Early this year, Dr. Dre was rushed the the hospital following a major health scare. It turned out that he had suffered a brain aneurysm and he remained in the ICU for several days. Thankfully, the producer made a full recovery and even hit the studio shortly after returning home. While Dre says the incident took him by surprise, he now has some sage advice to prevent the same issues from arising in others.
Dre recently sat down with the LA Times to discuss his new endeavor, an LA public high school aimed at preparing students to become entrepreneurs. The producer also spoke about his surprise brain aneurysm, giving an update on the current state of his health:
“It’s a really weird thing. I’ve never had high blood pressure. And I’ve always been a person that has always taken care of my health. But there’s something that happens for some reason with Black men and high blood pressure, and I never saw that coming. But I’m taking care of myself. And I think every Black man should just check that out and make sure things are okay with the blood pressure. And I’m going to move on and, hopefully, live a long and healthy life. I’m feeling fantastic.”
Anderson .Paak also recently gave an update about Dre’s health, saying he’s actually being doing great in quarantine. “Dre’s having a good-ass time,” he said. “That’s already his life — isolation, working all the time. I think he was probably used to it. But he’s having fun now because a lot of people have more time on their hands, so they can come visit him and make music with big Uncle Dre.”
Cyberpunk 2077 would like to welcome you to Night City … again. After being pulled from the PlayStation store last December due to a plethora of bugs and various other performance issues, Cyberpunk 2077 will be back up for sale on the digital marketplace starting on June 21. CD Projekt Red announced the big news in a recent press release, which was then corroborated in a statement given to IGN by Sony Interactive. In the statement, Sony said:
“[Sony Interactive Entertainment] can confirm that Cyberpunk 2077 will be re-listed on PlayStation Store starting June 21, 2021. Users will continue to experience performance issues with the PS4 edition while CD Projekt Red continues to improve stability across all platforms. SIE recommends playing the title on PS4 Pro or PS5 for the best experience.”
For those unfamiliar with the Cyberpunk 2077 saga — and boy, do we mean saga — the game was first released December 10, 2020, after close to a decade in development and with all the hype a game could possibly hope for. However, all this hype quickly turned into criticism when the game released with a staggering amount of issues that ultimately led to developer CD Projekt Red offering refunds to anyone who purchased the game and Sony flat-out removing the ability to purchase it from its store on December 17, just a week after release. Sony stated this decision would be enforced indefinitely, and as we hit nearly six months of the game being removed, many thought indefinitely might just be forever.
However, since release CD Projekt Red has released patches and updates in an attempt to make Cyberpunk 2077 playable, and it seems like Sony has deemed those updates good enough to resume sales. However, according to Sony’s statement those on PlayStation 4 should still be wary about purchasing, as several performance and stability issues still exist. While the Cyberpunk 2077 fiasco isn’t completely over for CD Projekt Red, this is a good sign that things are winding down — which is great considering they’re potentially entering a huge legal battle as they fight to retrieve game data and personal information stolen from the company.
One of the best things about social media is that there are some pages that deputize the general public to find great content and submit it to be published. It’s like harnessing a mind-hive of funny to create a place where it can be enjoyed by everyone.
The People Standing page on Instagram is a great example of this type of crowdsourcing for comedy. The site has over 140,000 followers and features candid, user-submitted pictures of people standing awkwardly that were taken all over the globe.
Here are 17 of the best.
When the jet lag kicks in.
Crouching tiger, hidden birdie.
What muscles does this exercise work, exactly?
That’s an exciting way to teach physics.
Sliding into her DMs like …
Wait, what?
Her legs look like a bad Photoshop.
They call this the “Cleveland crutch.”
Marshawn Lynch can stand however the hell he likes.
Taking the dog for a trot, Mr. President?
You shall not pass.
When you’re lying in the gutter, but staring at the stars.
We’ve all done the covid crouch.
Don’t you just love it when your boss is constantly peering over your shoulder?
When you gotta go to the little girls’ room but also want to finish that invoice.
The twist in chapter 5 came out of nowhere.
There’s a lot that can go wrong when using a urinal standing on your head.
MacKenzie Scott has given away more than $8 billion since her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos nearly two years ago. For perspective, that’s more than the entire GDP of some countries. For comparison, Bill and Melinda Gates have become the world’s biggest philanthropists, having given away around $50 billion over the past 27 years—at Scott’s pace, she’d hit that amount in 12 years.
