The search for the best bourbon to drink feels never-ending. Every season, there are so many new options to consider that the whole endeavor can seem incredibly overwhelming. There are just… so… many… bourbons… on… shelves these days that we all need a little help figuring out what to actually reach for. Following the spirits award circuit is a great way to parse it all.

Case in point, the San Francisco World Spirits Competition just announced their “best in class” and “best overall” spirits, and there’s a doozy bourbon at the top of the heap. This year’s Best Overall Bourbon is Augusta Distillery Buckner’s Aged 13 Years Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon. And I totally get it if you’re all like, “Huh?” or “Who?” right now. Augusta Distillery is a tiny operation on the Ohio River in Northeastern Kentucky. To put it in perspective, Buckner’s 13 Year winning the whole SFWSC crown is like a tiny arthouse film beating out the biggest studio films at the Oscars for best picture (it used to happen!).

Below, I’m going to break down the bottle that was awarded “Best Overall Bourbon” for 2023. I’ve tasted the bottle as a judge in a double-blind tasting and as a finalist judge in another double-blind tasting at SFWSC (where I was a judge). Then, I tasted it again today, knowing what it is and the acclaim it had been awarded. So let’s dive in fast because this bottle isn’t going to be available much longer with all this new hype around it.

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Augusta Distillery Buckner’s Aged 13 Years Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

ABV: 60% (varies)

Average Price: $199

The Whiskey:

This is a very niche brand out in rural Kentucky that’s sourcing old barrels. The whiskey in the bottle is a Kentucky straight bourbon that rested for 13 years before it was bottled completely as-is both unfiltered and at cask strength.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nose opens with a sense of old barrel houses full of sweet and spice bourbon next to a gentle moment of creamy vanilla honey with old corn husks stuffed in the honey which is poured over spiced winter nut breads with a hint of butteriness and earthy nutshells.

Palate: The clove, allspice, and anise of the nut bread amp up the buttery palate with a sense of Earl Grey tea leaves, salted caramel, and mocha-heavy espresso beans next to a light marzipan moistness and hints of burnt orange next to old dry black cherry bark.

Finish: The end lingers for a while as the marzipan and orchard barks fade toward sharp eggnog spices and soft creaminess before the vanilla creamed honey slathers old oak staves with a good dose of earthy fall vibes kind of like a forest floor on a frosty day.

Bottom Line:

This a quintessential sipper. It’s deep and welcoming while feeling 100% classic and nostalgic. I like to add a drop of water or an ice cube to let it bloom in the glass a little, as it’ll take on a deep creaminess and hint of dry savory herbs. All of this is to say… this is a very good pour of whiskey, folks.

Where To Buy:

You can still find this at the moment. You can get it in Ohio and Kentucky at liquor stores for around $200 per bottle. That will not last. You can also snag a bottle from Seelbachs.com for $299. Don’t expect that to last either.

Long story short, this is going to be your only chance to get this bottle (outside of insane secondary market situations in the coming months/years).

The best new hip-hop this week includes albums, videos, and songs from Coi Leray, Juice WRLD, Young Thug and more.

Happy XXL Freshman week! The 2023 edition of the much-discussed annual list is out, and despite missing at least one obvious name, it generated nearly as much attention as a certain missing seafaring research vessel. Meanwhile, Pharrell had his first fashion show as head designer of Louis Vuitton, premiering a new, beef-baiting Clipse song as well as a duet performance with Jay-Z. Gunna, Lil Tjay, Little Simz, and Young Nudy all dropped videos too.

New releases this week came from Finesse2Tymes, Kali, and Sexyy Red (“Shiesty“), Young Thug (Business Is Business featuring “Parade On Cleveland“), Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj (“Barbie World“), Juice WRLD and Cordae (“Doomsday“), GloRilla (“Put It On Da Floor“), and Stormzy (“Toxic Trait“).

Here is the best of hip-hop this week ending June 23, 2023.

Albums/EPs/Mixtapes

Big Freedia — Central City

Although it’s not technically a rap album, Big Freedia is the Queen of Bounce and bounce is a cousin of hip-hop. There are also just enough rappers to satisfy even the staunchest hip-hop head, including Lil Wayne and Kamaiyah.

Coi Leray — Coi

Coi Leray’s second album continues her staples of experimentation and trying out new sounds. The overall vibe feels like jock jams pushed to their maximum energy, keeping the party cranked and at capacity.

