It’s not easy being a Carolina Panthers fan right now. The franchise is in one of the worst spots you can be in, having traded a bunch of picks to move up to take a quarterback at No. 1 and having that QB not working out. Bryce Young’s struggles in his second season led to him getting benched for Andy Dalton, who got benched at the end of their most recent blowout loss to the Commanders to get Young some reps. All the while, the Chicago Bears are thriving thanks in large part to players they drafted (most notably Caleb Williams) with all the picks Carolina sent them to move up and take Young.
There isn’t a clear path for the Panthers to get out of the hole they’ve dug themselves, and that means at least another year or two near the bottom of the NFL until they can restock their roster with high-end talent. That’s a really tough spot to be in as a fan, but there are still plenty of Carolina diehards that are trying their best to stick with the team through a truly lean spot in their franchise history.
One of those is Stephen Curry, as the North Carolina native rides for his Panthers through thick and thin, and on Monday night the Warriors star joined Scott Van Pelt for an interview at halftime of Monday Night Football ahead of the start of the NBA season. At the end of their discussion, Steph had to shout out his beloved Panthers, which Van Pelt could only respond to with “good luck with that” which caused Steph to absolutely lose it laughing.
Scott Van Pelt: Always great to visit with you, Steph. And stay well until the next time.
It was a great response from SVP, who is as good as it gets with athlete interviews, and clearly was not what Steph was expecting to hear after a “Go Panthers!” but was, really, the only thing you can say. The good news for Steph is, now that the Warriors season is about to get going he’ll have plenty to focus on at work to distract him from his Panthers struggles.
I think about Tom Petty a lot. But in October, I think about him a little bit more.
This month marks two important Tom Petty milestones— it’s the seventh anniversary of his death (Oct. 2), and the 74th anniversary of his birth (Oct. 20). Like the great Kurt Vile once sang, “Tom Petty’s gone, and I’m long gone, and how am I gonna make amends with myself for never gettin’ to talk to him?” Kurt made amends by writing a song. But I’m not a songwriter, I’m a music critic. So, I listened for the thousandth time to all his studio albums — the solo ones, the ones with The Heartbreakers, with Mudcrutch, the Wilburys, all of it — and wrote this column.
A while back I wrote about Tom Petty songs, but Tom Petty albums might actually be a more interesting topic. Everybody knows the greatness of Tom Petty as a master of the rock-song form. But his albums still fly under the radar a bit.
No more. After all it’s a great big world, with lots of records to run to. And if I have to die tryin’, there’s one little promise I’m gonna keep: I am going to rank Tom Petty albums.
Let’s learn to fly.
20. The Last DJ (2002)
As I was preparing to write this column, I revisited the obituary I wrote immediately after hearing that Tom Petty passed. I hadn’t looked at it since then. What comes across immediately is the overwhelming sense of shock. Petty was 66 and had gone over some bad road. He wasn’t an old man, necessarily, but he was weathered beyond his years. His passing was unexpected, but it was not implausible. And yet I could not wrap my head around it.
My instinct at the time was to focus on how reliable Tom Petty was. It seemed like the obvious, and perhaps only, narrative through-line. His songs were reliably good. They sounded reliably like Tom Petty. And he reliably played them on the road with the Heartbreakers — if not this summer, then the next one or maybe the one after that. And now that was all over. I hate typing something like “this rock star’s death shook me up the most,” but of all the musicians I have loved and then lost in the past 10 years, Tom Petty and David Berman haunt me the most. Berman was younger and his ending was more violent and senseless, and yet it was easier to believe. If you heard Purple Mountains, it wasn’t a shock that this person might not be long for this Earth. But Tom Petty? He was different. He was Tom Petty. He wrote “American Girl” and “The Waiting” and “Free Fallin.’” He was indestructible. I still can’t accept that I won’t see him play those songs at the local arena ever again.
Tom Petty’s death forever changed how I hear his music. When he was alive, I had a quip about a typical Tom Petty record: It’s 30 percent great, 50 percent good, and 20 percent filler. In my book Twilight Of The Gods — written before he died and published seven months after — I offered similarly qualified praise: “Tom Petty could always be counted on to be just good enough. Recording three or four perfect singles and then padding the rest of the album with jangly, expertly performed filler is just good enough. Rhyming ‘some place to go’ with ‘Joe Piscopo’ is just good enough. Tom did not have to prove it all night. He was fine knocking off at around 11 p.m.” My intent was to compliment Tom in comparison to his try-hard heartland rock peer, Bruce Springsteen. But the passage makes me cringe a little now. It’s not as affectionate as I want it to be.
Since his death, I have found myself loving Tom Petty albums I used to only like. I guess this could be classified as “taste inflation via sentimentality,” an easing up of critical faculties in light of an icon’s passing. But I think it has more to do with the principle of supply and demand. When it was possible for a new Tom Petty record to exist, it made a new Tom Petty record seem less precious, given the wealth of pre-existing Tom Petty records in the world. But now that the supply of Tom Petty records is permanently limited, the only way to discover “new” Petty music is to re-investigate the albums you haven’t spent much time with yet. That’s what I’ve done, and it’s made me re-evaluate some of my old opinions. These days, I would describe a typical Tom Petty record as 30 percent classic, 50 percent great, and 20 percent good.
Except The Last DJ. It’s the one Petty record I haven’t yet come around on. A concept LP about music industry greed — at least for the first four songs, which range from okay (the title track) to godawful (“Joe”) — The Last DJ was preceded by two other uncertain records, 1996’s She’s The One and 1999’s Echo. Together they form a mid-life trilogy in which Tom worked through deep feelings of personal dissatisfaction with himself and the world. Divorce, heroin addiction, the death of his father, the horrifying disintegration and eventual passing of his bass player Howie Epstein — it all took something from him in the late nineties and early aughts.
“Unpleasant” is a word you almost never see in the same sentence as “Tom Petty,” but those records are vaguely unpleasant listens. Though I would argue that She’s The One and Echo are fascinatingly unpleasant (and emotionally powerful), whereas The Last DJ just seems embittered and aimless, wavering between self-righteous diatribes and nostalgic glop (save for “Blue Sunday” and “Have Love, Will Travel,” which have little to do with the over-arching concept). I’m sorry, I love you Tom Petty, but a boomer rocker who palled around with Jimmy Iovine does not get to lecture the kids who watched American Idol about how money suddenly became a corrupting influence on music in the early 2000s.
The Last DJ is his “old man yells at cloud” album. It’s not how I prefer to remember him.
19. The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 3 (1990)
This album barely exists. I’m including it here anyway. It’s insane that the largely forgotten Traveling Wilburys sequel came out just 12 years before The Last DJ, because Tom sounds like he’s about 50 years younger. That’s the thing about this life — you go from being the youngest person in the room to the oldest much faster than you could ever imagine.
In the Wilburys, Tom was Muddy, the junior apprentice. The young gun who eased his artistic big brothers back to Top 40 relevancy. Hard to believe now, but back in the day, he was the kid telling you to put your hand on your head, your foot in the air, and to hop around the room in your underwear. Just a fresh-faced 40-year-old baby!
18. Hypnotic Eye (2014)
For the hyper-casual Tom Petty listener, there is only album: 1993’s Greatest Hits, the one with the ugly red cover. The record that is locked and loaded in every dive bar nationwide that still has a CD jukebox. (All hail the dive bars nationwide that still have CD jukeboxes.)
Greatest Hits covers the period, from the mid-seventies to the early nineties, when Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers were the most (here’s that world again) reliable radio rock band in America. Historically, only CCR challenges The Heartbreakers for American radio rock brilliance, though Tom spread his songs out over two decades rather than just a few years. After Greatest Hits, Tom entered the Wildflowers era and spun off several more hits. But for the final 20 years of his life, he wandered in the post-radio wilderness. He looked outward for explanations (see The Last DJ), but the proof is in the music. He still wrote good songs, but his talent for crafting perfect singles finally left him. It leaves all the greats eventually, and he frankly held on longer that most. Perhaps it was a failing imagination. Or maybe it was just the weight of an extraordinary — and extraordinarily painful — life. Weariness and melancholy pervade Petty’s post-Greatest Hits career. I didn’t know the man, I only know the music. But the music suggests that he was desperately searching for something to lean on. Listening to the later records, he relies more and more on the strength of his mighty backing band and the sturdy comforts of ancient song forms, like blues and garage-band rock.
