cornmeal.

Lastly, if you want to make this without the lard, you can easily use either vegetable oil or white Crisco. Just keep an eye on the smoke point when you’re heating the skillet in the oven.

What You’ll Need:

• Stand mixer or bowl, wooden spoon, and some elbow grease
• 9-inch Cast iron skillet
• Mixing bowl
• Spatula
• Oven mit
• Toothpick

Method:

• Add the lard to the cast iron skillet and place it in the oven while you preheat it to 500f.
• Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix with your fingers until integrated.
• Once the lard is fully melted, remove the skillet from the oven while it continues to preheat.
• Add the buttermilk and eggs to the mixing bowl and combine with the cake paddle attachment of your stand mixer (or your wooden spoon).
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just integrated. If you’re adding crumbled bacon or diced jalapenos or anything, do it at this step.
• Add 1/4 cup of melted lard from the cast iron skillet into the cornbread batter while mixing it. Make sure to keep at least two tablespoons of lard in the skillet.
• Place the skillet with the lard back in the oven until it just starts to smoke.
• Fold the cornbread batter into the super-hot skillet. Gently but quickly even out the top of the cornbread batter. The lard should sizzle pretty loudly as it creates a fried edge to the cornbread. The hot oil/fat should come up above the edge of the cornbread batter but not over the edge of the skillet.
• Place the skillet in the oven and bake for about ten to 12 minutes or until the cornbread is just set and the edges are brown and crisp. (Mine took ten minutes)
• Remove from the oven as soon as a toothpick comes back clean from the middle of the cornbread. Let sit for five minutes and then flip the cornbread in the skillet so that the crispy bottom is upward-facing.
• Serve with butter and honey, beans, pulled pork, chili, whatever.

Bottom Line:

This is cornbread. The crust is so crispy and luscious with that fat layered into the sweet cornmeal. It helps to create a textural masterpiece.

The body of the cornbread is light and almost airy, which is wild for something made with a milled grain as dense as cornmeal. The crumb is smooth yet has great peaks and valleys for butter or chili to get into. Take a look at it!

The flavor is a mix of bright sweet corn with a hint of buttermilk tang and plenty of grassy graininess. But, it really all comes back to that textural vibe. The crispy edge is just wonderfully crunchy with that semi-grainy, semi-soft interior with a truly natural sweet edge. I ate two pieces with butter immediately and I regret nothing.

All of that said, if you’re used to “Yankee cornbread” — or the kind made with loads of wheat flour and sugar — this might be a big departure for you. Fear not, you’ll love it. By trying it this way, you’ll get to the essence of the corn at the heart of this dish. And you’ll have a great recipe to share when everyone is raving this BBQ season!

For several weeks now, Tucker Carlson has been talking about “The Great Replacement” or replacement theory, a GOP-embraced conspiracy theory that traces back to the KKK that claims that immigrants are being allowed into the United States to “replace” white America. How do we know this? Because he’s been trolled endlessly about it—including by CNN’s Jim Acosta, who called out Fox News for profiting off Carlson’s dangerous lies, as well as by Seth Meyers, who criticized Carlson for much of the same reason.

But on Tuesday night, as Mediaite reports, Carlson decided to play dumb again and pretend that he actually has no idea what The Great Replacement is because it’s something “the Left” created, explaining:

“You’ve heard a lot about the great replacement theory recently. It’s everywhere in the last two days and we’re still not sure exactly what it is. Here’s what we do know for a fact: There is a strong political component to the Democratic Party’s immigration policy. We’re not guessing this. We know this. And we know it because they have said so. They’ve said it again and again and again.”

(Just like someone else we know.)

“They have bragged about it endlessly,” Carlson continued. “They talk about it on cable news—constantly.” (Also familiar sounding.) “And they say, out loud, ‘We are doing this because it helps us to win elections.’”