Scott just announced that she and the philanthropy team she has assembled have donated $2.74 billion to 286 organizations. Though the donation amounts vary, that’s nearly $10 million per organization on average. (Had to do that math three times. “Billion” is a hard number to wrap our brains around.)
The money is the point, of course, but Scott wants the focus to stay on the organizations the money is funding and the work they are doing, not on the wealth that’s flowing from her to them.
“People struggling against inequities deserve center stage in stories about change they are creating. This is equally — perhaps especially — true when their work is funded by wealth. Any wealth is a product of a collective effort that included them. The social structures that inflate wealth present obstacles to them. And despite those obstacles, they are providing solutions that benefit us all.
Putting large donors at the center of stories on social progress is a distortion of their role. Me, Dan, a constellation of researchers and administrators and advisors — we are all attempting to give away a fortune that was enabled by systems in need of change. In this effort, we are governed by a humbling belief that it would be better if disproportionate wealth were not concentrated in a small number of hands, and that the solutions are best designed and implemented by others. Though we still have a lot to learn about how to act on these beliefs without contradicting and subverting them, we can begin by acknowledging that people working to build power from within communities are the agents of change. Their service supports and empowers people who go on to support and empower others.”
Scott wrote that the recipients of the funds were “high-impact organizations in categories and communities that have been historically underfunded and overlooked,” including schools educating underserved populations, organizations bridging religious divides through interfaith support and collaboration, arts and cultural institutions that often struggle for funds, organizations battling poverty and empowering women and girls, and initiatives focused on supporting community engagement.
#LBCC received a tremendously generous gift of $30 million from author/philanthropist @mackenziescott in recogniti… https://t.co/Mn751VnIaE
Perhaps most notably, Scott gave the money without strings or instructions for how to use it, believing that these organizations know best how to use the funds. “These are people who have spent years successfully advancing humanitarian aims, often without knowing whether there will be any money in their bank accounts in two months,” she wrote. “What do we think they might do with more cash on hand than they expected? Buy needed supplies. Find new creative ways to help. Hire a few extra team members they know they can pay for the next five years. Buy chairs for them. Stop having to work every weekend. Get some sleep.”
Here’s the complete list of the organizations receiving Scott’s donations:
Simone Biles is arguably one of the greatest athletes in the world, and inarguably the world’s best female gymnast. Her dominance in the world of gymnastics is all the more impressive due to her age. At 24, she’s hardly “old,” but she is years beyond the average Olympic gymnast and years past when most elite gymnasts are considered in their prime.
That hasn’t stopped her from being the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time), of course. But her years of experience are also benefitting younger gymnasts, as Biles has embraced a supportive mentor role for her potential teammates.
A short clip of Biles putting a silver bow in 15-year-old Zoe Miller’s hair has people praising Biles for setting an example of character and leadership.
Biles is loving being a role model to the younger gymnasts on the team. “It’s meant the world, especially having the younger ones to kind of guide through the way,” Biles told NBC. “I’ve been here for so long, so to be a mentor for them has meant everything to me, and to share these accomplishments and these goals.”
And people are loving Biles for it.
“Simone taking care of the baby goat,” wrote one commenter. “She knows she didn’t receive the same treatment, but she’s the game changer for the next Gen. That’s Simone Biles greatness, another perfect 10 in life’s lessons.”
“She’s the GOAT and yet she takes the time to do this,” wrote another. “That’s what sets her apart. Other athletes of her caliber sit off to the side in their own little world with headphones on and that’s a valid choice BUT I love seeing this humanity and humility with a teammate.”
@MichelleBYoung1 @NBCOlympics @Simone_Biles This what “team” is about.
Like Biles, Zoe Miller, the young gymnast in the video, has a guaranteed spot on the U.S. Olympic team after last week’s trials.
Biles, however, has not lost in competition since 2013. She is the most decorated gymnast in the history of the sport, making her literally the greatest of all time. She’s nailing moves that other gymnasts won’t (or can’t) even attempt. When we look at Simone Biles, we’re looking at a true phenomenon. What a gift that she’s also a phenomenal teammate.