There’s a lot of the latter on Hypnotic Eye, his last album with The Heartbreakers. The band lumbers like comeback era George Foreman — what they lack in grace and subtlety they make up with burly force and gregarious spirit. It’s the kind of record you can put on and enjoy for around 50 minutes and then forget about. The exception is “Sins Of My Youth,” a lovely lilt in which Tom once again takes stock of his back pages and attempts to move beyond them. “When the past gets up in your face / Memories slide out of place / All those things that were hidden away / Ain’t so bad in the light of day.” I hope the man himself found solace in those words.
17. Mojo (2010)
The beginning of Mike Campbell’s “dreadlocks” era, one of the more surprising turns in the history of The Heartbreakers. Mike’s explanation was characteristically nonchalant. “I just quit brushing my hair one year and that’s what happened. I like it because it is low maintenance.”
What did his most trusted musical lieutenant changing his approach to follicle care mean for Tom Petty’s musical trajectory? It’s possible that the jam-band moves of Mojo had nothing to do with Mike Campbell’s sudden resemblance to a member of Rusted Root. But these changes moved in harmony nonetheless. “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus” used to be the modus operandi of Petty and his bandmates. But on Mojo, the band meanders like a stoner in flip-flops searching for sustenance in the snack aisle. This was Petty finally embracing the Allmans side of his Florida musical heritage, though late sixties Grateful Dead is another tangible musical touchstone on the amiable, shaggy-dog acid-blues tracks.
One of the many tantalizing (unrealized) possibilities for Petty’s later career is whether he would have further developed the improvisational feel of songs like “First Flash Of Freedom” and the illusory travelogue “The Trip To Pirate’s Cove,” which plays like a redux of Sideways with weed substituted for wine. Particularly the verse about two buddies who have a fling with a pair of motel maids. “My friend said I don’t like mine / so what do you say we trade / She was a part of my heart / now she’s just a line in my face.”
16. Mudcrutch 2 (2016)
It pains me to write this, but I think it is true: The best music Tom Petty made on record in the final decade of his life wasn’t with The Heartbreakers. It was with his pre-Heartbreakers band, Mudcrutch. Which — crucially — also includes the two most important Heartbreakers not named Tom Petty, Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench. So, yes, Mudcrutch also sounds a lot like The Heartbreakers, only with Tom manning the bass.
But the differences here aren’t just semantic. In the 21st century, the underlying subtext of Tom Petty’s public facing life was interrogating the very idea of “Tom Petty.” This took the form of both celebrating his legacy (via projects like Peter Bogdanovich’s four-hour documentary Runnin’ Down A Dream) as well as downplaying his all-American, arena-rock everyman persona. Reviving Mudcrutch was part of the latter project. It was a way to make a Tom Petty record without the weight of a Tom Petty record, similar to how The Traveling Wilburys had once been an escape hatch for his musical big brothers, Bob Dylan and George Harrison.
This approach had its advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, the Mudcrutch records represent the breeziest music that Petty made in his final years. You can feel the palpable relief in not having to carry the whole load, and instead letting Tom Leadon or Randall Marsh sing an occasional song. It was a chance for Petty to “just” make a record, like he did back in his Gainesville hippie days.
The downside is that most people — even Petty partisans — still don’t really know these albums. Which means they don’t know about “I Forgive It All,” his almost unbearably poignant farewell song. What “Keep Me In Your Heart” is to Warren Zevon, “I Forgive It All” is to Tom Petty. “People are what people make ’em / And that ain’t gonna change / There ain’t nothing you can do / Nothing you could rearrange / But I forgive it all, I forgive it all.”
15. Mudcrutch (2008)
If “I Forgive it All” is the last great Tom Petty ballad, “Scare Easy” from the first Mudcrutch record is the last great Tom Petty rocker. Specifically, it’s a Tom Petty rocker in his old school “surly but sensitive” mode, the gear in which he makes a show of being a tough guy who can’t completely hide his soft romantic underbelly. I refer to one-part “I love you” and one-part “fuck you” classics like “Fooled Again (I Don’t Like It),” “I Need To Know,” “You Got Lucky,” and the apotheosis of this Petty genre, “Don’t Come Around Here No More.”
In “Scare Easy,” Petty opens with an excellent “surly but sensitive” Tom Petty lyric: “My love’s an ocean / you better not cross it.” Part threat and part admission of vulnerability, it sets the stage perfectly. And then Tom lets Campbell and Tench do their Campbell and Tench things — Campbell provides the requisite stinging guitar solo in the middle of the song, and Tench lays down his trademark glowering Hammond organ fills. It’s all exquisitely executed and feels as natural as inhaling and exhaling.
This is what it means to make professional rock music at the highest level. You better not cross it.
14. The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1 (1988)
Criticizing this album is like making fun of your grandpa on his deathbed. So, I’ll say, with genuine affection, that the first and last songs are classics, and the eight in the middle are mostly trash. But who cares about songs when you get to hang out with five of the coolest guys who ever lived?
Dylan and Petty best understood the assignment. Their songs are self-consciously tossed off, in a very charming manner. Bob’s most important contribution, the Springsteen homage/parody/tribute/troll “Tweeter And The Monkey Man,” is one of his funniest (and dumbest) compositions, while the Petty-led “Last Night” plays like a meandering “Knock Knock” joke without a punchline.
If you don’t like this album, then you probably get annoyed whenever an old guy asks you to pull his finger. The rest of us meanwhile can appreciate the hilarity of the situation.
13. Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough) (1987)
Tom Petty crashed and burned twice in his career. The first time — when his house literally burned down in the late eighties just as The Heartbreakers were hitting a brick wall — he was able to recover and come back better than ever.
The two records that precede that mini-apocalypse are among the ones I’ve spent the most time with in recent years. They are the most prescient albums he made in the eighties, in terms of predicting what “heartland rock” would sound like during the post-Lost In The Dream era. On Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough), Petty attempts to meld his usual meat-and-potatoes rock with synths in a manner that was already starting to sound dated in 1987, hence his turn toward the retro hominess of Full Moon Fever. But in 2024, songs like “Runaway Trains” and “My Life/Your World” actually sound pretty contemporary, like they could have been made by a jean-jacketed indie band from Philadelphia signed to Lame-O Records.
And then there’s “Jammin’ Me,” a co-write with his future Traveling Wilburys homie Bob Dylan, who borrowed The Heartbreakers for a world tour around this time and proceeded to run them into the ground. I’ve always adored “Jammin’ Me,” and I really love the thought of Tom and Bob writing it in 15 minutes and laughing their asses off.
12. Southern Accents (1985)
The first part of Tom Petty’s mid-eighties “confusion” period. Southern Accents is praised — sometimes overpraised — by Petty heads as a bungled quasi-masterpiece, a would-be concept record about southern identity that would have beat Southern Rock Opera to the punch by 15 years had Petty not been distracted by cocaine and Dave Stewart. As it is, there is just enough of the original idea to confuse anyone who doesn’t know the backstory. The rousing “Rebels,” for instance, might have more fully registered as an ironic Randy Newman-style story song had it been surrounded by similar numbers like “Trailer” and “Walkin’ From The Fire” that Petty chose to leave off the record. (Performing “Rebels” on stage with a Confederate flag draped behind him, another ironic gesture Petty later apologized for, didn’t clarify matters.) These mistakes are compounded by the lame country-funk numbers made with Stewart that did make the album. We can only assume that “Make It Better (Forget About Me)” sounds amazing if you’re doing lines in an L.A. studio at three in the morning.
The record Southern Accents might have been seems a lot better than the record that Southern Accents actually is. But the record that Southern Accents actually is still delivers some of Petty’s finest songs of the eighties. I refer, of course, to the most successful Dave Stewart collaboration, “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” as well as the epic title track, one of Petty’s all-time best compositions with probably his single greatest bridge. Johnny Cash later covered it, which tells you something about how weighty “Southern Accents” is. But I wish Levon Helm would have also taken a crack at it. “Southern Accents” has the same mix of regional pride and naked hurt that “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” has, without the problematic affiliations.