Carlson then proceeded to play a bunch of clips of Democrats including Joe Biden and Stacey Abrams talking about the changing demographics in America, and how the “new” voters are turning away from Republican values and are more interested in voting for independents or Democrats. Nowhere in those clips did anyone say “we’re bringing in immigrants to cancel out you and your vote,” but in Carlson’s mind that’s exactly what they were saying, because the message was that being white in America could soon make you part of the minority.

The “funny part,” according to Carlson, is that the Democrats may be wrong. “It turns out your average Salvadoran landscaper’s politics are a lot closer to Donald Trump’s than they are to Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi’s.” Which doesn’t sound racist at all.

Carlson continued reading a variety of quotes from articles, tweets, and other sources to prove his point that Democrats are maniacs! “In 2021, The Washington Post’s Jen Rubin celebrated a report that the number of white people in this country is declining,” Carlson opined through clutched pearls. “Can you even imagine?! ‘This is fabulous news,’ she wrote. ‘Now we need to prevent minority White rule.’ My god! Talking like that!!”

After stating that he could give viewers a million more examples, Carlson stated that “We’re offended by this because it’s wrong. And we’ve said so.” Because how dare the melting pot that is America not be mostly white!

Carlson finished up his rant by discussing how Chuck Schumer recently sent a letter to Fox News blaming Carlson for the weekend shooting in Buffalo, New York, and others like it because of his hateful rhetoric. Carlson’s response was to invite Schumer on his show. When the senator declined, Carlson simply called him a “coward.” Because that’s how privileged white guys roll!

(Via Mediaite)

As Madison Cawthorn’s “sore loser” mentality reverberates after his dramatic congressional primary loss in North Carolina, other far-right GOP members have reason to be nervous. That would include Marjorie Taylor Greene, who’s seemingly next on the chopping block due to her reliance upon conspiracy theories in place of policy-based arguments during her actual job as a lawmaker. And there’s no way that rootin’ tootin’ Lauren Boebert didn’t feel her own little world shaken up by news of Madison’s unseating, especially since she’s endured no shortage of scandals in the past two years.

Yet the Rifle Republican is handling this Cawthorn, uh, well? That’s debatable because Boebert hasn’t said jack on the subject. She’s actually attempting to ignore the fact that the ultra-MAGA crowd isn’t safe from losing their D.C. gigs, and their numbers could be up. Yet Boebert is pretending that nothing is unusual at all about today. In fact, she’s still madly tweeting at Elon Musk, who has yet to acknowledge her existence. It’s something.

“.@ElonMusk says he will be voting Republican for the first time in his life the next time he votes,” Boebert typed in an attempt to distract herself from impending doom. “Elon is not alone. It’s nearly impossible to stand by and vote for today’s radical Democrat Party. Welcome, Elon!”

Elon, of course, has not responded (in all fairness, he’s attempting to weasel out of the Twitter deal because of bots or something) to Boebert’s umpteenth attempt to get a tweet mention out of him. But her replies are chock full of people pointing out that, in the aftermath of Cawthorn’s loss, she could be next (and the same goes for Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz).

Yep, the Boebert and Greene are suspiciously quiet about Cawthorn!

Despite being an underground staple for the majority of his career, MF DOOM’s recent passing shed light on just how widespread his influence really was. As such an impactful figure in hip-hop, he also has one of the most intriguing — and occasionally even mysterious — stories in the culture, thanks to his reluctance to enter the spotlight and his tendency to disappear for years at a time. Also, he wore a freaking Gladiator mask for public appearances, allowing him to be in multiple places at once via body doubles and shirk off things like interviews.

All these elements make for a fascinating biography, which is what we’ll get in 2024 with The Chronicles Of Doom: Unraveling Rap’s Masked Iconoclast by veteran journalist S.H. Fernando Jr. via Astra House. Fernando Jr. has also written extensively about hip-hop, including in the 1994 book The New Beats: Exploring The Music, Culture And Attitudes Of Hip Hop, and the 2021 Wu-Tang Clan biography, From The Streets Of Shaolin: The Wu-Tang Saga.

