Ahead of the 2022 Tournament of Champions, Jeopardy! great Amy Schneider will take part in another game show. The Titan Throwdown, which also added Matt Amodio and James Holzhauer as participants, benefits Project 150, a non-profit providing “free support and services to homeless, displaced, and disadvantaged high school students.”
The event received a boost from Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings, who tweeted, “Whoa, this is some lineup! And benefits a great cause. (NOT just @James_Holzhauer getting smacked around. A Las Vegas nonprofit called Project 150.).” The GOAT also shared an article about being on the Call Me Kat season premiere with co-host Mayim Bialik, which prompted a cranky tweet from a follower who is not thrilled by Schneider’s continued involvement with Jeopardy! (Thursday’s episode was a rerun from her historic stream).
“Why is Amy Schneider back on as a contestant? It is not fair to the new players. I won’t watch Jeopardy while she is on. I know she is your favorite winner,” Dina (who has one follower) tweeted, to which Jennings replied, “It’s a rerun Dina! Settle down!” That’s good advice for 95 percent of people on Twitter, actually: settle down.
The 2022 Tournament of Champions kicks off in November. Until then, here’s more information on this weekend’s Titan Throwdown, including how to attend:
Nathan Fielder will be back to confound audiences with a second season of whatever the heck he’s doing on The Rehearsal. HBO has officially renewed the maybe reality (maybe brilliantly scripted) series, which provided the comedian with a stunningly hilarious amount of resources that allowed him to evolve his sociological experiments from Nathan For You to a wild new level.
“Nathan has sparked such a lively conversation with THE REHEARSAL,” Amy Gravitt, Executive Vice President, HBO Programming said in a statement. “We have no idea where season 2 will take us, and that is the delight of this boundary pushing show from a truly singular talent.”
Over the past five episodes, The Rehearsal has deviated from its simple premise of helping people “rehearse” for delicate interactions to an awkwardly mad-cap exploration into Fielder’s own psyche with a treatise on religion thrown in for good measure. Literally, no one knows what the show is working towards in its season finale. Critics were only provided the first five episodes of The Rehearsal, so it will genuinely be a surprise when it airs.
After “Finding Frances,” the daring and shockingly brilliant season finale of Nathan For You, expectations are high for what kind of trick Fielder has up his sleeve for The Rehearsal season finale, if there even is one. The show has been as unpredictable as it gets, so there’s no telling what will happen as Fielder continues to dive even further into a simulation of his own creation.
Here’s the official logline from HBO even though it’s debatable if this description even applies to The Rehearsal anymore. It’s gone so far off the rails, and we’re here for every awkward second of it:
THE REHEARSAL explores the lengths one man will go to reduce the uncertainties of everyday life. With a construction crew, a legion of actors, and seemingly unlimited resources, Fielder allows ordinary people to prepare for life’s biggest moments by “rehearsing” them in carefully crafted simulations of his own design. When a single misstep could shatter your entire world, why leave life to chance?
The Rehearsal Season 1 finale airs on August 19 at 11 PM EST on HBO.
Simon Pegg‘s new series, The Undeclared War, is terrifying. Not in a zombies,rural weirdos, or aliens eating, attacking, or replacing us kind of way. More in a tiptoe toward World War III or, at the very least, utterly disrupt vital services tipping us back to the stone age kind of way. Which is way more terrifying for how realistic the scenario is.
Created by award-winning writer and director Peter Kosminsky, the six-part series (which you can stream on Peacock) co-stars Pegg as a government official working for GCHQ (the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters Headquarters) and overseeing the triage and possible response to a debilitating cyber attack on the UK. In the midst of this, the tension is ratcheted up by the typical territorial pissing matches and blame games while relative newcomer Hannah Khalique-Brown brings a relatable, human element to the story as she’s thrust into not just an international incident (on her first day at GCHQ) but also a family trauma. Again, everything is very grounded and slow-burn, allowing you time to sit with thoughts about the possibility of these things, which unlocks a whole bunch of anxiety.
Uproxx spoke with Pegg recently about the series and the tense state of antagonistic behavior and muscle flexes that could one day push us over the edge, the destabilizing influence of troll farms on our discourse, being a source of actorly wisdom for young actors, seizing an opportunity to play a straight drama, and the big picture when it comes to talking about mental health.
We spoke at Tribeca a couple of years ago for Lost Transmissions and afterward, we shot the shit for a moment about Game Of Thrones. I thought about that when I saw that you had said something about Star Wars and it had blown up on the internet. And so I was thinking it must suck to see something like that happen anytime you have any kind of comment about pop culture. Does that make you want to talk about that stuff less?
Yeah. I think the problem these days, is that, and this kind of feeds into the show in a way, in terms of the way that information is disseminated in that you’ll say something which is, if it’s taken out of context and isolated and then kind of turned into a clickbait sound bite, then it becomes a talking point. And then that talking point is addressed as though it was just the thing that was said. Everything is very reductionist. The discourse online is so kind of binary and unsophisticated at the moment. And I think that’s kind of what the troll farm thing takes advantage of when it comes to people in conversations about slightly more, probably arguably more important things like politics and society.
Arguably more.
The idea is that these kinds of massive arguments and contentious debates can just erupt, fueled by, in this case [regarding politics and society], adversarial players who are actually trying to cause problems. I mean, everyone is already in this state of, “I’m ready for a fight.” And when anybody says anything about anything, people are ready to weigh in as they can online with impunity, just for the sake of it. And it’s kind of part of how the internet is being used to disassemble our society.