11. Long After Dark (1982)
Earlier I mentioned the “taste inflation via sentimentality” that I’ve experienced with Tom Petty records. This obviously does not apply only to me. For instance, The Wallflowers are currently on tour and performing their most popular album, 1996’s Bringing Down The Horse, in its entirety. This is exactly what you would expect The Wallflowers to be doing in 2024. But in addition to Bringing Down The Horse, they are also playing the fifth Tom Petty album, Long After Dark, from front to back. Now, that is surprising. Of course, Jakob Dylan is a famous Petty acolyte. He inducted the man and his band into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. But why Long After Dark? If you’re doing early Petty, Damn The Torpedoes or even Hard Promises makes more sense. Before Petty’s death, Long After Dark was a record remembered only by die-hards. Its one hit, “You Got Lucky,” is dominated by Benmont Tench’s polarizing synth tone, a quintessential eighties corporate rock sound that would never recur on a Heartbreakers record. It’s just not an album that you would expect anyone to pull out for a tribute show. It’s really good, but not emblematic. It would be like paying homage to Springsteen by busting out Devils And Dust.
Of course, I am a Petty diehard, so I fully support the Long After Dark love. Especially since this is among the albums I played the most after he died, precisely because it doesn’t have a lot of hits. Now, in the annals of Petty fandom, “Change Of Heart” and “Straight Into Darkness” feel like hits, even though more casual listeners probably won’t recognize them. And “You Got Lucky” is one of his best and most underrated radio songs, synth haters be damned. (Also shoutout to the video, Petty’s finest MTV moment of the eighties. And, no, I haven’t forgotten “Don’t Come Around Here No More.” Tom and the Heartbreakers doing Mad Max > Tom and the Heartbreakers doing Alice In Wonderland.)
But the majority of this record is just The Heartbreakers … what’s a nice word for “coasting”? Long After Dark is the Petty album I originally described as “30 percent great, 50 percent good, and 20 percent filler.” But the band sounds so goddamn good that it scarcely matters. And now, in the post-Petty times, I can’t get enough of early eighties Heartbreakers tearing through a meaty mid-tempo rocker. The inflation is real.
INTERMISSION
October might as well be known as Long After Dark month in Tom Petty circles — the album was just reissued with a bonus disc of outtakes, and then there’s Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party, a long-lost documentary originally put together by Cameron Crowe for MTV in 1983. But the music channel buried it back then, airing Crowe’s free-wheeling, fly-on-the-wheel document of the Long After Dark tour just once in the middle of the night at 2 a.m.
Viewed more than 40 years later, Heartbreakers Beach Party — which screened briefly in theaters across two days last week, and will presumably be available on video soon — makes a convincing case for Long After Dark being an important transitional point. Petty was the rare seventies rocker who recognized the burgeoning power of MTV, and no matter his misgivings, he was more willing than most to play ball. Well into the nineties, he consistently outclassed his peers in terms of making videos that were memorable and compatible with whatever the current musical flavor of the month happened to be.
But the purest pleasures of Heartbreakers Beach Party come from the excellent concert footage as well as the intimate hangs on the band’s tour bus, where the guys lounge, smoke, laugh, and make up songs like Lost Boys on one of their final adventures. In those moments, playing in a rock band seems like the best job in the world. For the Heartbreakers, it actually was.
Back to the list.
10. Highway Companion (2005)
Let’s take a moment to talk about an under-discussed paradox in Tom Petty’s career. In 1991, he released Into The Great Wide Open, and it was credited to Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers. But by all accounts, The Heartbreakers did not function as a band in the studio. The musicians were called in, one by one, and told to robotically punch in their parts, in accordance with the meticulous production methods of co-producer Jeff Lynne.
The next Tom Petty record was 1994’s Wildflowers. It was credited solely to Tom Petty. But in the studio — partly as a reaction to the stifling conditions deployed on the previous release — The Heartbreakers played together as a band. Therefore, the “solo” record was more of a band record than the album actually credited to the band.
I don’t understand this. If Tom Petty were alive today, it wouldn’t be the first thing I would ask about. But it would make the top 10.
Anyway: Highway Companion is a true Tom Petty solo record. He wrote all the songs by himself, and he plays most of the instruments. If you have ever wondered what Tom Petty’s drumming sounds like, this is the record for you. The only other musicians are Petty’s two most important songwriting collaborators, Mike Campbell and Jeff Lynne. Here they form a creative polycule for the last time, and it’s a fine send-off. This is the closest Petty came to making a top-to-bottom great record in the 21st century. Not all the songs are winners — “Ankle Deep” probably doesn’t need to be here — but the peaks represent his finest work as a writer in the final act of his career. I refer specifically to “Down South,” a witty and wistful road trip song in which Tom pledges to “create myself down south / impress all the women / pretend I’m Samuel Clemens / wear seersucker and white linens.”
Sometimes, when I fantasize that Tom Petty really is alive today and merely faked his own death seven years ago, I like to think he followed through on that lyric.
9. She’s The One (1996)
Petty has described this as a not a “real” Tom Petty record. And I suspect most people who aren’t Tom Petty feel the same way. That’s because it was presented as the soundtrack to an Ed Burns rom-com that didn’t come out until six months after the record was released. To be honest, I’m not sure the Ed Burns film even exists, as I have never met anyone who has seen it nor have I ever seen it discussed or even referenced in any forum. Actually, do any Ed Burns films exist at this point? No semi-acclaimed nineties auteur has been wiped off the face of the planet so completely. I’m pretty sure that if you watch Saving Private Ryan now, Ryan Reynolds’ face is CGI’ed over Ed’s.
But I digress: I didn’t realize any of this at the time that Tom Petty’s She’s The One was released. I bought it the day it came out, and I loved it immediately. I loved the first track, “Walls,” which I recall being sort of an MTV hit right before MTV became the “Teen Pop vs. Nu Metal” channel. I actually still love “Walls” — it’s Tom’s last big pop moment, and it includes some truly epic backing vocals from his best friend and Stevie Nicks’ ex, Lindsey Buckingham. There are also some excellent covers of songs by Lucinda Williams (“Change The Locks”) and Beck (“Asshole”).
(This same year, Tom and The Heartbreakers also played on Johnny Cash’s cover of “Rowboat.” 1996 was huge for the One Foot In The Grave hive.)
She’s The One is now regarded, if at all, as an afterthought to Wildflowers. These songs derive from the same fertile songwriting period, and they tend to get dismissed as leftovers. (The fact that She’s The One bombed in the wake of a widely loved predecessor didn’t help matters.) Anyway, I dispute that categorization. She’s The One to me is a more overt reflection of Petty’s despair over his failing marriage. The songs are more bitter (“Hope You Never”) and harder rocking (“Supernatural Radio”), and generally more personal than the soundtrack trappings might suggest. And then there’s the two versions of “Angel Dream,” a love song so tender and heartfelt that it could justify 27 more renditions.
8. Echo (1999)
Earlier I used the word “unpleasant” to describe this record. That’s not a criticism. This is the eighth best Tom Petty record. Echo is pretty great. But it’s a painful listen. Most of these albums you can put on at a barbecue and have a good time. Not Echo. This is a record you play when it feels like there’s a barbecue raging in the pit of your soul. Mike Campbell says he never puts it on. I doubt an.yone directly involved in the making of Echo puts it on. It’s the “dark night of the soul” record.
The opening track “Room At The Top” has become a popular Petty standard in the years after his death. Eddie Vedder played it at the Oscars as a Petty tribute, and Jason Isbell covers it on his new live album. I get why this happened — “Room At The Top” is a great Tom Petty song that hasn’t been played to death on classic rock radio like all the other great Tom Petty songs. It feels fresh, almost like a “new” Tom Petty song.
But it’s still strange to me when people use “Room At The Top” to pay homage to Tom Petty. It’s like using “Mother” to pay tribute to John Lennon, or “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” to salute Kurt Cobain. Amazing songs, yes, but these are heavy-duty emotional haymakers. “Room At The Top” is the single bleakest track in Petty’s canon. It evokes extreme loneliness, devastating addiction, and romantic hopelessness. The part where he sings “I love you, please love me, I’m not so bad” is almost too much for me to take.
Painful. So, so painful. Great. But painful.
7. You’re Gonna Get It! (1978)
The exclamation point is earned. This is Petty’s Room On Fire, the album where he repeats the sound and formula of the debut, only his band is even hotter and gnarlier after rocking on the road for a few years. It’s really the sound of The Heartbreakers that really puts this album over — they were young and hungry and angry and loaded to the gills with well-earned swag. You hear it immediately on the first track, “When The Time Comes,” which whips by so fast that it beats time at its own game. Their later records might have better songs, but they don’t swing quite as hard as The Heartbreakers do here.