After MF DOOM’s death was announced on New Year’s Eve (in typical DOOM fashion, this was two months after he actually died on Halloween), a street in Long Beach, New York, his hometown, was named after him. Meanwhile, rappers from Yasiin Bey to Playboi Carti shared their memories of his outsized impact.

Red Bull gives you wings…and apparently, it also gives you a dope house party. This past weekend, Red Bull Guest House Miami threw a wild weekend-long event to celebrate the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix and get people hyped for race day. The event took over the iconic five-star Faena Hotel in Miami Beach and featured daily experiences, curated music each night, trackside race viewing, art installations, pool parties, and more.

Musical performances included well-known artists and electronic acts including Arca, Channel Tres, James Murphy b2b DJ Tennis, Horse Meat Disco, American Dance Ghosts, Shit Robot, Soul Clap, Richie Hell, Carlta & Friends, and Eli Escobar. The F1 Weekend hotspot also drew in big-name party-goers from all around. Some of the Red Bull Guest House’s most notable attendees included Diplo, Venus and Serena Williams, Kaytranada, AlphaTauri Drivers Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda, Danny Amendola, Lele Pons, Mario Ruíz, Juca Viapri, Noel Miller, Quenlin Blackwell, YungBBQ, Josh Killacky, Red Bull Athletes Ryan Sheckler, Miles Chamley-Watson, Lethal Shooter, Leticia Bufoni, and Lindsey Vonn.

For a glimpse into the shenanigans that went down during one of Miami’s busiest weekends of the year, check out the photos from Red Bull Guest House Miami below.

ALSO READ:

• These Photos From Desert Hearts Festival Will Make You Feel Weird…In A Good Way
• Let These Photos From The Framework After Party At Coachella Inspire You For The Weekend
• These Photos From GRiZ’s Surprise Beach Pop-Up Will Power You Through The Week
• These Photos From Sundream Tulum Will Get You Through The Middle Of The Week
• These Miami Music Week Photos Will Convince You To Go Party On A Yacht ASAP

Click to download here.

Depression is “Break Stuff” Pointed Inward

The world’s only socialist wife-guy Sopranos podcast welcomes the return of podcaster, comedian, journalist, and #1 Matt Lieb tolerator Francesca Fiorentini to talk to Matt & Vince about season 6b episode 7, “The Second Coming.”

AJ’s back in school, but as Fran points out, he doesn’t need a political science degree, he needs to smoke a little weed. The only thing liberal arts education can do for AJ is make him depressed. And boy is he depressed. He’s so depressed that not even Chamillionaire’s “Ridin’ Dirty” can convince him that life is worth living. He knows that The US sees the Middle East rolling, and they’re hating enough to bomb Iran. How can he live in a world that is so dicked up?

Despite Carmela’s attempts to cheer him up with Lincoln logs (which some internet research revealed to be a hot dog split open and slathered with cream cheese, similar to a Seattle-style street dog), AJ’s “Rube Goldberg suicide machine” is, of course, constructed incompetently enough to avoid a second episode in a row with a major character death. This is why AJ could never be a mob guy. How can he be expected to wack someone when he couldn’t even take out his own depressed self?

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-Description by Brent Flyberg.

What scared you as a kid? Was it Large Marge from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure? Or that creepy episode of Rugrats with “Big Boy”? Or maybe it was “The Green Ribbon”? If any of those apply to you, consider yourself lucky. You got off easy; your parents could have really messed you up if they had read you the new book, The Plot Against the King, a “fantastical retelling of [a] terrible true story” about “handsome King Donald.”

Hm, I wonder who that could be about? Hint: it’s not the one true king Donald.

Over on his struggling social media platform TRUTH Social, Donald Trump reached out to followers about The Plot Against the King, written by Kash Patel. “The Plot Against the King is the true story about the Russia Collusion hoax, written for children, by my friend @Kash,” it reads. “Live the tale thru the eyes of great characters like the handsome King Donald and Kash the Wizard.” Referring to himself, I mean, King Donald as “handsome” is actually one of Trump’s more understated self-compliments.