Of all of the streaming platforms fighting for your attention, Paramount+ might be the one with the most surprisingly deep film catalog.
No, really, there are a ton of great movies lurking over there. Their roster of classic films alone is worth the subscription price, and we’ve name-dropped a few standouts in the streaming guide below. But the lineup of cult favorites and contemporary titles is nothing to scoff at either. We think we’ve got a pretty good mix represented on this list — from sci-fi epics to ’90s teen comedies and yes, a Bill Murray Christmas movie — that’ll keep you thoroughly entertained.
Here are some of the best movies streaming on Paramount+ right now.
Martin Scorsese is known for crafting crime epics but his usual anti-heroes are kingpins and mob bosses, not the slimy, fast-talking Wall Street shark that Leonardo DiCaprio delivers in this more white-collar fare. Based on a true story, the film recounts the felonious, often hilarious hijinks involved in Jordan Belfort’s rise from mid-level stockbroker to a multi-millionaire playboy involved in one of the biggest corruption scandals in history. DiCaprio’s performance is basically the acting equivalent of a wadded-up ball of manic desperation and delusional self-confidence, and he’s joined in his drug-addled descent into madness by Jonah Hill — sporting a bizarrely mesmerizing set of prosthetic teeth — Matthew McConaughey, Jon Bernthal, Margot Robbie, and more. You’d have to be strung out on quaaludes not to get excited about this one.
The tortured artist thing only goes so far, especially when you consider how many times we’ve all seen that story across dozens of brilliant but cliche-filled music bios. Rocketman is not exactly that thing, injecting the formula with electric song and dance numbers that give a splashy Broadway musical feel to the transformative moments in Elton John’s career and life, entertaining viewers and matching the vivacity of his stage presence.
Matthew Broderick plays a depressed high school teacher who tries to manage his imploding marriage while facing off against a determined and cunning student in this dark comedy that features Reese Witherspoon in one of the best performances of her career. Witherspoon plays Tracy Flick, an overachieving student with dreams (of becoming the student body president) that are quickly dashed by the school’s popular jock. Tracy’s willing to go to extreme lengths to win the race, Broderick’s Mr. McAllister is willing to anything to stop her and, by the end of their high school gladiator match, we’re not sure which one we really want to come out on top.
Any of the Indiana Jones films could have made this list, but we’ll go with Last Crusade on account of it being the funniest in the series. There are moments of undeniable silliness here that land so well, like Indy coming up for air from a makeout session to remark on the sounds of Venice, Harrison Ford’s Scottish lord accent whilst looking for tapestries, or Sean Connery quoting Charlemagne after using a flock of birds to down a Nazi plane. It also has the densest plot, valuable backstory, amazing chemistry between two of cinema’s most charming tough guys in Ford and Connery. They perfected the formula of what an Indiana Jones film could be and then they stopped making them for almost 20 years.
A mind-bending, futuristic crime drama starring Tom Cruise and Colin Farrell, directed by Steven Spielberg – what’s not to like about this sci-fi entry? Cruise plays John Anderton, a police chief in charge of a unit capable of arresting criminals before they commit their crimes thanks to a trio of psychics called “precogs.” When Anderton is identified as a future murderer, he goes on the run with one of the precogs and uncovers a deeper conspiracy that forces him (and us) to question the nature of free will. By now, Cruise is a bonafide action star, but this turn marks one of the more interesting career choices he’s made within the genre.
Speaking of terrific sci-fi movies, this Amy Adams-starring epic takes a more methodic, thoughtful approach to the classic alien invasion story. Adams plays a linguistic genius named Louise who struggles to figure out a way to communicate with two creatures that have inexplicably shown up in Montana. While Louise tries to buy more time in understanding the visitors, she butts heads with the military side of the operation who keep pressuring her for quick answers on what they see as a threat. There’s some time-travel mumbo-jumbo we won’t spoil — mostly because we’re still not sure we fully understand it — but Adams is terrific in this and we’re kind of bummed she didn’t get any awards recognition for basically acting her way out of a hazmat suit with just an Etch-A-Sketch.