Dom Kennedy & Teeflii — I Love Stocker

Dom and Teeflii have long had a cool collaborative chemistry, and they finally join forces for a full-length project. It’s every bit as smooth and breezy as you’d expect from the two West Coast veterans.

Young Thug — Business Is Business

Metro Boomin produced this entire project, which was recorded ahead of Young Thug’s seemingly interminable wait for his RICO trials. Shading in the blanks are 21 Savage, Drake, Future, Lil Uzi Vert, and Travis Scott — the usual suspects.

Singles/Videos

Busta Rhymes — “Beach Ball” Feat. BIA

With a beat that bounces like its namesake, Busta’s latest single could background the most boisterous of beach parties — or club nights.

Joyner Lucas — “Broski”

Joyner Lucas is fed up with the fake love from longtime friends turned jealous haters, detailing just how one gets to be the other with the help of Rotimi, who plays the narrator/ill-wisher in the video.

King Von — “Robberies”

The late King Von clearly had plenty of music stashed before his death. His estate has released just another sample that exemplifies the truly towering loss of the Chicago rap favorite.

Rowdy Rebel — “Posture” Feat. Fivio Foreign & Fetty Luciano

Another drill masterpiece from the Brooklyn pioneer sees Rowdy teaming up with a pair of his many stylistic kids for a boastful, defiant street anthem.

Travis Thompson & Jake One — “Same Ole Drop”

The Seattle rapper collaborated with producer Jake One on a new project that’s well worth the listen — especially if bar-forward, sample-heavy hip-hop is your thing.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

If you are a college golfer named Shooter McGavin who is desperate to show that you are capable of winning the big one, we have some very bad news. Earlier in the day on Friday, a young man decided to continue his golf career at Ball State, and based on the headline of this post and the joke in the previous sentence, you can almost certainly guess where we are going with this: the dude’s name is Happy Gilmore.

For those who are not aware of the height of cinematic excellence (mid-to-late-90s Adam Sandler movies), Happy Gilmore was a movie about a hockey player who found out he could hit a golf ball extremely hard by running up on it and throttling it, became a golfer, and then a lot of other stuff happened that ended with him winning a major tournament. Sandler played the titular character, and in a pretty cool moment, he quote tweeted the original post and congratulated Gilmore on his upcoming college golf career.

Our friends over at For The Win put together an explainer on the young golfer, who is quite good and not legally named “Happy” — his name on his birth certificate is Landon. But apparently, he’s had the very obvious nickname since he showed an interest in golf as a kid, and most importantly per his Twitter bio, he can do the famous Happy Gilmore swing. I hope he busts it out during a tournament, and that no one there is screaming “you suck, you jackass.”

If you were in a cocktail bar in the late 1990s, you 100% drank a neon green Appletini at some point. Trust me, I was there. The power of that drink was massive and worldwide. Then whiskey started making a slow comeback in the early 2000s with the old-fashioned and the appletini largely disappeared, left to the dustbin of history as an overly sweet neon relic of “what we’re we thinking” cocktail culture.

Well, like so much 1990s nostalgia, the Appletini is back. And, dare I say, it’s better than ever.

This drink goes back to the early 1990s when Loren “Lola” Dunsworth invented the drink at her eponymous bar and restaurant Lola’s in West Hollywood. Long story short, Ketel One Vodka — a tiny brand at the time — asked Dunsworth to come up with a new cocktail utilizing their vodka. Dunworth gave the job to Lola’s head bartender Adam Karston with the edict of using apple brandy and vodka to make a new drink. So Karston mixed some Ketel with DeKuyper Pucker Sour Apple schnapps and a splash of sour mix (those were dark days, folks).

Boom! The Appletini was born and — seemingly overnight — took over cocktail culture from Hollywood to Helsinki.

By the mid-2000s, the drink pretty much disappeared off bar menus and was relegated to a joke cocktail. Sour mix and Pucker are not high-quality ingredients. Moreover, they’re sugar bombs, which made for a sickly sweet “apple” flavored drink. And some nasty hangovers. The mocking the cocktail got was well deserved.

Fast forward almost 20 years and you’re starting to hear rumblings of not only the Appletini making a comeback but of it being better than ever. That’s what we’re going to focus on with this recipe — a real Appletini made with real ingredients instead of shortcuts. And, my lord, does that suddenly make this drink delicious!