The post continues, “This story showcases how Hillary Queenton and a Shifty Knight tried to destroy our democracy, but truth and the MAGA King prevailed. Support this great patriot, educate our children, and put a copy in every school across our land.”

Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize in Literature-winning novelist Toni Morrison? BANNED. But The Plot Against the King, where a monarch and a wizard fight a lightly fictionalized Hillary Clinton using MAGA magic (MAGA-ic)? That’s fine. Very normal stuff.

I love some good Scotch whisky. But let’s face it, there’s plenty of shit on the shelf intermixed with the good stuff — yes, even the bottles that make it all the way across the pond. That said, I’d argue that you’re more likely to grab a good scotch than a bad one these days, because so much of the lower-end stuff doesn’t make it stateside. Still, the fact is there’s a lot to sort through and no one wants to pony up for a dud.

To help you find gems, I’m grabbing ten (modern and old-school) classic Scotch whiskies from my shelf and putting them to a blind taste test. I’m keeping things classic but pretty high-end this go around. I’ve tasted nearly 500 individual whiskeys so far this year and I wasn’t in the mood to taste shitty whisky today. Instead, I grabbed some serious icons of the past few decades and, in some cases, the past century or two. I didn’t really think about price points. I mostly thought about “oh yeah, that’s a good old whisky, let’s see how it stands up against this one.” I ended up grabbing eight killer unpeated bottles and then I threw in a peated 21-year-old and a newer crafty unpeated single malt ringer for good measure because … why not?

The lineup today is:

• Chivas 18
• Balblair 15
• Aberlour 16
• Glenfiddich 21
• Aberfeldy 18
• Bruichladdich Bere Barley
• Glenmorangie Nectar d’Or
• Arran 18
• GlenDronach 18
• BenRiach The Twenty One

Let’s see which bottle wins!

Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Scotch Whisky Posts of The Last Six Months

• The 50 Best Scotch Whiskies Of 2021, Ranked
• The 100 Best Whiskeys Our Head Drinks Writer Tasted In 2021
• The Best Scotch Whiskies Under $50, Ranked
• Every Scotch Whisky Brand From Diageo’s Massive Portfolio, Ranked
• The Best Value-Per-Dollar Scotch Whiskies, Ranked

Part 1: The Tasting

Taste 1

Tasting Notes:

This opens with a rush of berries — tart, sweet, dried — that leads to bright malts, mild dark spices, and a hint of toffee sweetness. Going back to the nose after the taste, there’s a very thin echo of dried flowers. On the palate, there’s a note of chocolate-covered raisins that gives way to dried rose petals, sweet malts, and a hint of shortbread with dashes of vanilla and lemon. The end is slightly thin but has plenty of that bright fruit to carry it through to a satisfying finish.

Taste 2

Tasting Notes:

Honey and marzipan greet you as ginger-infused dark chocolate and lemon/honey malts round out the nose. The palate leans into the marzipan with a hint of heather and spiced malts working their way back to that dark chocolate. The end has a honey candy sweetness but drops off pretty abruptly.

Taste 3

Tasting Notes:

A hint of oak char mingles with a box of dates, walnut shell, and a whisper of roses pressed into old books. A spiced plum jam drives the palate along with plenty of malty spice and sweet wood, kind of like an oak stave dipped in mulled wine. The finish leans into a honeyed sweetness with a hot and spicy apple cider vibe on the slow and silky finish.

Taste 4

Tasting Notes:

This is very “perfume” driven on the nose with plenty of sticky toffee pudding — the dates, nutmeg, toffee, vanilla, everything — leading to a hint of cherry bark and old leather. The palate has a thin line of cream soda with more of that floral perfume, woody cinnamon-apple, and a bit of sultana and prunes. The finish leans into the florals and honey as a waft of freshly baked banana bread floats past and the creaminess amps up towards a kind of a Key lime pie vibe.

Taste 5

Tasting Notes:

This opens with a lush and creamy honey, cream soda, dried red berries packed into a cedar box, and a touch of marzipan. Fresh berries and cream drive the palate as a slightly dry grassy nature hits the mid-palate with dry cedar and some rum-soaked raisins. The finish has a bit of a dried apricot vibe that leads back to that lush honey with more dried sweetgrass and marzipan rounding things out.