Speaking of songs: Can I interest you in a little number called “Listen To Her Heart”? It’s only one of the greatest rock tunes ever recorded. How about “I Need To Know”? That’s also one of the greatest rock tunes ever recorded. Elsewhere, “Hurt” previews Petty’s Allmans-esque era 30 years in advance, “Restless” features a truly excellent and titanic Stan Lynch backbeat, and “No Second Thoughts” just rips your heart out.
If you need a Petty record to put on at quitting time on a Friday, this is the one you want.
6. Hard Promises (1981)
It opens with “The Waiting,” which tells you something about how courageous Tom Petty was. He started with “The Waiting,” his most perfect song, and then he was like, “I’m going to put nine more songs after this one.” I actually love the second track “A Woman In Love (It’s Not Me)” almost as much as “The Waiting,” maybe because the guitar riff kind of sounds like a sadder version of “The Waiting.” And then there’s “Something Big,” a crime novella set to a melody that I’m convinced was subsequently ripped off by Mike Post for the Law & Order theme song.
Tom screwed up when he fumbled “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” the Stevie Nicks duet that became the biggest Heartbreakers hit of 1981 and buoyed the sales of Nicks’ debut LP, Bella Donna. But the Stevie ballad that made it on Hard Promises, “Insider,” probably seemed like a more obvious single when they recorded it. “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” is a bluesy vamp with a dark, angry edge — in the video, Stevie gives Tom the “Silver Springs” stare down when he sings his verses. The vibes are heavy in a way that don’t seem compatible with pop music. Except they were, because these rock icons were at the peak of their musical powers and sexual charisma.
About the album cover: Apparently Tom Petty hated it? He told Spin in 1989 that it was “boring” and that “I still cringe when I see Hard Promises.” This is bad enough, but then Rolling Stone used this quote as an excuse to call it one of the worst covers ever.
Am I the crazy one here? Because I love the cover of Hard Promises! I honestly think it’s one of the three or four best covers of his career. Full Moon Fever, the self-titled, Damn The Torpedoes — I think you slot Hard Promises right with those ones.
“Since then, I’ve always been real particular about the album covers,” he claimed in the Spin interview. Really, dude? You think Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough) is better than Hard Promises? Give me Tom shopping for records any day.
5. Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers (1976)
Tom was a little less audacious on the debut. He put the perfect rock song last this time. What can be said about “American Girl” at this point that hasn’t also be said about the Constitution, the Statue of Liberty, apple pie or your mother? Actually, I’ll take Mike Campbell’s outro guitar solo — his first classic outro guitar solo in a career loaded with them — over any of those other institutions. (No disrespect to your mother.) The debut’s other deathless standard is “Breakdown,” the original “surly but sensitive” Tom Petty classic and an early taste of Benmont Tench’s impeccable knack for a smokey, evocative keyboard lick.
And then there’s “The Wild One, Forever,” one of the great deep cuts in the Petty catalog, in which Stan Lynch provides peerless backing vocals along with his usual powerhouse beat. A decade and a half after this album came out, Stan was kicked out of the band, as his loudmouth ways finally rankled the boss beyond reconciliation. But the way he harmonizes with Petty on this song has always seemed like the purest musical manifestation of the brotherhood that was The Heartbreakers. I’ll never get over how good it felt.
4. Damn The Torpedoes (1979)
Jimmy Iovine became a permanent entry on my enemies list for way he treated my man Stan during the making of this record. He even briefly convinced Petty to replace Stan during the making of Torpedoes. Stan eventually came back to the fold, but Iovine has continued to slag the man’s drumming in various books and documentaries over the years. Which I absolutely do not get, both because of Lynch’s overall legacy with The Heartbreakers and his (obviously?) killer playing on this specific record. Have you heard the backbeat on “Here Comes My Girl”? How about the oomph that Stan gives to “Refugee,” yet another perfect rock song that Petty put at the start of an album? And let’s not forget Stan’s stellar backing vocal on the chorus. He brought multiple tools to the table.
If I were ranking these albums based solely on their Side 1’s, Damn The Torpedoes would probably be number one. The first three songs — “Refugee,” “Here Comes My Girl,” and “Even The Losers” — can go toe-to-toe with the start of any album. I do think the record drops off a bit in the home stretch, though “Louisiana Rain” is one of the great Petty album closers.
3. Into The Great Wide Open (1991)
Generational bias alert: My top three Tom Petty albums correspond with my early teen years. Now, I really do believe these are his best records. But I also concede that my top three Petty LPs might have been Damn The Torpedoes, Hard Promises, and Long After Dark if I were 10 years older.
Having said that: Tom Petty was rock’s cool uncle from 1989 to 1994. With Neil Young, he was the most relevant boomer era singer-songwriter. He was an elder and a role model, but he was also part of the mainstream music world. This might sound strange, but Tom Petty at that time sort of occupied the same spot that Beyoncé does now — his legacy was already secure, but it was commonly accepted that he was making the best music of his life as he entered his 40s. (Tom was the original Cowboy Carter!)
Into The Great Wide Open is the middle record of this run. It has a somewhat checkered reputation for two reasons, both of which are unfair. The first is that it wasn’t quite as good and didn’t do as well commercially as the predecessor, Full Moon Fever, Petty’s first collaboration with Jeff Lynne. Now, if we’re going to punish albums for not being as good as Full Moon Fever, we might as well delete practically every record ever made. So, toss that one out.
The second reason is that The Heartbreakers themselves, most notably Benmont Tench, have talked about the tedium of making Into The Great Wide Open. The sessions weren’t a great hang, apparently. Lynne’s exacting methods didn’t jibe with the band’s usual way of doing things. But as Petty retorted in Runnin’ Down A Dream, nobody cares how a record is made. They only care if they like it. And I love Into The Great Wide Open.
2. Full Moon Fever (1989)
Jeff Lynne still is a polarizing figure in Petty world. The albums they made together were hit machines, but in retrospect the heavy-handed production has alienated those who prefer the more naturalistic sounds of practically every other Petty record.
I happen to really like Lynne’s production, but I get the complaints. I wouldn’t want every Tom Petty record to sound like Into The Great Wide Open or even the relatively restrained Full Moon Fever. But here’s what can’t be disputed about Lynne: Petty wrote many of his most famous tunes with him.
This will sound like a bold claim but I can back it up: For a few years there, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne were the Lennon/McCartney of their era. Just look at the songs they wrote together. From Into The Great Wide Open, you have “Learning To Fly,” “Into The Great Wide Open,” “All The Wrong Reasons” and “Out In The Cold.” And from Full Moon Fever, there’s “Free Fallin’,” “I Won’t Back Down,” “A Face In The Crowd,” “Runnin’ Down A Dream” (with Mike Campbell), and “Yer So Bad.” (There’s also Roy Orbison’s last hit, “You Got It,” another co-write with Campbell.)
Listening to those tracks, you can make educated guesses about who did what — Petty definitely wrote the witty/wistful lyrics and possibly the vocal melodies, and Lynne likely composed the lushly poppy music. But no matter how it broke down, their brief partnership was stunningly productive when it came to producing timeless rock songs.
1. Wildflowers (1994)
For years, Full Moon Fever was my no-brainer choice for best Tom Petty album. It was the no-brainer choice for most people. But over the years, it feels like Wildflowers has slowly but surely become the go-to Petty record for most people, myself included. It speaks to the album’s influence — however one wants to define whatever “Americana” is supposed to be, it feels like “musically similar to Wildflowers” is probably the most accurate definition. Anyone who plays vaguely twangy, guitar-based singer-songwriter music in 2024, consciously or not, is in some way emulating this record. (I would say the same about Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels On A Gravel Road, but Lucinda was probably cribbing from Wildflowers, too.)
I used to differentiate Wildflowers from Full Moon Fever by distinguishing Full Moon Fever as the “songs” record and Wildflowers as the “vibes” record. I still think that’s broadly true. Full Moon Fever is loaded with the Tom Petty songs that will be played at CVS stores for as long as there are CVS stores. And Wildflowers is one of the all-time “hangout” records. But Full Moon Fever is also a great hangout record — you’re in the garage with Tom and Jeff and about a million acoustic guitars! And Wildflowers has tons and tons of wonderful songs. It has the Tom Petty song for me, the title track, the one he supposedly improvised in the studio as Benmont Tench played the prettiest piano arpeggios of his damn life. The musical balm Petty sang to himself when he yearned to be somewhere he could feel free. It took him a while, but he got there.
Wildflowers has songs. And Full Moon Fever has songs. But Wildflowers has a few more songs, so I guess that makes it number one.