Certainly. I’m in the US and we certainly see that with our politics here. Even when it’s not a troll farm. Like, when the thing happened with the Trump warrant, every single commenter had the same, “If it could happen to him, it could happen to…” reaction. It almost feels like a troll farm, because people are saying the same thing.
It probably is. I mean, there will be people in that conversation online immediately.
I mean, like, Senators.
Oh yeah. They get retweeted by bots and they feel like they suddenly become empowered because they suddenly have a kind of ego boost by all these people that are seemingly agreeing with them when it’s adversarial players just trying to stoke up the MAGA crowd or whatever.
I’ve been someone who sort of thinks, “oh, maybe the internet was a mistake.” But then this show reminds you how everything is so interconnected. It would be such a devastating blow if something like this happened. How did this open your eyes in terms of the societal import of tech?
Well, I found making the show incredibly educational, in terms of it opened my eyes as to how tenuous the pieces at the moment, global pieces, particularly online are. It’s a very, very tenuous kind of deterrent that we have. It’s similar to the nuclear deterrent that we had in the ’80s. That we still have. Every player who has a cyber warfare infrastructure has exploits placed in their adversary’s infrastructure. So we’ve all got things ready to go. That line in the show about dropping Putin’s plane 20,000 feet, that could happen. We could do that. They could do stuff to us and that’s all that exists right now. We’re in that state of play at the moment. And it’s tempting to feel like everything’s fine, that we’re safe in our countries, and that everything’s such a long way away from us. But these foreign players, these adversaries, even domestic adversaries, are in our living rooms, because they are in our computers and they could do untold damage quite easily. And we could do untold damage to other people. And these things can escalate very quickly because. Like Danny [Pegg’s character] says, “You get attacked, and it looks like it’s Russia. But in actual fact, it’s North Korea pretending to be Russia.” So you retaliate against Russia and Russia, if it’s a first strike for them, they retaliate on you. And suddenly you’ve got a third world war, which is engulfing the entire planet.
Hannah Khalique-Brown is so good in this, and I hadn’t seen her in anything before, so it was a revelation for me. When you’re on set with actors who are younger — not to age you — but do you feel a sense of responsibility to mentor or be available for their questions at this point in your career?
Oh yeah, 100%. I immediately got on well with Hannah. She’s got such a great attitude. She’s no ego. This was her show. And at no point did she ever behave like it was her show. She was incredibly collaborative. We’d all sit round off set during the setups and we’d talk. And she said to me quite early on, “Oh my brother and I grew up watching your films”. And I was simultaneously flattered and immediately felt old, but I just loved working with her. The two sides of that coin are, I’m working with Alex Jennings who is an incredibly established, brilliant character actor who is a joy to work with. Most of my scenes with David Neal, who Alex plays, I had such fun. I’m a big fan of his. And then on the other side of that, I’m working with someone like Hannah, who’s literally just started her career, who has boundless enthusiasm and she’s incredibly uncynical. Not that Alex is cynical in any way, but you know what I mean. It’s so fresh and she’s a delight. I’ve got massive respect for her. I think she’s going to do so well.
So you identify someone who’s just starting, someone who’s been in the game for a while, and you’re somewhere in the middle. Do you find it hard to keep cynicism at bay?
No. I generally get cast doing similar things. I’m perceived in a certain way, particularly in the states, but here too, in terms of being a comedic actor or whatever. So to be given the chance to be in something which is far more dramatic gave me the chance to flex different muscles. I came into it feeling more like Hannah than Alex. This isn’t a place where I usually get to play. And so I had zero cynicism and particularly working with someone like Peter Kosminsky, who I really admire as a dramaturge and as a writer, as a person, I felt lucky to be there and I always try and maintain that, just so I always enjoy my job. I’d hate to let cynicism creep in and start to just take it all for granted.
As a writer, do you feel like you’re moving in a different direction as far as the kind of roles you want to write for yourself?
Yeah. Not least because I’m older. I couldn’t write a show like Spaced again because that’s not me anymore. I’ve always believed in the idea of writing from the truth, of writing about what you know, never guessing. And so there has to be a kernel of truth in everything I write and my truth is different to what it was when I was 25. I’d like to try and diversify into more sort of dramatic work as well, because that’s something I like to do and don’t always get the opportunity. So it feels fresh to me.
Writing from a place of truth obviously makes sense right off the tongue, but is that something where you question whether the material would be good if you weren’t coming from that place or is it about needing to be grounded holistically in what you’re working on?
I think it’s about the show, or whatever you’re writing, feeling authentic, feeling like it’s not sort of aimless or vague. Shaun of the Dead was as an easy film to write because, A, we were massive zombie fans and B, we were kind of living that life at the time, same as Shaun and Ed. Shared flats and inactivity. Hot Fuzz, we had to really research. We did a lot of research and we learned about the police. We learned about the rural experience and we learned about the metropolitan experience. And then with The World’s End, again, we were all turning 40 at that time and had lived a certain amount of that kind of [experience]. Certainly, me and booze, I had lived a bit of that. And I always feel like if you’re writing from the truth, then it’s going to feel more real to the people that are watching it.