There’s a generation (or two) that probably knows Elliot Gould as Monica and Ross’s kindly dad on Friends, as a member of Danny Ocean’s crew, or worse, don’t know him at all. But for a time in the ‘70s, he was one of Hollywood’s most interesting actors, connecting with Robert Altman on MASH, California Split, and The Long Goodbye, where he plays Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler’s iconic PI. Marlowe has been played by about a dozen actors previously and since Gould took his turn — most notably by Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum. There’s a type, but Altman and Gould took things in a slightly different direction in a scattered but brilliant who done it with Gould as an ultra-cool, detached seeming PI tangled in his friend’s messy life. Gould has been working on pushing a sequel uphill for years. Here’s hoping someone puts money on the table to make it or otherwise refresh the story in the near future, if for no other reason than to inspire exploration of the original.
Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., and Mark Ruffalo star in this mystery crime thriller directed by David Fincher that recounts the decades-long manhunt for the Zodiac Killer — a criminal who committed several murders in the Bay Area in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Enough true crime documentaries have dropped since this debuted that we all know how this cat-and-mouse game will eventually end, but it’s the journey that matters here. Gyllenhaal plays a newspaper cartoonist who becomes obsessed with the case, decoding ciphers sent by the killer and targeting a man he believes could be the Zodiac. Downey Jr. plays a crime reporter who partners with Gyllenhaal on the case and leaks information to the police. Both deliver stand-out performances that’ll keep you invested even if the ending’s been spoiled.
The supposed dream scenario of finding a big bag of money is explored in this 1998 film from Sam Raimi that might qualify as a domestic horror tale if you accept family dysfunction, jealousy, and paranoia as true monsters. A gem of a film that deserved a lot more hardware in its day, A Simple Plan is a slow burner that feels connected to some of the Coen Bros’ earlier, less complicated, and less quirky works. The more obscure 1993 John Cusack starrer, Money For Nothing, is another one that might be ripe for comparison.
Before Owen Wilson was flirting with God-like Marvel villains, before Ben Stiller was producing and directing prestige drama fare, and before Will Ferrell introduced America to the most popular musical competition in the world, all three starred in this comedic adventure about a clueless fashion model and a political assassination plot. Come for the still-quotable one-liners, stay for the patented “Blue Steel” staredown.
The Star Trek franchise was wounded in the early ‘80s. Star Trek: The Motion Picture had gotten a cool reception, and while there was a vocal fanbase still eager for more, there were enough concerns to cause a behind the scenes shakeup that altered the creative direction of the sequel with the director Nicholas Meyer and producer Harve Bennett taking the reins from series creator Gene Roddenberry. The end result connects directly to Star Trek: TOS and the “Space Seed” episode, injecting adventure, action, vengeance, and self-reflection from a middle-aged Captain Kirk and crew. William Shatner was never better as Kirk, blending the overwhelming charm of the character with a sense of rage and frustration as a part of a chess match with Khan (Ricardo Montalban) that has very real stakes for his character.
It feels mildly off-the-mark to include a Christmas movie on a non-Christmas movie list, doesn’t it? But Charles Dickens’ story (which was adapted here for the late ‘80s by Mitch Glazer and former SNL madman Michael O’Donoghue) about greed and an epiphany about empathy and charity feels like it might strike a few relevant notes. The film also features one of Bill Murphy’s best big-screen performances. Murphy always seems most at home when playing an asshole or someone right on the cusp, and there’s no denying that label here as he plays the dark, moody as hell, and wickedly funny (and mean) Frank Cross. Go wild, watch it in June or July.
A ridiculous movie that manages to be wildly entertaining, dropped in an era where special effects epics and old guard absurdist action sci-fi films were still finding ways to work together. The film features Hilary Swank, Aaron Eckhart, and members of their crew trying to pull a reverse Armageddon, which is, they have to drill to the core of the Earth to stop the end of days. If you liked the subterranean chaos within the recent Godzilla vs. Kong, this will definitely appeal.
Jack Black is charming as hell in this kid-friendly comedy about a wannabe rockstar who catfishes as an elementary school teacher and finds a unique way to enter his local Battle of the Bands competition. Black’s Dewey Finn is the kind of old-school rock-enthusiast you can’t help but flash some devil’s horns at and watching him convert a classroom of uptight kids into rebels, anarchists, and star-powered performers in the kind of pure, innocent fun you crave in a feel-good comedy watch — which this totally is.