With the financial security of the league locked in and three expansion franchises coming into the league in the next two years, the players association sees this as a good time to take a look at their collective bargaining agreement and explore what comes next. On Monday, the WNBPA made their decision to trigger their opt-out clause in the current CBA for next year, meaning the 2025 season will be the last of the current deal.
“This is a defining moment, not just for the WNBA, but for all of us who believe in progress,” WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike said in a statement. “The world has evolved since 2020, and we cannot afford to stand still. If we stay in the current agreement, we fall behind. Opting out isn’t just about bigger paychecks — it’s about claiming our rightful share of the business we’ve built, improving working conditions, and securing a future where the success we create benefits today’s players and the generations to come.”
The decision comes as little surprise to the WNBA and those that follow the league, as players had indicated this would be coming for some time, and WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert released a statement noting the league is ready to get to work creating a new CBA with the WNBPA.
“With the historic 2024 WNBA season now in the books, we look forward to working together with the players and the WNBPA on a new CBA that is fair for all and lays the foundation for growth and success for years to come.”
What will be interesting is what the WNBPA decides are the most important things to get out of this new CBA. Salaries are always a driving factor, but the WNBA is still trying to improve day-to-day life in the league as well as getting long-term benefits for players after they retire. As is always important to remember, the owners and the league may say the right things about wanting to give the players more, but this is a negotiation which means a give and take. ESPN reports pensions, child care support, improved facilities, and a better charter flight system are all on the WNBPA’s list, along with the push for a change to the league’s salary cap structure and raising salaries. Which of those become hard line issues and which they’re willing to give a bit on will be crucial to how this all shakes out.
From the WNBA perspective, the ownership landscape has changed pretty significantly since the last CBA negotiations. The internal battle between longtime owners, who typically have less money, and new owners, many of whom are adding WNBA squads to portfolios with major men’s sports teams, seems to have finally tipped over to the latter’s favor. What that means for CBA negotiations will be fascinating to watch. If I were to guess, they’ll be more willing to give on things like immediate improvements for facilities and flights, understanding the importance of those up front costs to the long-term success of the league. If I were to guess, what they’ll try to do is use those things to try and squeeze a bit more when it comes to the revenue split in the long-term, recognizing the growth phase the league is in.
I don’t expect a deal to come together quickly, as there is far more money at stake in these negotiations than ever before in the WNBA. That always raises tensions in negotiations, especially early on, but, while the players are (rightfully) saying right now they’re willing to go into a work stoppage if necessary to get what they want, I think all parties involved understand that there would be considerable risk in a stoppage doing damage to the massive wave of momentum the league is riding right now.
The New York Liberty took down the Minnesota Lynx in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals on Sunday night. It wasn’t without a bit of controversy, though, as the Lynx felt incredibly hard done by the officials — a pretty tough foul call towards the end of regulation gave Breanna Stewart two free throws to force overtime, and after the game, Cheryl Reeve went as far as to say that the game was stolen from her team.
Clearly, Reeve isn’t the only person from the team who thought the refs did a bad job. Lynx star Napheesa Collier posted a collection of photos from this season on her Instagram account, and while she did not include anything in her caption about the officials, head to the photos at the end, which make pretty clear that she hasn’t quite gotten over how things played out.
Collier, the league’s Defensive Player of the Year, was nothing short of brilliant for Minnesota on its run to the WNBA Finals, and was a major reason why the team was able to push the Liberty to the brink with a title on the line. Collier averaged 19 points, 8.2 rebounds, 3.5 steals, 2.6 assists, and 1.8 blocks in 40.6 minutes per game during the Finals.
It seems like Lil Yachty just can’t catch a break. Over the past several months, the “Sorry Not Sorry” rapper has been at the center of multiple controversial moments.
Yesterday (October 20), Curtis Williams (formerly of the ATL rap crew Two-9) took to his official Instagram page he slammed Lil Yachty’s “We Ball Forever” music video.
In a post shared to Williams’ Instagram stories, the rapper suggested that Lil Yachty stole the video treatment for “We Ball Forever” from him. With a side-by-side image, Williams compared the teaser visual for his unreleased song to Lil Yachty’s latest music video.
“LMAO COME ON NOW,” wrote Williams.
Although Williams didn’t specify what areas he felt slighted by, but the screenshot of each project, followers assumed that it was the fish eye lens effect. Others suggested that the two rapper’s flows and song production also shared similarities.
While, Lil Yacthy hasn’t issued a response, his following jumped in to shut down Curtis Williams’ claim.
Was Ariana Grande cast in the role Wicked role? Well, that’s what Elvira actress Cassandra Peterson seemed to suggest. During an October 18th Yours Cruelly, Elvira Xxperience event at Knott’s Berry Farm theme park in Buena Park, California, Peterson was asked to dish about her worst celebrity encounters.
Without hesitation Peterson revealed an upsetting with “The Boy Is Mine” singer. “Ariana Grande,” exclaimed Peterson.
Coming from the beloved Mistress Of The Dark, that must have sting. Yesterday (October 20), Ariana Grande took to the comment section of Elvira’s Instagram post (viewable here) about the exchange to issue an apology.
“I actually don’t even remember getting the chance to meet you,” she wrote. “I had an anxiety attack and to my memory, left before the rest of my family (this was around 7 years ago and at the time I was really not great with being in public crowds or loud places)… but if I’m misremembering this moment, I sincerely apologize for offending you so.”
Elvira hasn’t addressed the apology, but when reflecting on the collision she accused the entertainer of using her fame to secure 21 tickets then applied pressure for photos. “We’re like, ‘Okay,’ and we give her the tickets,” she said. “She comes backstage, and she asks if I could take pictures with all of her friends and relatives she brought. I take a picture with every single one of them. I sign autographs for every single one of them. Then I say to her, ‘Can we take a photo together?’ She goes, ‘Nah, I don’t really do that.’”
One Direction fans are still coming to terms with band member Liam Payne’s tragic and untimely death on October 16.
Dozens of musicians have publicly offered their condolences to the late “Stack It Up” singer’s family. Others like Bruce Springsteen addressed the “enormous pressures on young people” in the music business. According to a recently published report by ABC News, Liam might’ve been fighting those weighted battles.
The alleged result of a toxicology report attached to Liam Payne’s partial autopsy reveal that the 31-year-old listed multiple substances. The paperwork supposedly lists recreational drug “pink cocaine” (commonly consists of a methamphetamine, ketamine, and MDMA mixture), cocaine, benzodiazepine, and crack cocaine. Sources reportedly found a makeshift aluminum pipe, which they alleged could have been used to ingest the drugs on-site.
Prior to Payne’s fatal fall from the Argentinian hotel’s third floor balcony, workers claimed to expressed concerns to emergency services that Liam was an immediate threat to himself after companions supposedly told them about his spurts of aggression moment before.
Liam Payne previously spoke about his fight with substance abuse, alcoholism, and depression, but fans thought he was in a better place due to his recent upbeat online posts. Liam’s family released a mournful statement following news of his passing, which read: “We are heartbroken. Liam will forever live in our hearts, and we’ll remember him for his kind, funny and brave soul. We are supporting each other the best we can as a family and ask for privacy and space at this awful time.”
At the end of Peaky Blinders‘ fourth season, Alfie Solomons “died” during a beach duel with Tommy Shelby. Very quickly, word surfaced that Tom Hardy reportedly “didn’t want” to leave the series, and whether or not that was true at the time, we will never know. What was extraordinarily clear, however, is that Alfie was revealed to be alive in the fifth season and blind in one eye. He also claimed or pretended not to remember having written a letter to Tommy in a scene that must be rewatched at every opportunity.
Additionally, the series finale took great pains to reunite the pair while deliciously straining credulity. The reason why Alfie surfaced in Canada didn’t even have to make sense (although it did) because a parting scene between Cillian Murphy and Hardy needed to happen before the series closed. And despite the whole “attempted murder” thing and all the sh*t that Alfie did to betray Tommy and undermine his goals, Alfie was probably the closest thing that Tommy Shelby OBE had to a friend at the end of the show. Wild, I know.
Will Tom Hardy Be Back As Alfie In The Peaky Blinders Movie?
Hardy sure seems game to mumble his way through one of his greatest characters whenever possible. Sky News quoted him boasting that “100% Alfie will definitely make an appearance, but I don’t know when” before conceding, “I don’t even know if he will, that’s just me punting.”