You’ve been open about things like alcohol. I know from personal experience that when you talk about something that you’ve gone through, it can be cathartic. But when you see the reaction to things like that, do you still feel the reward of that or is there sometimes a feeling of, “Oh, I wish I hadn’t revealed that much of myself?”
Sometimes. You just think a lot of people want to talk about it all the time and I feel like I’ve kind of said everything I need to say about it, but I think what the positives of it are, far outweigh the negatives. It’s good. This is a time, I think, where the notion of discussion is becoming more and more important, particularly when it comes to mental health. And I think if anything that pushes that agenda forward, the idea of actually opening up, then that’s a good thing, I think.
‘The Undeclared War’ is currently streaming on Peacock.
There have been a lot of random anniversaries of classic records this year, but yesterday marked the 20th birthday of the app Shazam. If you don’t know — which, how? — Shazam is an app that always comes in clutch by telling you the title and artist of a song after it hears a brief clip.
To celebrate, they’ve put together a playlist made up of the most Shazamed song of each year for the past two decades. It’s on Apple Music and will definitely cause strong feelings of nostalgia, reminding you of when Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep” was virtually inescapable, or Evanescence’s “Bring Me To Life” had everyone turning emo, or Gotye‘s “Somebody That I Used To Know” was everywhere.
Adele has been able to keep up the momentum since that hit, but she recently had to postpone her Las Vegas residency. “There was just no soul in it,” she explained. “The stage setup wasn’t right. It was very disconnected from me and my band, and it lacked intimacy. And maybe I tried too hard to give it those things in such a controlled environment.” She added, “The first couple of months was really, really hard. I was embarrassed.”
Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea is one of the most esteemed and recognizable bass players of the past four decades. So, for a younger bass player, getting praise from him has to be a sort of dream-come-true moment. Now, Thundercat has had that pleasure, as he is apparently Flea’s favorite modern bass player.
That’s what RHCP bandmate Chad Smith said speaking with Apple Music’s Hanuman Welch recently. Smith was asked about getting Thundercat to join the Chili Peppers on their tour and he responded:
“Oh man, it was a no-brainer. We were so happy when he said yes, because like you said, he’s such a great musician. He can play in any setting. He’s so musical, he’s an amazing performer. His band is incredible, he’s got great songs, but a lot of people don’t know him as his own thing. I think it’s great to give him some exposure that he more than deserves. Obviously Flea loves him, we all do. But as a bass player, he’s like, ‘He’s my favorite bass player,’ [favorite] modern bass player right now. He’s just incredible. He gets the crowd going. He’ll play the most soulful funky Stevie Wonder kind of thing. He can do it all. The only complaint from me is he’s playing too short, but he’s awesome. Get there early if you can people, you will not be disappointed. Thundercat is the real deal.”
Check out Red Hot Chili Peppers’ upcoming tour dates here.
Red Hot Chili Peppers is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Madden 23 is officially released on Friday and it is expected to be a major moment in the franchise. Not only is this game an homage to the late, great John Madden, but it’s introducing a key new gameplay feature that is supposed to make Madden more fun to play than ever before. FieldSENSE is the big new addition in this year’s Madden, and it’s meant to give gamers more control than ever before.
To showcase this new feature, Madden 23 launched with a trailer featuring a star-studded cast of faces to represent the new game. The trailer featured Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson and Cowboys linebacker Michah Parsons, but it also had some celebrity faces like Cordae and Hit-Boy talking up the game’s new features alongside Twitch star Nickmercs and Amazon Prime Thursday Night Football reporter Taylor Rooks.
We’re currently in the process of playing as much of the game ourselves to give a full review of the Madden 23 experience, and while our full thoughts will be withheld until then, we can say that the FieldSENSE feature is meeting the hype early on. It’s the most control Madden has ever given the player and it’s a big step in the right direction for the franchise.
“Three Heads” arrives alongside Jean Dawson announcing his forthcoming album Chaos Now for October 7. Chaos Now will be the 26-year-old’s first offering since 2020’s Pixel Bath and will be an especially momentous occasion as he kicks off his debut headlining US tour in support of the album. The Los Angeles duo will be joining Dawson in his near month-long tour finishing up in LA on November 17.
Check out the video for “Three Heads” above. Below, find Jean Dawson’s upcoming tour dates.
11/16/2022 – San Diego, CA @ Voodoo Room
11/18/2022 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Space
11/19/2022 – Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge
11/21/2022 – Austin, TX @ Come and Take It Live
11/22/2022 – Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
11/23/2022 – Dallas, TX @ Cambridge Room
11/25/2022 – Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade Hell Stage
11/27/2022 – Washington, DC @ Union Stage
11/28/2022 – Allston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
11/29/2022 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Foundry
11/30/2022 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere
11/01/2022 – Montreal, QC @ Le Belmont
11/02/2022 – Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground
11/04/2022 – Detroit, MI @ Shelter
11/05/2022 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
11/06/2022 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
11/08/2022 – Denver, CO @ Cervantes Other Side
11/09/2022 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
11/11/2022 – Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret
11/12/2022 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
11/13/2022 – Portland, OR @ Holocene
11/15/2022 – Oakland, CA @ The New Parish
11/17/2022 – West Hollywood, CA @ The Roxy
Ahead of the season two finale of Only Murders In The Building, star Martin Short was extremely excited to be on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, though he said it “might be the Vicodin and Xanax talking.” Either way, Short quickly dove into what was one of the most chaotic late-night interviews of all time.