Another absurd film that isn’t so much good as it is amazing, Face/Off is a triumph in scenery-chewing, letting Nic Cage off the chain as a criminal maniac who is having the very best time injecting chaos into the world while messing with the sullen and driven fed that’s on his trail (John Travolta). And then they switch! And Travolta lights up like a Christmas tree while playing Cage’s character with a touch of madness and a whole lot of swagger. Throw in some signature John Woo slow-mo action scenes, fake science nonsense, and four garbage trucks worth of bullets, and you’ve got a ‘90s action classic.
In a new oral history commemorating the 15th anniversary of The Devil Wears Prada, Meryl Streep has revealed that she swore off method acting after spending the production maintaing the icy demeanor of her iconic character Miranda Priestly. According to Streep, the experience was not very fun as she kept her distance from her co-stars, who were apparently having the time of their lives.
“It was horrible! I was [miserable] in my trailer,” Streep told Entertainment Weekly during the cast reunion. “I could hear them all rocking and laughing. I was so depressed! I said, ‘Well, it’s the price you pay for being boss!’ That’s the last time I ever attempted a Method thing!”
However, it doesn’t seem like Streep was that hard on co-stars Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway, who said the famed actress was still approachable. But Blunt acknowledges that it probably wasn’t fun for Streep to be that closed off considering she’s normally “so gregarious and fun as hell.” As for Hathaway, she appreciated what Streep was trying to do.
There’s this scene where [she says], “You’re just as disappointing as the rest of those silly girls.” I remember when the camera turned on me, the pressure really got to me, and I’d had such emotional fluidity in the day up to that point, but it just wasn’t there anymore. I remember having the experience of watching [her] watch me, and [she] altered [her] performance ever so slightly, and just made it a little bit different, and brought more out of me and got me to break through whatever barrier I had.
While The Devil Wears Prada is now considered a modern classic with outstanding performances all-around, that was enough pretending to be Anna Wintour for Meryl Streep, thank you.
In this week’s episode of UPROXX Sessions, Lil Skies drops by to deliver an upbeat performance of his rebellious single, “How You Feel.” Coming from the Pennsylvania rapper’s deluxe version of the January 2021 album Unbothered, “How You Feel” finds the second generation rapper observing the highs and lows of rap stardom as he wonders, “I don’t got nobody in my corner, who do I trust?”
Skies, who rose to stardom after his SoundCloud favorite single “Red Roses” helped spur his debut major label mixtape Life of a Dark Rose to a No. 23 Billboard debut in its first week, released the deluxe version of Unbothered in May, adding seven new songs, with features from Drakeo The Ruler, Trippie Redd, and singer Zhavia Ward.
Watch Lil Skies’ performance of “How You Feel” above.
UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross,UPROXX Sessionsis a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.
Lil Skies is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
It seems Elon Musk and Miley Cyrus got friendly when they were the host and musical guest, respectively, on Saturday Night Live back in May, because Cyrus apparently let him in on one of her biggest secrets: She’s actually Hannah Montana. Musk spilled those Disney Channel beans on Twitter yesterday, which prompted some (fake) outrage from Cyrus.
Musk posted an Anonymous-style image of a person wearing a Guy Fawkes mask that is captioned, “Hannah Montana is actually Miley Cyrus.” A red-faced Cyrus responded, “What the f*ck @elonmusk ?!?! I told you that in confidence! You can build a rocket but can’t keep a damn secret?!?!” Musk went on to insists the slip-up wasn’t his fault, writing, “133T H4X0R got my phone. Nuthin I could do. Sorry babe.”
What the fuck @elonmusk ?!?! I told you that in confidence! You can build a rocket but can’t keep a damn secret?!?! https://t.co/Uzg0feWhQI
Aside from presumably spending time together backstage in the week leading up to their shared SNL episode, the pair also appeared in the “Chad On Mars” sketch, with Musk playing himself and Cyrus playing a Space X technician.