Today, we’re going to make a real-deal Appletini and it’s going to slap. Let’s get shaking!

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Appletini

Ingredients:

• 1 oz. apple vodka
• 1 oz. apple brandy
• 1 oz. apple juice
• 0.25 oz. simple syrup
• 0.25 oz. fresh lemon juice
• Granny Smith apple
• Cocktail cherry
• Ice

So you really want to get real apple flavor into this drink. Start by using apple vodka. I grabbed Smirnoff Green Apple. It has a nice balance and isn’t overly sweet.

Generally, I’d use Calvados (a Norman apple brandy) for this. Since I’m out, I used an American apple brandy. It’s perfectly fine as a filler. I would stay away from apple-flavored whiskeys though as they’re usually made with a sugary apple liqueur mixed with whiskey. Apple brandy, on the other hand, is brandy made with apples.

Next, I’m using lighter apple juice. This cocktail needs to be effervescent and you need a light apple juice for that.

Lastly, instead of sour mix, I’m using fresh lemon juice and simple syrup. It’s the same thing but you can control the quality and sugariness.

What You’ll Need:

• Coupe of cocktail glass (prechilled)
• Cocktail shaker
• Cocktail strainer
• Fine mesh strainer
• Pairing knife
• Hand juicer
• Garnish pick
• Jigger

Method:

• Prechill the glass in the freezer.
• Add the apple vodka, apple brandy, apple juice, fresh lemon juice, and simple syrup to a cocktail shaker. Add a large handful of ice. Affix the lid and shake vigorously for about 15 seconds until the shaker is ice-cold to touch.
• Double-strain the cocktail into the prechilled glass. Garnish with an apple slice and cherry and then serve.

Bottom Line:

This is a crazy delicious drink. It’s so light and fresh while delivering a serious apple vibe. The best part is that it’s apple-forward and only a touch sweet. It’s almost woody and has a hint of spice from the brandy. It’s actually complex while being amazingly easy to sip — all while delivering the purest essence of tart yet sweet apple.

Overall, this is a great summer refresher. It goes down so easily that you’ll be shaking another before you know it. And perhaps more importantly, this looks like a real drink and isn’t glowing an unholy neon green.

Before I go, you can make a fall/winter version of this by replacing the light apple juice with freshly pressed/unfiltered apple cider. Then replace the simple syrup with cinnamon syrup. You’ll have a velvety and spicy apple cider version that’s thick and juicy for fall and winter sipping.

Soooo, there’s this dog and I’m pretty sure it’s the actual Snoopy come to life. Seriously all the dog needs is a red dog house out back and a little yellow bird that follows it around. If you think it can’t be true, then you’re going to have to fight the entire internet about it because nobody can get enough of how much this sweet dog looks like the iconic cartoon character.

Snoopy is Charlie Brown’s pet from the comic strip “Peanuts” that eventually spawned several movies and cartoon series, and Bayley is a dead ringer for the black and white animated pup. Since we live in a digital age, people across the country have been falling all over themselves to get to the pooch’s Instagram account and admire her cartoonish mug.

Bayley is a 1-year-old mini sheepadoodle, which is a cross between a miniature poodle and an Old English Sheepdog. Her sweet face is something you have to see to believe and even then you may question if she’s real.

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The dog’s perfectly groomed curly fur makes her face look fluffy and cartoon-like. Once you add in her black ears and black button nose, that honestly looks more like a smooth lump of coal than a dog nose, then you have the perfect Snoopy doppelgänger. Bayley came into her viral fame after Doodle Dogs Club shared her photo on their Instagram account that has over 230,000 followers, and just like that, she was “famous.”

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A post shared by Doodle Dogs Club 🧸 (@doodledogsclub)

The introductory post of the live version of Charlie Brown’s best friend racked up over 1.4 million likes and 10.3K comments. The comments ranged from people reminding others that the fictional dog was a Beagle to people demanding Bayley star in the live action version of Charlie Brown.

Whether Snoopy was a Beagle or not, there’s no arguing that Bayley looks more like the cartoon canine than real life Beagles. This probably has a lot to do with cartoons being…cartoons. Everything tends to be a bit bubbly and over exaggerated with cartoons.