The actor went on multiple tangents during his guest spot, touching on everything from Mar-a-Lago to Kim and Pete in just a 30-second span of time. Of course, he also had to mention his co-star Steve Martin, as the duo is embarking on the “Steve Martin and Martin Short: You Won’t Believe What They Look Like Today!” comedy tour.
“[Steve] is the most talented guy in the world,” Short said. “He juggles, he plays banjo. And somehow he’s famous. We are a team now. We are like Florida and a lower back tattoo.”
When asked about what he has learned while working with Martin on both Only Murders and their comedy tour, Short had a very serious response: “I’ve learned that he will pay top dollar for clean urine. I’ve learned that you don’t need to have a pool to have a pool boy. He is really amazing, you know he butt-dialed me the other day, which is kinda amazing because he had a rotary phone.”
Both Martin and Short are nominated for their work on Only Murders, though Short believes he is the front-runner for the Outstanding Lead Actor in a comedy series. “The finale’s on next Tuesday, you know. But Steve and I are nominated. If I can’t win, I hope he wins. But I can win, so screw him. If I lose I’m gonna send Will Smith up to slap him. Why not?” We, as a society, cannot go through this again.
Of course, Short cannot leave without roasting Fallon. “If someone had told me 20 years ago that I would be on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon with all of these Emmy nominations I would have said….Jimmy Fallon?”
A’ja Wilson knows what it’s like to do things first. She helped the University of South Carolina win its first title in 2017, then became the WNBA’s first overall pick in 2018. Since then, she’s been in sniffing distance several times of the Las Vegas Aces’ first-ever WNBA championship, a feat she’s again vying for this summer amid a first-round playoff series against the Phoenix Mercury.
At the same time, Wilson also has found her way onto your phone and TV screens more than your average athlete, becoming the first WNBA player to strike deals with multiple brands as a sponsor. The latest is Ruffles, which added Wilson to its Chip Deal lineup this week, unveiling a social media campaign centered on Wilson and the newly created Ruffles Ridge Twist Smoky BBQ and Double Cheddar chip lines.
Wilson took time after Game 1 against Phoenix to talk with Dime about the partnership, her mindset in her fifth season, and what needs to happen for the Aces to put a ring on it in 2022.
A cool part of your new partnership with Ruffles, on top of being the first female athlete on their roster, is they created a new chip for you. If a basketball fan is reading this, what do they need to know about a Ruffles Ridge Twist and how it tastes?
It is not your average chip. It’s pretty mouth-watering because the smokey barbecue really gets you in the mindset of the barbecue down South. That’s why I picked this chip, because it really just made me think of back home.
It’s just really good. I hate that I just keep saying that, but it actually puts you in the mind of a barbecue but it also has a tangy taste to it. It’s just an overall good chip, and it’s not your average chip because it’s a twist.
It low-key kind of melts in your mouth because it’s soft but it’s crunchy at the same time.
I’m the type of person where I love barbecue cooking, I’ll obviously eat it if somebody’s making, I’ll order it at a restaurant, but I don’t always love BBQ chips. How would you sell me on trying these out?
There’s no need to be skeptical because it’s not a chip. Brendon, you gotta expand your mind and extend that palette. If you’re gonna be a snackaholic, you’ve got to get into the chip. This is how you distinguish that you’re a snackaholic because it’s not a chip, it’s a twist. It’s not a chip anymore, it’s a twist.
Now you’ve gotta buy the bag because you gotta try something that’s different. You get what I’m saying?
I feel you. Yes.
See, see? I got you. We’re here.
You’re getting me there.
You’ll be like, ‘it’s different, I love it.’
I saw you post online when this new Ruffles deal was announced calling yourself something along the lines of a Snackaholic. So I wanted to ask you about your methods here too. Typically, are you a chips and dip person, chips by themselves, do you have chips with a sandwich? What’s the best way to enjoy Ruffles or any chip?
I enjoy Ruffles just by themselves, just a bag of chips, and I can’t eat just one of course, you gotta eat multiple because that’s the whole point. I could eat it with a sandwich, but sometimes it’s best to just eat it by itself.
I’m definitely a girl that can eat a bag of chips all by herself.
You and the Aces pulled out a win in Game 1 against Phoenix but fans were probably surprised to see you have a quiet night. We could see your exasperation at times during the game. What have you learned in your career about how to bounce back during a game when shots aren’t going in?
The biggest thing is just the mindset. Going in, I’m still human at the end of the day. I don’t pray for basketballs to not go in the hoop, but sometimes it’s just not your night, there’s a lid on the basket. It was tough, I found myself thinking if I could just make one I’d be happy and I guess God let me get one in the second half.
I couldn’t be too down on myself because it is what it is, at the end of the day, we won. I can harp on it all day but we won. I have a chance to play another game. That’s the beauty of the game, the beauty of the bounce-back, is in the playoffs there’s an opportunity to get better, an opportunity to adapt and adjust, and that’s what I’m gonna do.
I’m a pro. My games haven’t been phenomenal every season, every day, so I’ve just really learned to find the little happinesses that I can within the flow of the game and just have fun while I’m out there because I get paid to hoop, I get paid to do something that I love. And I’m not going to take that for granted just because the ball’s not going in the hoop. So I just try to find other ways to still be productive for my team.