Meanwhile, Grimes, who popped up during a Mario-themed sketch on the episode, praised both Cyrus and Musk’s performances, writing on Instagram, “@mileycyrus is good live and so chill! So grateful to the SNL team for being so kind and letting me sneak in as princess peach snd so proud of my beautiful E (which I know will upset the grimes fans so I apologize in advance) but he killed it”
W.L. Weller is “The Original Wheated Bourbon.” The history of the brand goes back to William Larue Weller and his inclusion of wheat in his bourbon back in 1849. The recipe and bourbon’s heritage was carried into the 20th century by Julian Van Winkle, Sr. at his Stitzel–Weller Distillery. Eventually, that distillery closed and the brands were sold off. Both Weller and Pappy ended up at Sazerac, which moved the production to Buffalo Trace’s distillery in the 1990s.
Today, Weller is one of those bourbons that has reached ridiculous heights of popularity and pricing. Part of this is due to the small yearly runs of the brand’s core and specialty expressions. Another part is due to the relentlessness of the bourbon hype machine. Weller is a quality wheated bourbon that’s also the progenitor of the bourbon most folks consider the best bourbon ever, Pappy Van Winkle — naturally the frenetic bourbon fanbase was going to geek out over it and drive prices up.
Since this is a whiskey that requires serious investment, we’re going to give you our take on each bottle and rank them according to their taste alone. Retail price is… sort of considered in the ranking below, in that we take price-vs-flavor into account to some degree, but it’s a secondary factor. This is really all about how each expression dances across the senses, first and foremost.
If you want to try one of these bottles yourself, click on the price links to see if you can find an expression or two in your area.
Buffalo Trace doesn’t publish any of their mash bills. Educated guesses put the wheat percentage of these mash bills at around 16 to 18 percent, which is average. The age of the barrels on this blend is also unknown. The point of this juice is the proof (which is pretty high, all things considered) and the blending skill on display.
Tasting Notes:
Vanilla. Vanilla. Vanilla. That could sum up this sip aptly from top to bottom. There’s a sense of vanilla blossoms on the nose with a hint of old wood and maybe a hit of wet leather. The palate leans into the … you guessed it, vanilla. The taste is slightly cream soda-esque with a lightness that’s nice while sweet apples stewed with cinnamon sticks arrive late. The end is short and warm and leaves you with a vanilla tobacco chewiness and buzz.
Bottom Line:
Something has to be last in these rankings, so here we are. This is a perfectly fine whiskey that should cost you fifty bucks. It only falls down by being a little too hot and a little too vanilla dominant. The higher proof doesn’t really feel like it’s adding much besides covering up more vanilla maybe?
This really feels like it was specifically crafted to be a mixing bourbon for bold cocktails.
This is the same bourbon as above but cut down with more of that soft Kentucky limestone water. The juice is bottled at a very approachable 90 proof.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a nice sense of a slightly salted caramel over a soft-yet-tart apple with a hint of kettle corn lurking on the backend. The taste starts with soft floral honey that peaks with a rich butterscotch candy still in its wrapper before falling away towards a cedar box full of vanilla tobacco leaves. The end of this one is silky with that floral honey circling back around and leaving you with a sweet sensation.
Bottom Line:
If this was actually $25 on the shelf, it’d easily be the best in class on every single bourbon list for that price point. It lives up to the hype but doesn’t overdo anything. It’s subtle yet direct. In the end, though, this is a great mixer and only a solid on the rocks sipper in a pinch.
Still, this beats out the 107 because it just makes more sense and has more accessible textures and flavors.
This Weller is pulled from one barrel at a time. The masters at Buffalo Trace know their warehouses and hand-pick these barrels for their standalone perfection. The tastes and textures are then dailed in through the judicious addition of the soft water, bringing this down to an incredibly approachable 86 proof.
Tasting Notes:
The dram opens with a mix of fresh mint next to ripe red cherries with a vanilla backbone and a shaving of dry wood. The taste holds onto that vanilla while building towards eggnog spiciness with hits of dark chocolate, salted caramel corn, espresso bean bitterness, and this small flourish of white pepper. That powdery pepper lingers and warms as the sip slowly fades away, leaving you with those creamy eggnog spices, woody vanilla husks, and a mild tobacco buzz and warmth by way of a pine humidor.
Bottom Line:
This is a departure and I can’t figure out if it’s genius or just okay. The thing is, this isn’t Buffalo Trace’s best single barrel expression by any stretch but it’s so unique that it’s really hard to know where to put it. In a blind taste test, it’d be really hard not to peg this as a very high-rye bourbon. So, it’s here — number five out of seven.