Charlie Brown was supposed to be between the ages of 4 and 8 years old according to PeanutsWiki, who busted out the comic strip receipts. If cartoons looked exactly like real life, poor Charlie Brown would have a hard time walking with his oversized noggin.

Bayley’s curly fluffy fur gives her an advantage over actual Beagle’s when it comes to the ability to look like the famous cartoon character. It’s something she probably couldn’t care less about, unless every time she got compared to Snoopy equaled a dog treat. Otherwise, I’m sure the black and white sheepadoodle is perfectly happy just being a dog wondering why suddenly her mom keeps taking pictures of her.

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A post shared by B A Y L E Y 🐾♥️ (@bayley.sheepadoodle)

Since Bayley’s debut on Doodle Dogs Club, the animated dog come to life has climbed up to over 240k followers and her fanbase just can’t get enough of her. To make people love her even more, the dog’s mom uploads videos of Bayley using audio that makes it sound like the pup is a toddler trying to tell a story.

Check out some of the love Bayley gets on her Instagram account.

This article originally appeared on 4.17.23

The Toronto Raptors decided to address its lack of shooting in the first round of the 2023 NBA Draft. With the number 13 pick on Thursday night, Toronto selected Kansas wing Gradey Dick, whose best attribute is his ability to stretch the floor. While there’s a little more to his game than just his shooting, Dick was the premier marksman in this class, as he stands 6’8 and connected on 40.3 percent of his 5.7 attempts per game during his time in Lawrence.

Dick made headlines for two reasons at the Draft. One is that, because he is now plying his trade in Toronto, Drake followed him back on Instagram, which either officially grants him Canadian citizenship or really should. The other was his outfit, which was very red and sparkly and included a pair of sunglasses indoors.

I’m not much of a fashionista, so I will leave that analysis to someone who is not currently wearing a t-shirt and shorts. What I will say is that Zach Lowe of ESPN tried to pull off his own version of the fit on NBA Today, and I’m certainly not going to disparage it (Lord knows I could not make this work), I’m just gonna say Dick’s had a little more pizzazz, is all.

Zach Lowe if you are reading this, I hereby call on you to do your own version of every famous NBA Draft fit whenever you appear on NBA Today henceforth. I think you can do some pretty incredible stuff with, say, the outfit Samaki Walker wore when he was selected.

There was a time it seemed that Atlanta rappers Gunna and Lil Baby were inseparable. From crafting their joint album, Drip Harder, in 2018, to appearing on each others’ performances, projects, and tours throughout the years since, they’ve been thought of as an unofficial tandem by hip-hop heads since their parallel breakouts in 2017. They were even rumored to be working with Future and Young Thug on a spiritual sequel to Drip Harder and Super Slimey, although nothing was ever solidified.

But things may have changed recently, thanks to the YSL racketeering case and Gunna’s Alford plea. In a new snippet that’s gone viral on Twitter, Lil Baby makes mention of “n****s taking pleas” and posits “slime ain’t happy” — with “slime” being a potential reference to Young Thug, who helped Baby get his start in the music business. Since Baby was never actually part of YSL, he can remain in contact with Thug, while Gunna cannot.

This has led to speculation online that Gunna really is persona non grata among his former rap friends as a result of his recently acquired “snitch” reputation. Of course, rapper’s have reeled off lines about “rats,” “snitches,” and “telling” in raps since time immemorial — even Thug’s new album has a few, and fans have been wondering about his relationship to his former protege ever since.

Only Lil Baby can say what his feelings on Gunna really are, but one thing’s clear: Hip-hop’s obsession with adhering to “street code” — whether it applies or not — isn’t helping anybody.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

If you’re trying to figure out where we’ll be this summer, you can find us in the mountains. Seriously though, nothing screams “freedom” like a dose of absolute serenity in the middle of nowhere, trekking across Mother Nature’s beautifully sculpted landscapes and National Parks. But if the thought of missing out on some of summer’s best beaches, dancing to live music, and cheering with friends over some craft beer while you’re off the grid, out in the mountains makes you second-guess your plans, don’t worry…

You can have it all. High Sierra Music Festival is actually the ultimate mountain music lover’s dream, combining all the best aspects of mountain-high summer living with party vibes and dance culture.