Knight has not revealed whether the World War II-set story will include Alfie Solomons, but Cillian Murphy did take pains to tell Netflix of the movie, “This is one for the fans.” Given that fans adored the scene with Tommy and Alfie in the sixth season finale (Canada!), this has to happen, so to speak, “BY ORDER OF THE PEAKY FOOKIN’ BLINDERS.” And what will happen if Alfie doesn’t materialize onscreen? Flat caps will start flying.
Tornado Wrangler Glen Powell has already moved on to filming (maybe) 8 other films since his time on Twisters, but that’s alright. The world can still enjoy this not-sequel at home, right now on VOD, but also soon as part of a streaming package. Do you want some more positive news? Daisy Edgar-Jones is as charming as her male co-star, and there’s enough time to prepare for authentic line dancing before the touchdown happens.
When And Where Will Twisters Be Streaming?
Mark your weather calendars for November 15, which is (by most meteorological standards) safely outside tornado season in the U.S., but hey, you never know these days when weather will get wilder than usual. So batten down those hatches and strut on over to Peacock to watch the goods, complete with an absurdly controversial ending that shouldn’t be divisive, but at least the disappointment was relatively harmless.
Now, will there be a third film? Twistersgrossed $370 million worldwide, so the forecast seems optimal, unless Glen Powell’s schedule never opens up again. He’s got The Running Man reboot, Top Gun: Maverick, and countless other dates on his calendar, and good for him.
Twisters not only stars Powell and Edgar-Jones but also Anthony Ramos, Katy O’Brian, Sasha Lane, Maura Tierney, and David Corenswet.
Single-barrel bourbon is a booming market right now, so much so that an increasing number of bourbon brands are entirely devoted to single-barrel products. While the advent of single barrel bourbon began with Old Forester’s President’s Choice and the category was popularized by Blanton’s (and John Wick), today, the style is so in demand that it’s hard to keep track of them all!
First, we must understand the ground rules to nominate the best. So, let’s be clear: while certain brands are sold exclusively as single barrels, others are more standard products that are occasionally offered as single barrels. An example of the former would be Blanton’s Single Barrel, which is always the product of one cask, regardless of format. In contrast, an example of the latter would be Elijah Craig, which is typically a small batch product that also has its own single-barrel program. Today, we’ll be considering only the former and foregoing the latter — frankly, there are too many out there!
With that out of the way, let’s dive into our list. Here are the 24 best single-barrel bourbons available in 2024!
Elmer T. Lee is the second single-barrel bourbon from the Buffalo Trace. After Elmer T. Lee, the man, helped to create the brand’s first single barrel bourbon in Blanton’s, the distillery honored him by naming this expression after him.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose on Elmer T. Lee Single Barrel is light and approachable, with bruised peach, honeysuckle, and soft oak tannins leading the way with a touch of apricot and white pepper.
Palate: Once this pour hits the palate, you’ll be grateful that the faint nosing aromas find their way into the mouth and forewarned you of this whiskey’s general lightness. For those expecting a dense complexity, there isn’t any to be found here, but with a slightly thin texture, this whiskey still delivers a substantive stone fruit-forward flavor profile.
Finish: The finish is brief, with only white pepper and the gentle oak tannins from the nose surviving the journey from start to finish.
Bottom Line:
Elmer T. Lee is highly sought after for reasons beyond the bottle’s taste. It was formerly a slightly higher-quality product before demand skyrocketed and it became less affordable and available. This present-day version isn’t going to knock your socks off and isn’t worth any extra effort in hunting down, but it still manages to offer a pleasant, crowd-pleasing experience.
Evan Williams Single Barrel Bourbon was transitioned into a Kentucky-exclusive offering in 2022. However, in 2024, the brand announced that it would be distributed in other states for the first time in two years due to a surplus. The word isn’t yet out on whether that trend will continue through 2025 and beyond, but it came as welcome news to fans of the Evan Williams lineup’s only single-barrel bourbon.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with the aroma of honey and peanut shell, which soon morphs into gently tannic oak tones and fresh orange rinds. Caramel and graham cracker notes also inform the nosing notes before a few shakes of black pepper curb the overall sweetness.
Palate: On the palate, it’s the honey that leads the way as peanut shells and caramel take a backseat. The texture is surprisingly thin, but the flavors themselves are not without considerable depth, defying their limitations to take root throughout the palate.
Finish: The finish welcomes an uptick in the influence of the oak and black pepper, only alluded to at other points in the flavor journey. While it’s only a short-to-medium finish, that brevity complements the flavor profile, making this an approachable and easy-to-enjoy pour again and again.
Bottom Line:
Despite its relatively low ABV, Evan Williams Single Barrel’s mellow profile delivers some rich flavors that cause it to punch above its weight. While longtime fans of the brand continue to grumble that “it ain’t what it used to be,” remarking on a perceived shift in quality and a substantive uptick in price, truth be told, this is still a rock-solid single-barrel bourbon.
Old Forester’s Single Barrel Barrel Proof Bourbon offers the famous distillery’s bourbon as unmodified as possible. While Old Forester’s Whiskey Row Series is always a popular choice for enthusiasts, this single-barrel version is the most sought-after bourbon expression in their regular lineup.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose immediately comes off hot, with an alcohol punch that initially makes it difficult to get at the underlying aromas. Once acclimated to the alcohol burn, a strong banana flambé note fuses with pralines, rich oak, and burnt pie crust. Those fiery notes prepare the palate for a dense, darkly sweet experience in the mouth.
Palate: The intense note of banana flambé finds its way to the palate, and it’s bolstered by dense oak, dark chocolate, and some faint mesquite notes reminiscent of vinegar-based barbecue sauce. The overall flavor profile is brooding, and those flavors are encased in a force field of high-alcohol burn, which admittedly prevents those well-developed layers of flavor from being readily accessible. The mouthfeel is heavy and punctuated by the prickliness of the alcohol burn.
Finish: The finish actually sees some of those flavors escaping their alcohol-heavy enclosure as a bit of dark cherry and juicy orange notes pair up with leather and freshly cracked black pepper throughout the lengthy finish.
Bottom Line:
When Old Forester’s Single Barrel Barrel Proof Bourbon first hit the market, it was a bit polarizing as the highly anticipated expression dazzled fans of the distillery but came off a bit hot to those unaccustomed to its particular brand of bold flavors. In the intervening years, Old Forester has continued dialing in the flavor profile, establishing this bottle as a robust barrel-proof option to separate itself from its tamer offerings. The hair on your chest will hate to see this one coming, but your palate will welcome it heartily.
New Riff produces a stellar 100-proof offering, but for its single-barrel expression, it elevates things by delivering its whiskey at cask strength without chill filtration.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Caramel corn, peanut shells, and cedar come wafting out of the glass when you first pour New Riff Single Barrel, and those notes are quickly joined by cream soda and burnt sugar for a delightful blend.
Palate: Once on the palate, this bourbon leads with cream soda, clove, vanilla wafers, and rich, decadent caramel notes. A touch of white pepper pricks the tip of the tongue, and at midpalate, some more fruit-forward notes of ripe cherries start to develop. The mouthfeel is a bit lean, but who cares when you have well-developed flavors?
Finish: The brief finish welcomes white pepper and youthful oak before the caramel envelopes your palate and gives you a sweet kiss to conclude each sip.
Bottom Line:
By showcasing its barrel inventory’s variety of flavors with this single-barrel lineup, New Riff delivers a delicious bourbon-sipping experience at a higher proof that offers a unique profile every single time.
For their John J. Bowman single-barrel expression, the brand selects some of the oldest barrels in their inventory, though the age is omitted. Of note: the Fredericksburg, VA distillery was purchased by the Sazerac Company in 2003, which also owns Buffalo Trace.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: On the nose, John J. Bowman Single Barrel Bourbon opens with Rainier cherries, butterscotch, and one shake of black pepper spice while some barrel char and red raisins gently play their notes in the background.
Palate: John J. Bowman greets the palate with more red raisins and barrel char with the taste of red cherries clinging to the tip of the tongue, allowing some mellow baking spices like nutmeg and cumin to hit the mid-palate before dark chocolate ushers in the finish. The mouthfeel is medium-bodied, but it has impressive staying power, remaining consistent from the beginning of the palate to the end.
Finish: The finish is medium-length but underlines the sweeter notes in this bourbon with bright red cherries, a touch of honey, and some sweet oak sticking around the longest.