This is the most interesting expression from the brand. A few years back, Buffalo Trace asked hardcore Weller fans to “Craft Your Perfect Bourbon.” C.Y.P.B. was born according to those fans choosing their favorite bourbon recipe, proof, warehouse location, and age. A consensus shook out that pinned the ideal whiskey to a wheated bourbon aged on the highest warehouse floors for eight years that’s then bottled at 95 proof. Today, that manifests yearly as a very limited release that’s part fan service and part special limited edition bourbon for all of us to enjoy.
Tasting Notes:
Based on last year’s release, there’s a nose of dried orange peels that have been loaded into an old cedar box and left in the back of a cupboard for years. Then this creaminess arrives that’s kind of like the halfway point between a vanilla flan with caramel sauce and spicy sasparilla. As the taste rolls towards the back of your mouth and settles in, you get this warming sense of eggnog spice next to soft tobacco leaves and dark chocolate-covered marzipan.
Bottom Line:
This is silky smooth and a definite winner, if you can find it. Full disclosure, from here on out, this ranking is splitting hairs. Hit me on a day with a different mood, and maybe this is number one or three.
This expression is Weller in its purest form. There’s no water added. There’s no filtration. There’s no single barrel supplying the juice in the bottle. This is a marrying of the best barrels wherein the whiskey stayed at 114 proof from going into the barrel to coming out of it.
Tasting Notes:
Imagine red Bing cherries soaked in vanilla syrup then dipped in caramel and allowed to harden then sprinkled with a pinch of sea salt and dusted with mild, powdery cinnamon on the nose. The palate holds onto that mild cinnamon and vanilla but then builds this big, layered vanilla cake with a buttery frosting full of caramel and baking spices with a hint of cherry tobacco and soft, dry cedar in the background … kind of like smoked stained wood paneling in an old bakery. The finish lingers and really leans into the buttery vanilla notes and, eventually, you’re left with this velvet warmth and a distant echo of dark chocolate.
Bottom Line:
This is what Weller can do when they don’t play with the proof and just let the barrels shine. It’s pretty damn fine and very versatile. You can sip it neat or on the rocks and it’ll shine. Put it in a cocktail, and you’ll one of the best damn cocktails you’ve ever made.
This expression of Weller rests in the warehouse for 12 long years. A fair amount of juice is lost to the angels during that stretch. In the end, the whiskey is vatted from the barrels that survived and then proofed down to a soft 90 proof.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a deep, creamy sweet corn note on the nose that gives way to old wool sweaters and vanilla pancakes rolled around soft marzipan. The palate has a warm biscuit vibe with hints of buttery toffee syrup and old cutting boards that still smell of dark spices and dried fruit. The end takes its time and touches back on the cakey vanilla, buttery syrups, soft marzipan, and old, fruit-stained wood as it gently fades away.
Bottom Line:
This just hits all the right marks. It’s a super easy yet refined sipper that has no rough edges. It’s versatile while being approachable. It’s just … nice. It’s also still kind of findable and buyable by the average whiskey drinker, which doesn’t really count for much in this ranking but is a sweet side benefit.
This wheated whiskey from 2008 eschews the more common rye and adds in North Dakota wheat. The juice is then barreled and stored in two warehouses where 73 percent of the whiskey is lost to the air and elements. The juice is then bottled untouched and unfiltered.
Tasting Notes:
There’s soft bourbon vanilla that leads towards almond-encrusted toffees inside a pine box with a dark chocolate bonbon hidden somewhere inside all that nutty toffee. The sip leans into a cherry and dark chocolate bespeckled ice cream with a solid vanilla bean base and a dusting of crushed-up walnuts and maybe even peanut. The end is slightly dry and leans more towards cedar and straw with spicy cherry tobacco buzz.
Bottom Line:
Looking back at this whole line, this 12-year-old special limited edition of Weller really hits all the brand’s high points in one bottle. It also happens to be one of my all-time favorite bourbons. So… there’s that.
The beauty of this dram, though, is that it’s a crazy high-proof — seriously, this is above absinthe levels of alcohol — is so refined and easy-to-drink that it’s damn near a magic trick. This is the whiskey that’ll take you to a new level of bourbon appreciation. It’s just a phenomenal example of what great aging can do to create a remarkable one-off whiskey for the ages.
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