You talked about the one-dribble pull-up off the pick and roll in the second half. You’re a unique player where a get-back-in-rhythm shot for you might be that shot, which to a lot of other players would be pretty difficult. Do you ever think about your game in that way?
It must be helpful to you to have the comfort that you don’t have to get to the rim or get to the line to get back in rhythm.
Oh yeah. For sure. That’s what I love, I guess, about my game is when I say I just need to see one go through the hoop, it can definitely be a one-dribble pull-up off a screen, contested (laughs).
That’s something that I love because in this league, ever since maybe after my rookie year, I get super surprised when something is open. Because my whole time in this league, I’ve been guarded, so I know I’m not going to get just a wide open layup where I can just pump fake and get right to it.
When I’m in the game, I look at it like, ‘where can I just get a little opening?’ and I’m good. It’s pretty fun to know, who knows where this shot’s coming from, but it’s going up.
Talking about momentum, it seems like one of the most famous highlights of your pro career came, I think it was during the Finals in the Bubble, when you made a big defensive play and just look up into the rafters of the building and let out a scream. It felt like there was a similar moment last night, rotating over and making a block. How motivating are those moments for you and your teammates, to be able to come up big in those spots and do it in other ways and have them be signature moments for you?
Those are key. Sometimes when your shot’s not going in, you still have to find ways to produce for your team, so those are the games where you need a momentum shift. And it doesn’t have to be a deep three from the logo where it’s like, ‘oh my god’ and the lid pops off the place.
I think it’s just little ways to hype up my team and get my team involved. And when I see them kind of drooping down into a slump, I’m like, no, what can we do to change this? Because yeah, basketball’s a game of runs, but we need it in our favor.
So I’ll do anything I can to build my team up and help motivate them, and if it comes with screaming and kicking my leg in the air and looking crazy, then I’ll do it because these games are big deals. These are the playoff. We gotta lock in.
What do you think of the new WNBA playoffs formatting? Especially with Game 2 at home, I’m sure with you (being the higher seed) you’re not going to complain, but how does that differ from the past?
Yeah I’ve been in it both ways, I’ve been the one-and-done and I’ve been on double byes (under the old structure). I love this format because it’s in the flow of our season, so it’s like a normal game day. When you have a double bye, you’re like, “oh my god, we’re in the playoffs,” and you’re playing a team that’s already been in playoff action. Game 1 of that series is always not the prettiest because we’re just getting used to playing playoff basketball.
So I love this format. Home or away, I would love it, because I still feel like I’m in the regular season, in a sense, because there’s no stoppage.
It’s only been one game so this answer might be the same as it was a month ago, but if I ask you what has to happen for the Las Vegas Aces to cross the finish line and win a championship this year, what comes to mind first for you?
Us getting out of our own way. I think that’s the biggest thing, and it doesn’t matter who we’re playing against. If we’re stuck in our ways or in our heads, we’re playing against ourselves, and that’s no fun. It just takes for us to look at each other in the huddle and say we’re doing it for one another and we’re about to go have fun while doing it.
Weller 12 is one of the most revered whiskeys in the world. I’m not talking just bourbon here, either — I’m talking all whiskeys from every category. The wheated bourbon is the bridge between us mortals and the elysian heights of Pappy Van Winkle, which also has a 12-year expression and is made at the same distillery with the same recipe and aged in the same barrels.
But Weller 12 is more than just alt Pappy. It’s a massively sought-after, award-winning, and beloved pour of its own. But how good is it? Well, it’s time to investigate exactly that in a blind taste test versus some of the best bourbons in the world (with similar age statements).
Look, this tasting is patently absurd. If you went out to buy all 12 of these bottles, you’d be looking at a bill close to $9,000 give or take, depending on the aftermarket and retail in your neck of the woods. Moreover, a lot of these bottles are going to be very hard to find outside of very high-end retailers like Justins’ House of Bourbon or sites like Caskers.com. But price-tag-consciousness isn’t the point of this tasting, the point is to see if Weller 12 really is the bee’s knees that the whiskey world keeps saying it is.
Spoiler alert: All of these whiskeys are brilliant in their own way. Ranking them was pretty much impossible and felt… sorta dumb at times. They’re all so good that if you could, you’d want to try them all. In the end, a top five was very evident and everything else is basically a tie for sixth place. But doing that would be a cop-out, so I split some serious hairs and ranked them all from 12 to one.
Our lineup today is:
Rabbit Hole Nevallier Aged 16 Years
King of Kentucky 5th Edition Aged 15 Years
Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond Spring 2022 Edition Aged 17 Years
Weller Aged 12 Years
George Dickel Tennessee Bottled in Bond Whisky Aged 13 Years
Knob Creek Aged 12 Years
The D12tance Puncher’s Chance Aged 12 Years
15 STARS Timeless Reserve Aged 14 Years
Heaven Hill Heritage Collection 1st Edition Aged 17 Years
Barrell Craft Spirit Gray Label Bourbon Aged 15 Years
Heaven’s Door Decade Series Aged 10 Years
Michter’s Single Barrel Bourbon Aged 10 Years
Okay, let’s see if any of these monster bourbons can beat Weller 12 in a blind showdown!