Taste 6

Tasting Notes:

It takes a moment but the nose eventually reveals sweet orange blossoms next to marzipan, mulled wine, apricot jam, and a thin whisper of mint chocolate chip ice cream. The palate leans into the apricot and jam and mint chocolate with a note of chocolate-covered raisins leading to a whisper of dried banana chips and Irish soda bread. The finish adds a flake of sea salt to everything as spiced malts and minty yet creamy chocolate last the longest on the end.

Taste 7

Tasting Notes:

Vanilla and lemon oils combine on the nose for a classic shortbread feel that counters soft malts and a hint of milk chocolate powder. The palate is all about the creamy and buttery toffee sauce with wintry spices mingling with silky vanilla pudding and plenty of dried red fruits. The finish has a slight edge of spice attached to the malts — think mild nutmeg and cinnamon — that gives way to a creamy and shortbread-filled finish.

Taste 8

Tasting Notes:

Blueberry pancakes smothered in butter and maple syrup lead the way and is supported by apple cider and cinnamon sticks. Overripe peaches and orange zest pop on the palate with a hint of dark yet creamy chocolate. The mid-palate sweetness fades into a mulled-wine-soaked oak stave with stewed peaches next to slightly spiced dark chocolate bars.

Taste 9

Tasting Notes:

This is very grassy from the jump with a mix of dates, blackberry jam, and burnt orange peels rounding out the nose. The jam arrives on the tongue as stewed plums with allspice and clove mix with almond cake dusted with powdered sugar leads to chocolate malts. That nuttiness drives the finish toward more of those silky chocolate malts, freshly chopped apple and cherry wood, and a mix of dark berries, almonds, and spice layered into a bespoke dark chocolate bar on the very back end.

Taste 10

Tasting Notes:

This bursts with fresh Band-Aids from afar — hello, Benriach The Twenty One!

Those fresh and plasticky bandages are supported by cream soda, a hint of rum-raisin, slight nuttiness, and a dash of old potpourri. The palate carries on through the drug store with that Band-Aid vibe as creamy vanilla and soft chocolate malts interact with spicy minced meat pies, walnut coffee cake, and a hint of floral candle wax. The finish drops off pretty quickly, leaving you with old Band-Aids, burnt vanilla pods, and a touch more of that cream soda.

Part 2: The Ranking

10. Balblair 15 — Taste 2

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $126

The Whisky:

This is a classic Highland single malt with a modern twist. These bottles were just relaunched in 2019 with age statements. Their 15-year was aged in both ex-bourbon and ex-sherry before marrying, proofing, and bottling in nice, squat bottles.

Bottom Line:

This had serious potential until the finish. It just sort of disappeared at the end. For me, that makes this a good place to start the ranking. That said, this whiskey is still a good cocktail base to build upon.

9. Glenfiddich 21 — Taste 4

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $230

The Whisky:

Rum casks and sweet single malts are a great match. This whisky starts off by mellowing for 21 years in ex-bourbon casks before that juice is transferred to Caribbean rum barrels for a final rest. That whisky is then blended and proofed down for bottling.

Bottom Line:

Huh… I expected this to be much higher. But that perfume-driven nose was a lot today. It’s not that it didn’t land, it was just a little too dailed up and overwhelmed the incredible nuance of the rest of the sip, which is pretty damn fine.

8. Arran 18 — Taste 8

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $154

The Whisky:

This is classic, old-school whisky making from the Isle of Arran (right next to Islay). The juice is aged in a mix of sherry casks for 18 years before it’s vatted, proofed, and bottled without filtration or any other fussing.

Bottom Line:

This was on track for a high ranking. Then it just sort of petered out on the back end and I forgot about it a bit. It goes to show: Always finish strong.