High Sierra Music Festival remains the live music fan mainstay – a home away from home to for those eager to savor mountain-high music performances, continuous craft brews and artisanal cocktails pours, and body and mind-elevating wellness workshops. It’s this triple-threat offering amongst the Sierra Nevada mountains that have garnered the festival a prosperous three-decade-long iconic status in the music and adventure community.

This year is no different. In fact, the festival will make a return in Quincy, California June 29th-July 2nd and will oversee momentous performances from all corners of the music spectrum, including Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, Thievery Corporation, Marcus King, Lotus, Cory Wong, Neil Francis, Sierra Hull, and many more. That only that, but it’s the festival’s family-friendly and engaging programming during the day mixed with its legendary late-night shows that take the form of sweat-fueled dance parties, psychedelic explorations, and once-in-a-lifetime musical memories that truly place it in a league of its own.

Plus, who wouldn’t want to sip on freshly brewed Sierra Nevada while listening to live music and swimming in the nearby pool — one of the most breathtaking scenic views in the continental U.S.? We know we would.

To gear up for this year’s 31st event, bask in these glorious mountain music photos from across High Sierra’s tenure, which exemplify the mountain-high energy we all want and need this summer season.

A new Young Thug album has hit DSPs despite the Atlanta rapper’s current incarceration and some fans are wondering whether one of its songs contains a coded diss for Thug’s collaborator/suspected co-conspirator Gunna. On “Jonesboro,” from the new Metro Boomin-produced album Business Is Business, Thug snarls the line “N***a told and he was my homie, I can’t miss him / Ain’t nobody feel him,” prompting some fans to speculate that he’s referring to Gunna after Gunna accepted a plea deal in exchange for his release from Fulton County Jail.

However, due to the album’s provenance, it seems unlikely that the line would be directed at Gunna, as all 15 of the tracks compiled in Business Is Business were recorded prior to Thug’s arrest and subsequent incarceration on suspicion of operating a criminal organization. While it does sound like he’s talking about a snitch, it literally can’t be Gunna, who was very much a respected member of YSL Records in good standing at the time the song was recorded.

In fact, if anything, the line seems like a prime example of exactly what I wrote about in my review of Gunna’s new album, A Gift And A Curse: a generic mobster trope of the type that litters a ton of rap records these days. Whether or not they stem from the real-life experiences of the artists in question, it’s clear that they get peppered into songs because they are what the audience expects and therefore what the market demands. It could be about a real person or it could just be an abstraction, a straw man of the sort that rappers always have to set up in their lyrics to prove their superiority over an opponent — real or imagined.

It certainly highlights how life can end up imitating art; rap fans hate “snitches” because rappers rap about hating “snitches,” when either side might not have any real experience with snitching in the first place. It’s a conundrum, for sure, but this confusion is also a big part of why Thug’s locked up in the first place. Remember, in the original indictment, the evidence used against him wasn’t wiretaps or videotapes but his own lyrics.

Listen to “Jonesboro” above. Business Is Business is out now on Young Stoner Life Records/300 Entertainment/Atlantic Records.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The original Project Greenlight landed over 20 years ago, a relic of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s massive success and the funky shift of reality TV from college-aged sex-havers to people winning shows based on niche talents. Then it went away for a decade and returned with a disastrous fourth season which saw HBO swear that it was always, totally, 100% supposed to be a one-off. So, after a cooling off period, it’s back again.

The fifth season, subbed A New Generation, will boldly go into the chaotic world of filmmaking to create a dramatic series and a great feature film. This iteration has replaced Damon and Affleck with Issa Rae, Kumail Nanjiani, and Gina Prince-Bythewood as the mentors.

The trailer promises that a lot will go wrong. In other words, the stage is set for compelling television.

The funniest part is when tensions arise between the film crew and the Project Greenlight crew — a little fourth-wall-breaking signal of which crew is more important than the other, especially considering the track record of the show for producing winners. And because they only give the filmmaker 18 days to shoot. It’s hard to make anything quality in that amount of time, and it feels like a funny throwback to the 1990s indie vibe of running and gunning and making whatever gets on the reel.

In a weird and wonderful move, Max will stream Project Greenlight: A New Generation on the same day as the release of Gray Matter, the feature that Greenlight winner Meko Winbush made during the filming of the show we haven’t seen yet. Spoiler alert: the movie got made!

Both Project Greenlight: A New Generation and Gray Matter hit Max on July 13th.