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months
There’s a good hit of tannic wood on the nose next to sharp white pepper and a hint of vanilla cream cut with soft and sweet orange vibes. The palate is tannic as well with a dark berries underbelly that’s slightly spicy and sour with an edge of tobacco leaf. The mid-palate softens toward a supple vanilla ice cream bespeckled with sour cherry bits covered in a dash of nutmeg and soft leather.
Yup, delicious. Though that tannic oak could be a drawback for some as it leans drier.
Taste 2
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
I thought the last sip was tannic and dry. This blows it out of the water with an old oak stave vibe that’s bold on the nose with supporting notes of sour cranberry, a dusting of nutmeg, soft vanilla, and pancake batter mixed with a chili-chocolate note. The palate holds onto that dry woodiness with a bitter edge that leads to dry cinnamon sticks and ancho chili peppers countered by lush vanilla and creamed dark cacao nibs with a slightly waxy edge. The end calms down the dry woody tannic note toward dry and old wicker with a black soil feel to it next to old orchard wood.
This is a woody whiskey (it’s definitely the King of Kentucky) and feels like it needs a single rock (or a few drops of water) to calm down that tannic woodiness and bring out the creamier vanilla and chocolate notes. That said, this is complex AF and so rewarding if you take your time with it.
Taste 3
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Soft porch wicker and new leather come through on the nose with a hint of cherry bark, vanilla oils, cedar bark, burnt orange, and a whisper of dried rose. The palate is pure silk with a creamy vanilla foundation supporting layers of mulled wine spices, dried sour cherries, thick eggnog with a lot of nutmeg, chewy pipe tobacco leaves, a hint of peach skin, and singed cherry wood. The end is the subtle and enticing mix of dark cherry vanilla ice cream drizzled with salted dark chocolate sauce that’s decadently creamy, bitter, and buttery before a dry orchard wood and dark spice mix slowly closes out the sip.
From my notes: “This is f*cking amazing. I’ll be shocked if a pour beats this, and I’m 99 percent sure this isn’t the Weller. It’s too lush and thick. Weller is juicier and nuttier.”
Taste 4
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
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. The taste is a perfect balance of cherry wood, dried cranberry, buttery Southern biscuits, salted toffee candy, and Christmas spices (clove and nutmeg heavy). 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.
Well, there’s there Weller — fruity, nutty, amazingly smooth, and featuring soft spices that aren’t hot thanks to that low ABV. I already know, though, that it doesn’t beat the last pour. So now, it’s a matter of what other pours potentially beat it.
Taste 5
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Hello, Dickel! The nose is immediately clear cut with Hostess Apple Pies next to cherry Necco Wafers and the bran aisle of a health food store with a really clear fresh leather note. The palate follows the nose but then veers into a really subtle mix of pecan loaf next to dry sour cherries, waxy cacao nibs, salted black licorice, and brown butter caramel sauce. That butteriness carries into a vanilla cream sauce with a brandied cherry vibe and plenty of bitter yet creamy dark chocolate next to a hint of dried mint-laced tobacco wrapped in old cedar bark and packed in an old leather pouch.
I love how the nose on this is “Yeah, this is Tennessee, baby!” and then the palate is all like, “but I’m going to blow your mind with complexity and balance and awesome flavor…”
Taste 6
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Dark and sweet cherries mix with creamy dark chocolate, sourdough doughnuts dusted with raw sugar and sharp cinnamon, and a whisper of menthol tobacco and damp porch wicker round out the nose of this one. That dark cherry pops on the palate before layers of blackberry crumble with plenty of buttery streusel and dark holiday spices mingle with a hint of dry chili, salted dark chocolate sauce, and a hint of toffee. That cherry pushes the sip toward an end full of vanilla creaminess, fresh wicker canes, maple syrup dripping through a pecan waffle, and a hint of marzipan molded around a dry and sour cherry dipped in salt.
All that cherry means this is a Beam product for sure. It’s also a freaking delicious one.
From my notes: “This is top-tier whiskey.”
Taste 7
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
This has a classic Tennessee whiskey nose with a hint of cherry protein powder that’s accented by breakfast sausage spices, which are … endearing. The palate holds onto that Tennessee chalkiness while adding in layers of soft vanilla oils, buttery toffee, old cellar beams, and wintry spices. The end is cherry forward with a light leathery edge next to an apple pie filling vibe that fades through sour, spicy, and buttery fairly quickly.
Compared to the other pours on this list, this is the lightest whiskey by far. That’s not a bad thing, it’s really good. It’s more that this is going to get lost in the mix of these particular drams.
Taste 8
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Maple syrup and roasted almonds lead to a hint of vanilla tobacco on the nose before a hint of melon kicks in and lead to a very subtle watermelon saltwater taffy vibe with a whisper of fresh green chili pepper buried deep in the background. That savory candy feel carries on the front of the palate as smooth toffee sauce mixes with espresso beans, vanilla cream, and a dollop of Nutella. The end has a slight woodiness with a rum-raisin note next to old leather and soft cedar.
This is very tasty but a little all over the place. “It’s very unique though — which makes it very enticing.”
Taste 9
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
This is another oldie with a lot of old worn leather and tannic dry oak on the nose with a bit of cellar mold before dark and thick spiced cherry pancake syrup kicks in with sharp cinnamon and clove next to a hint of waffle batter and walnuts. The taste leans into a winter spice matrix that’s sweet and sharp with a mouth-numbing ABV vibe (not hot though) that leads to cherry cobbler, nutmeg-heavy lush eggnog, and silky vanilla sauce. The end goes back to the woody side of the winter spices as date-rich sticky toffee pudding and fresh cherry tobacco mingle with old cedar boxes and a hint of brown sugar melted in butter.