7. Glenmorangie Nectar D’Or — Taste 7

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $85

The Whisky:

This dram from Glenmorangie is a much-loved Highland malt. The juice is matured in ex-bourbon barrels for an undisclosed number of years. The whisky is then transferred to French Sauternes barrels which held sweet dessert wines where it spends two more years finishing.

Bottom Line:

I kind of expected this to rank higher too but here we are. Again though, this was a perfectly nice dram. It just didn’t quite grab my attention. And once I moved on, there were just more exciting sips to be had.

6. Bruichladdich Bere Barley 2011 — Taste 6

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $93

The Whisky:

These expressions from Bruichladdich have been dropping for over a decade, so this is more of a modern classic. Anyway, the whisky in the bottle is hewn from Bere Barley grown up on the Orkney Islands by five different farmers. That grain is sent to Islay where the team at Bruichladdich creates this one-of-a-kind whisky.

Bottom Line:

I enjoyed this. It was a tad thinner than some of the other bottles ranked next on this list but still very well-made and interesting. This is definitely something I like coming back to.

5. Chivas 18 — Taste 1

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $79

The Whisky:

Chivas 18 is the brand’s signature high-end blend. The whisky is built around a specially made Strathisla 18 single malt. That juice is supported by 20 other single malts from around Scotland with various casking processes, but those are kept under wraps.

Bottom Line:

The mid-point of these always feels like a bifurcation point. But this is more like, “Yep, this is pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good.” In the end, this feels like the perfect on the rocks pour.

4. BenRiach The Twenty One — Taste 10

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $300

The Whisky:

This whisky from BenRiach is a combination of peated and unpeated malts. The whiskies are then aged for 21 years in ex-bourbon barrels, ex-sherry casks, virgin oak casks, and former Bordeaux red wine casks. Those are then blended after their two-decade rest and proofed with that soft Speyside water.

Bottom Line:

I expected the only peaty on the list to rank lower. But this really brought the magic. Yes, it was medicinal but there was so much more layered into it that stood out and lasted.

3. Aberlour 16 — Taste 3

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $113

The Whisky:

This small Speyside distillery has been producing quality whisky for over 200 years. This expression is aged 16 years in both ex-bourbon and ex-Olorosso sherry casks. It’s then married and proofed with soft Speyside water from the Highlands and bottled.

Bottom Line:

This is some good goddamn whisky. Look, this and the next two all could have been tied for number one. If I pick them apart this didn’t have quite the uniqueness of the next two … but that’s me splitting some seriously microscopic hairs.

2. GlenDronach 18 — Taste 9

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $189

The Whisky:

This Highland whisky is a local tradition of sorts, dating back to the brand’s origins in the 1820s. The whisky in the bottles is hewn from barrels of at least 18-year-old whiskies. The maturation is done exclusively in hand-picked Olorosso sherry casks from Spain.

Bottom Line:

That grassy nose was a beautiful break from the other drams on this list. It was bold and intriguing. And then the rest of the sip lived up to those attributes and delivered a fun yet deeply flavored whisky that felt like a journey.

1. Aberfeldy 18 — Taste 5

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $135

The Whisky:

This release is a masterclass in finishing a whisky. The whisky is first aged for 18 years in refill bourbon and sherry casks. Then the whisky is transferred to first-fill red wine casks from Pauillac, Bordeaux. The whisky is then proofed with the soft water from a local, gold-flecked river to a very accessible 86 proof.

Bottom Line:

Yeah, this was beautiful. It’s nuanced, unique, and so easy to drink. I wanted to pour another of these and actually drink/enjoy it. Immediately.And that’s always a good sign.

Part 3: Final Thoughts

That Aberfeldy 18 has some serious staying power. So do the GlenDronach and Aberlour, by the way. I’ll say it again, all three were pretty much tied for first, and I had to split some serious hairs to rank them.

What surprised me the most about this ranking was where some bigger hitters ended up. I was pretty surprised to see the Glenfiddich 21 fall so low today. Likewise with the Nectar d’Or — both of those are bottles I’d reach for without hesitation when I know the label. But that just goes to show the power of the blind taste test!