Bottom Line:
While savvy bourbon enthusiasts have been gravitating towards this release due to the Bowman Distillery’s ties to Buffalo Trace, the truly discerning bourbon fan can just as quickly throw that connection out of the window. This is simply great bourbon. The fact that it comes with high quality in a single-barrel format is all the more enticing for those who enjoy seeking out unique flavors and a surprising sipping experience.
Henry McKenna is Heaven Hill Distillery’s critically acclaimed 10-year-old single-barrel bourbon. Due to that critical acclaim, this expression has become far less readily available (and more high-priced), but it remains a stellar value in the Heaven Hill portfolio.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose begins with nail polish that soon cedes the way for cherry syrup, leather, rich oak, and honey-roasted almond aromas. It’s unbalanced, but it is still enjoyable.
Palate: On the palate, those first three notes from the nose make a solid initial impression as the nail polish/cherry syrup vibe strikes your palate before turning into more of a leather-inflected cherrywood note. It begins texturally robust but gradually thins out as the liquid unfurls over your palate and finds the edges of your tongue with a last gasp of caramel and faint smokiness before transitioning into the finish.
Finish: The finish is medium-length, but it’s here where the black cherry flavor finally plants its flag and welcomes even more dense oak and barrel char notes on the back end, allowing this bourbon to stick the landing.
Bottom Line:
As you know, dear reader, Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond, as a single-barrel expression, can offer a wide array of different flavors depending on which barrel your bottle is from, and this one falls in the middle of the range. Finding barrels that are this good from a brand notoriously known to be inconsistent is a treat, but the prospect of finding even better ones will keep you on the hunt.
Rock Hill Farms follows the trend from Buffalo Trace’s mash bill #2, which has almost exclusively been used to produce single-barrel bourbons. Named after the rich farmland along the Kentucky River, this hard-to-find bottle clocks in at 100-proof.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose begins with baked apples, cinnamon, walnuts, and nutmeg, instantly reminiscent of Benchmark Full Proof.
Palate: On the palate, however, Rock Hill Farms comes across as the true “Stagg Jr., Jr.” with a flavor profile that veers into that classic Stagg territory with rougher edges. Think of hazelnut spread, brown sugar, and Memphis barbeque spread with oak, black pepper, and leather notes, keeping the sweetness in check.
Finish: The finish is medium-length but marked by a punch of ethanol and the lingering influence of mouth-drying oak.
Bottom Line:
Rock Hill Farms is full of flavor, to be sure, but it’s a bit muddled and comes across as a bit rushed, with more ideas than it has time to express itself. While it’s still a solid, enjoyable bourbon, it would probably benefit from measured expectations and a bit more time in the barrel.
Weller Single Barrel is the most recently launched member of the extremely allocated core Weller lineup. This expression is the only single-barrel wheated bourbon in Buffalo Trace’s entire portfolio.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Crisp red apples sit atop the aroma notes, then give way to a slightly savory barbeque sauce note with a bit of honey, vanilla, and mature oak.
Palate: On the palate, there’s the familiar balance of red apples and red berries that Weller is known for, but the fruit notes are more nondescript. There’s a moderate bit of nuance, but overall, this is a pleasant and straightforward bourbon marked by juicy orange notes playing off of the red berries and modest oak tones melding well with vanilla ice cream flavors with a fairly viscous mouthfeel.
Finish: The finish finds caramel sweetness covering the crisp red apples from the palate and a rising oak prominence joining black pepper spice to balance those sweeter notes.
Bottom Line:
Typical of single barrel bourbons, each one will be different, but Weller Single Barrel delivers a fairly full-bodied and nuanced sipping experience despite clocking in at a fairly low proof. While Weller Single Barrel doesn’t do much to differentiate itself significantly from the rest of the lineup (particularly when one considers the fact Old Weller Antique is offered in single barrel format), that doesn’t detract from the fact that it’s a damn delicious wheated bourbon.
E.H. Taylor Jr. Single Barrel bourbon is fairly unique in the Buffalo Trace lineup because it is an ongoing single barrel, bottled in bond expression. While it’s more coveted by consumers than its small-batch counterpart, it should be noted that they’re both bottled in bond expressions and thus bottled at the same 50% ABV.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Twin spires of caramel and oak appear on the nose of E.H Taylor Single Barrel, with the caramel coming across as gooey and freshly made and the oak indicating maturity. From there, further aromas of honeyed toast, toasted almonds, and a faint black cherry note can be found hanging in the air.
Palate: On the palate, the faint black cherry note from the nose presents itself with more gusto, and it’s joined by welcome guardrails of oak and fresh hazelnuts. After a few waves of the hand and a second sip, it becomes easier to detect accenting flavors like raisins, walnuts, rye spice, and toffee.
Finish: The finish has some mature oak notes and black pepper to go with even more toffee and candied walnuts. It’s not impressively long, but it lasts enough time to savor the evolution of each of those flavors.
Bottom Line:
E.H. Taylor Jr. Single Barrel Bourbon is chimeric as all single barrel bourbons are, but the vast majority of them are very, very good. This bourbon has become more elusive even than Blanton’s, making it one of the harder-to-find single-barrel bourbons in Buffalo Trace’s portfolio, but that’s not merely a coincidence. People keep buying them up because they tend to be worth every penny.
Originally launched in 1994, Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit was Jimmy Russell’s not-so-subtle response to the popularity of another ornately designed single-barrel bourbon bottle: Blanton’s. While the contemporary bottle of Kentucky Spirit is streamlined and comes in the same package as Rare Breed, the liquid inside is a single-barrel version of Wild Turkey Bourbon at 101 proof.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose on Kentucky Spirit begins gently with honey and graham cracker before holiday spices, apricots, and nutmeg begin to emerge.
Palate: On the palate, the apricot, nutmeg, and graham cracker notes make the first impression, while black pepper and dried cranberries join the party soon after. The mouthfeel is lean but exceedingly enjoyable, and pops of baking spices accent the overall experience.
Finish: The finish welcomes the inclusion of cooked red apple notes along with some vanilla pods before succinctly tapering off in a crescendo of gentle oak tones.
Bottom Line:
Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit is perhaps the most highly underrated expression from this highly underrated brand. Showcasing single barrels of Wild Turkey’s iconic 101 proof bourbon really allows you to experience its signature flavor profile while also highlighting the subtle variations that can elevate Wild Turkey whiskey to being among the best in America.
14. 2XO Gem of Kentucky
2XO
ABV: 54% Average Price: $230
The Whiskey:
2XO is the brand founded by rockstar blender Dixon Dedman just two short years ago, but he waited until 2023 to release the brand’s best work to date: The Gem Of Kentucky. Billed as “the only double-barreled single barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey on the market,” the brand released roughly 70 of those unique single barrels to market.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This bottle begins expressly fruity with red berries and orange zest leading the way to polished leather, an abundance of vanilla, and some surprising sandalwood.
Palate: Once on the palate, this pour opens with more fruit as the flavor of cherries and clementines burrow deep into your tongue while mature oak and leather notes find the edges of the tongue and the cheek. There’s a gently pulsing influence of baking spice throughout, with black pepper, allspice, and sage becoming most expressive as this pour transitions to the finish.
Finish: The finish welcomes more allspice and sage, and it’s surprisingly lengthy, allowing the fruit-forward notes to reemerge as well as the satisfying taste of vanilla ice cream.
Bottom Line:
Dixon Dedman is no stranger to mingling delicious barrels of sourced whiskey, and the experience he’s accrued from blending previous projects has him in peak form here. 2XO’s more affordable options are well worth your attention as an entry point into the nascent brand. Still, once you try their premium offering, you’ll fully appreciate just how stellar this new category of double-barreled single barrels can be.
Blanton’s Gold was formerly an expression only available in foreign markets, but in 2020, the popular offering was sold for the first time stateside. Bottled at ten proof points higher than Blanton’s standard edition, this version is easily identifiable by its golden bottle topper and see-through bottle design.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose on Blanton’s gold is full of bright cherries, candied apples, caramel, and honey. It’s only after further investigation that you’ll find baking spices like cinnamon, clove, and a faint bit of ginger as well.
Palate: In the mouth, Blanton’s Gold contains a multitude of the aforementioned sweet notes with bright cherries, vanilla ice cream, caramel, and crème brulée. There’s a bit of black pepper and barrel char, but not much, and the guilty pleasure derived from all that sweetness is enhanced by the liquid’s impressively viscous, almost syrupy, mouth-coating texture.
Finish: The finish finds candied ginger and fresh red apples fused with black pepper spice and caramelized sugar. The finish is only medium length, but the richness of the flavor notes makes every moment of that finish quite delightful.