This is woody but, again, delicious.
Taste 10
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
A hint of Tennessee chalkiness and bran comes through on the nose before old pears, toffee sauce, and a minor note of umami kick in — it’s kind of like dried tomato powder and I’m here for it. The palate pops with ripe cherries, tart black currants, woody cinnamon and allspice, wet brown sugar, floral and bitter Earl Grey tea leaves, and an underlying foundation of cinnamon-spiced oatmeal cookies. The end leans into the bitterness of the tea leaves before a soft cedar bark that’s almost sweet leads back to a cherry vibe that’s attached to a mildly spicy chewy tobacco leaf.
This has a lot going on. That umami note on the nose is enticing but kind of doesn’t lead anywhere. Again, I’m really grasping at straws to find any infinitesimal fault to try and rank these.
Taste 11
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Bruised pear and rich toffee lead to a woody maple syrup that gets a little tannic before burnt orange and creamy vanilla drop in. The palate is lush thanks to buttery salted toffee, more vanilla creaminess, and cinnamon ice cream next to a black licorice Necco Wafer (hello, Tennessee) with a hint of marzipan and old porch wicker rounding things out. The end has a mild note of moss next to powdery dark chocolate and worn garden gloves with a hint of pear tobacco lingering on the backend of the taste with this luxuriously softly spiced final note.
from my notes: “This is pretty much faultless.”
Taste 12
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Real sheets of new leather mix with soft notes of sweet cedar, dark and tart red berries, burnt orange rinds, lush eggnog, salted toffee sauce over spiced and moist date cake, and a hint of smoked maple syrup cut with blackberries poured over a lightly toasted waffle. The palate feels like fresh vanilla tobacco leaves have been wrapped around dark-chocolate-covered espresso beans and then dipped in marzipan with a hint of rose water, orange oils, and brandy-soaked cherry layered on top with another dusting of nutmeg and dark cacao powder with airy vanilla whipped cream. The end is pure silk with a spiced black cherry leading to a pile of dry orchard wood next to a whisper of campfire-singed marshmallow.
From my notes: “This is perfect.”
Part 2: The Ranking
Zach Johnston
12. The D12tance Puncher’s Chance Aged 12 Years — Taste 7
This sourced whiskey is a 12-year-old Tennessee straight bourbon whiskey. Those barrels are emptied and the juice is re-filled into old Cabernet Sauvignon casks for a final maturation before proofing and bottling.
Bottom Line:
While this was very obviously a Tennessee whiskey on the taste, it really does shine as a lighter sipper. I’d say this is a good entry point into higher age statements and bigger prices that are not going to blow out your palate with high ABVs and big tannic notes.
11. George Dickel Tennessee Bottled in Bond Whisky Aged 13 Years — Taste 5
Nicole Austin has been killing it with these bottled-in-bond releases from George Dickel. This year’s release is a whiskey that was warehoused in spring 2007. 13 years later, this juice was bottled at 100 proof (as per the law) and sent out to the wide world where it received much adoration.
Bottom Line:
This is so goddamn good. A lot of people can’t get past that health food store nose (multi-vitamins, bran, etc.), but there’s really missing out on a great whiskey. Factor in the price, and this multi-award-winning whiskey is the best value on this list by a country mile.
The whiskey is a blend of old sourced barrels of bourbon from Bardstown, Kentucky. Those whiskeys spent 14 years in the barrel before the crew at 15 STARS picked them up and created a whole new experience from them for this award-winning release.
Bottom Line:
I called this a bit all over the place in the tasting notes and I stand by that. The melon/savory note on the nose might be a deal breaker for some. I tend to like it when blenders take big swings and connect with something new and fresh. Purists do not.
I’d say if you’re looking for something new, this is the bottle to grab. Just make sure to add a little water to help it bloom in the glass.
9. King of Kentucky 5th Edition Aged 15 Years — Taste 2
This year’s King of Kentucky is a 15-year-old bourbon made from a mash of 79 percent corn, eleven percent rye, and ten percent malted barley. The spirit — made at the Brown-Forman Distillery in West Louisville (Shively) — went into the barrel on December 18, 2009, at 125 entry-proof. After 15 long years, only about 35 percent of the whiskey was left in the barrel. 43 single barrels were then chosen for this release and individually bottled as-is, yielding about 3,500 bottles of King of Kentucky.
Bottom Line:
This is a woody monster that is built for an advanced whiskey palate (that’s not elitist, just facts). Still, there’s a killer flavor profile past all that dry tannic woodiness that’s worth digging into, if you can ever get your hands on a bottle.
Barrell Craft Spirits is another craft blendery that’s sourcing some of the best barrels in the game and expertly marrying those barrels. This expression blends 15-year-old bourbon from Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennesse into a final product that reaches new heights for blended bourbon.
Bottom Line:
I like the Tennessee of it all, but there’s a lot going on the palate that might feel overwhelming to some. That said, this is a sip that deserves attention and time. Let it breathe and oxygenate, add drops of water between sips and nosings, dig in and find those funky and fresh flavors.
The latest Founder’s Collection from Rabbit Hole is a pricey masterpiece. The juice in the bottle is made from a few hand-selected barrels of 15-year-old bourbon that was then finished in new French oak before bottling as-is in only 1,155 bottles.
Bottom Line:
This is one of those whiskeys that’s amazing, perfect, and all of that when you taste it on its own. It really is stellar. Tasting it in a panel like this, the bigger notes are what pop and that beautiful subtly is kind of lost. That’s a shame as this is a pour of whiskey that shines from taking slow sips and exploration.
6. Heaven Hill Heritage Collection 1st Edition Aged 17 Years — Taste 9
The base of the spirit is Heaven Hill’s classic bourbon mash of 78 percent corn, 12 percent malted barley, and a mere ten percent rye. This particular whiskey is built from several barrels from four warehouse campuses in the Bardstown area. In this case, three different ages were pulled with 17 years being the youngest. The whiskey is made from 28 percent 20-year-old barrels, 44 percent 19-year-old barrels, and 28 percent 17-year-old barrels. Once those barrels are vatted, the bourbon goes into the bottle as-is, without any cutting or fussing.
Bottom Line:
When I tasted this one on its own, it was easily a top-five bourbon pour of the year. Tasting it against eleven other killer bourbons and it naturally slips a bit. There’s a deep ABV warmth here that is rewarded with an awesome flavor profile, you just have to get past that big and tight Kentucky Hug first.
5. Heaven’s Door Decade Series Aged 10 Years — Taste 11
This is the first release in the new series from Bob Dylan’s Heaven’s Door Tennessee whiskeys. The juice is a ten-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.
Bottom Line:
This pour immediately made it into the top five. This had some serious balance while still feeling well-aged and blended to accentuate subtler notes. The only thing holding it back — and this is as nit-picky as it gets — is that the tannic note was a tad dailed up on the nose. Otherwise, this is an instant classic.
By the way, I have said this before but please note — the idea that this brand is any sort of cash grab by Bob Dylan is absurd. It’s a wonderful brand and competes with the killers.
This is the classic Beam whiskey. The low-rye juice is left alone in the Beam warehouses in Clermont, Kentucky, for 12 long years. The barrels are chosen according to a specific taste and mingled to create this aged expression with a drop or two of that soft Kentucky limestone water.
Bottom Line:
This is just delicious. It’s also accessible and cheap — an incredible high-age-statement bourbon that you can not only find but likely afford to keep on hand as your house pour. Alongside the Dickel above, this is another best-value bourbon by a long country mile.
Weller is made from the exact same mash bill as Pappy Van Winkle. This expression of Weller rests in the warehouse for 12 long years, in the same barrels and warehouses as Pappy. The difference between this and Pappy 12 is pretty simple actually. If the barrel doesn’t hit the exact flavor profile needed for a Pappy, it’s sent to the blending house to become a Weller (as long as it hits that flavor profile, of course).
So, yes, this could have been a Pappy 12 had the flavor profile been slightly different in the barrel. Instead, we have Weller 12 at 90 proof.
Bottom Line:
This was a complex and brilliantly balanced whiskey that was a tad light thanks to that proofing. That said, I know I don’t like the Weller Full Proof expression as much as this. It’s a complex world out there, folks. Anyway, this is really f*cking delicious. It’s also really easy to drink.
I’d argue that this is the easiest drinking whiskey on this list. It’s just not the most complex and rewarding.
2. Michter’s Single Barrel Bourbon Aged 10 Years — Taste 12
The juice in this bottle is a little under wraps. Michter’s is currently distilling and aging their own whiskey, but this is still sourced. The actual barrels sourced for these single barrel expressions tend to be at least ten years old with some rumored to be closer to 15 years old (depending on the barrel’s quality, naturally). Either way, the juice goes through Michter’s bespoke filtration process before a touch of Kentucky’s iconic soft limestone water is added, bringing the bourbon down to a very crushable 94.4 proof.
Bottom Line:
This is a perfect pour of bourbon. It may as well be tied for first.
1. Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond Spring 2022 Edition Aged 17 Years — Taste 3
This whiskey was distilled and laid down in barrels back in 2004. The barrels were vatted after 17 years and proofed down to the bottled-in-bond standard of 100 proof and then bottled in the iconic Old Fitz decanter for a Spring 2022 release.
Bottom Line:
Again, perfection. This is so deep and fun and enchanting and complex. This is going to be hard to beat this year when it comes to 2022’s best pours.
Part 3: Final Thoughts
Zach Johnston
I definitely used age and dry tannic woodiness as an ally to rank some amazing whiskeys a little lower. It’s a hard note for some to get past and really pops when tasting whiskeys side-by-side. This means that if you taste some of these on their own, that note won’t be as centered.
As for the Weller 12, it was pretty easily beaten but not brutally so. It’s still clearly a top-five pour. I think it’d have been a winner had that ABV been amped up to 95 or 100 proof, especially against some of the huge whiskeys on this panel. The softness of that proofing was really the only thing holding back from being unbelievably great (when splitting hairs for this tasting).
Overall, all of these whiskeys are amazing. If you can find any of these, you’ll be in for a treat. And that’s where Knob Creek 12 and Dickel Bottled-in-Bond come into play. Go out and buy those right now. They’re on most shelves and aren’t marked up by retailers to absurd heights. Both of those whiskeys stand up to some of the most iconic whiskeys in all the land and, again, you can actually buy them.
Go! Now!
It won’t always be that way.
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