Bottom Line:
One can’t shake the feeling that the flavor of Blanton’s Gold is what Blanton’s standard should be. While it is decidedly sweeter than its lower-proofed brethren, it contains a level of refinement that, relative to its ABV, borders on decadent. Approachable and perfectly polished, Blanton’s Gold is easily the most crowd-pleasing bourbon in the Blanton’s lineup.
12. Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Barrel Proof Tennessee Whiskey
Some bourbon lovers might be surprised to see Jack Daniel’s on this list, but it’s time to let you in on two open secrets in the enthusiast community. One: Jack Daniel’s meets all the requirements to be called a bourbon. Sorry, not sorry. Even their Master Distiller says so himself. Two: Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Barrel Proof is one of the best values in the bourbon world, capable of going toe-to-toe with classics like Elijah Craig Barrel Proof in blind tastings.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose on this one blasts you with overripe bananas, orange zest, maple candy, and rich oak for a delightful medley that feels dessert-like with a boozy punch.
Palate: On the palate, the flavor of banana bread mingles with caramelized orange wheels and maple candy for a melange that you can’t help but roll over your tongue and chew. The caramel and vanilla rise to the top when you hold it on your palate, as does a touch of barrel char and a faintly smoky note that eludes detection when you focus your senses on it but tickles the periphery when you let it be.
Finish: The finish is medium-length and reintroduces the vanilla pod, oak, and cooked orange notes as it fades off of your tongue with one final flourish of black pepper spice.
Bottom Line:
Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Barrel Proof Whiskey is yet another bottle with “limited edition” quality sitting right under folks’ noses. Part of the reason for that is Jack Daniel’s ubiquity, which makes people think this bottle is like the rest of the JD range, and part of it is inexperience as they chase flashy new expressions from distilleries with a fraction of the know-how. If this single-barrel whiskey isn’t one you regularly seek out, change that today.
Premier Drams is a new brand that was launched early this summer by the same man behind Washington D.C.’s legendary whiskey bar, Jack Rose, Bill Thomas. 8 years ago, Thomas began procuring contract-distilled whiskey from an elusive producer in Bardstown, Kentucky, and aging it at the site of the historic Old Taylor Distillery, which today is the home of Castle & Key. Due to Castle & Key’s uniquely cool maturation facilities, many of the barrels that went into these Premier Drams single barrels saw a significant drop in ABV, with the majority hovering right around the 100-proof mark at cask strength.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Strawberry saltwater taffy escapes the grasp of the glass to greet the nose at first before evolving into a cherry Luden’s note and partnering up with truffle honey, white pepper, and peanut brittle for a mellow and intriguing medley.
Palate: On the palate, it’s a delight to discover that the Luden’s cherry note has evolved into a full-blown Rainier cherry, carrying white pepper, allspice, nutmeg, and honey in tow. The flavors here are markedly rich, defying its moderate proof and delivering a depth and richness that will have you sucking your molars, frantically trying to prevent even a single drop from slipping through the cracks.
Finish: Vanilla pods, salted butter, fatty Brazil nuts, and white pepper prevail on the finish with a dollop of honey and Rainier cherries, adding a sweet closing kiss as it succinctly slides off your palate.
Bottom Line:
By delivering cask-strength bourbon at such a moderate proof point, Premier Drams is quietly revolutionizing the modern bourbon landscape. In the fashion of any groundbreaking innovator, I’m not entirely sure the public is ready for it yet, but that’s what makes discovering excellent single-barrel offerings like this so awesome. Not only is it flat-out delicious, but it also feels like you’re peeking around the corner and getting a taste of the future of bourbon.
This brand-new re-release of Baker’s 13-Year Bourbon is new for 2024 and follows in the footsteps of the brand’s previous release. That is to say, this is standard Baker’s bourbon but with anywhere between 5-6 extra years of age, bottled at the brand’s classic 107-proof point.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Honey roasted peanuts, cayenne pepper, and orange rind with some nougat underneath make up the nosing notes, which are fairly rich but harmoniously blended together for a sum greater than its parts.
Palate: It starts off a bit hot, but it quickly cools, allowing the flavors of nougat, golden raisins, allspice, and almonds to shine. Brown sugar and orange rind come rushing in soon after to pick up the slack. The balance of flavors is a delight, and the sweet notes’ restraint allows them all to blend together well.
Finish: The finish has a lot of cayenne, black pepper, and clove. It’s where both the spice and the ethanol are most evident which is a departure from the mellow sweetness found earlier in each sip.
Bottom Line:
For their second edition of Baker’s 13-Year Bourbon, Jim Beam has succeeded in delivering a totally well-rounded expression that represents both their distillery’s stellar output and elevates the Baker’s brand to new heights. If you can find it, this one is a must-try for Bourbon Heritage Month.
Binder’s Stash is a premium non-distilling producer bottling top-shelf whiskey from Indiana and Kentucky. The brand’s fervent digital presence has been documented here before, with this particular single-barrel, “Make It Make Sense,” being one of the budding brand’s newer releases.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Black cherry, grapefruit, and allspice aromas are the opening act. Next up, palo santo, chocolate wafer cookies, and maple candy that hangs in the air in the background.
Palate: This bourbon begins chocolatey as hell and heavy on the palate, making it taste like whiskey more than twice its age with cherries and rich oak with leather and vanilla pods. It’s drying at the edge of the tongue with a sort of grainy texture that’s intriguing and, again, gives it the impression of much older whiskey.
Finish: The finish has bubblegum and cinnamon, and it’s medium to long with some more vanilla coming in, giving it a sweet send-off that makes you want more immediately.
Bottom Line:
This is a remarkable and remarkably well-named whiskey. Credit to Binder’s Stash for pulling it at five years old and resisting the urge to entice consumers with a higher age statement. This offering proves there’s no telling when a bourbon is ready, but it will tell you itself, and it can knock you sideways when it hits that sweet spot.
Nashville Barrel Company has established itself as one of the boldest, most badass NDP brands on the market, and they have their superlative whiskey to thank. NBC is short on marketing gimmicks but long on robust, flavorful single-barrel offerings.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This bourbon from Nashville Barrel Company leads with an intense nose of raspberries, allspice, and Mexican hot chocolate. The cinnamon and chocolate notes fuse well with the mature oak aromas this one gives off, making it an intoxicating pour to explore on the nose.
Palate: The robust flavor of raspberries and honey pops with freshly cracked black pepper and a touch of butterscotch and clove. Wow, this is a pour that genuinely has some zip. Each sip burrows that bounty of flavors deeper into your palate as its deft combination of well-integrated proof and slick viscousness work to showcase just how high each note can soar.
Finish: The finish on this Nashville Nights single barrel is lengthy and delicious. It’s both a display of decadent sweetness and restrained baking spice that makes it a marvel.
Bottom Line:
Nashville Barrel Company is housing some truly remarkable liquid in the Volunteer State. If they can continue to release single-barrels that reach the heights of this superlative one-off, I’d like to volunteer to taste several more of them personally. This is a brand you should have firmly planted on your radar.
Michter’s 10-Year Single Barrel Bourbon, one of the American whiskey world’s most critically lauded expressions, is on an annual release schedule that sends bourbon fans into a fervor each time it’s announced. Utilizing Michter’s well-aged sourced whiskey stock, their blending team then subjects hand-picked barrels to their proprietary filtration process for the end result.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Mango, brown sugar, and black cherry all burst out of the glass once this bourbon is poured like they’ve got places to go. I highly encourage sitting with it for a while, as rich oak and a touch of leather add new dimensions to the aroma profile of this intriguing whiskey.
Palate: Milk chocolate, coconut cream, and almonds splash across the palate on the first pass, making this taste like an Almond Joy in a glass. The barrel tones round things out, and it comes complete with a slick texture that brilliantly carries all of those well-developed flavors without going overboard.
Finish: The finish on this year’s Michter’s 10-year bourbon is medium in length but long on notes like hazelnut and coconut with oak tones and black pepper included.
Bottom Line:
Michter’s 10-year bourbon is typically excellent, but one might expect its low proof — exceptional in solo settings — to get drowned out among some of the high-ABV bruisers in the single-barrel category. Nevertheless, the exceptional quality of this particular expression always wins out.
Four Roses Single Barrel, offered at Barrel Proof, is one of the single-barrel bourbon world’s best offerings. Not only does Four Roses make all ten of its recipes available in the single-barrel program, but by offering them at an undiluted strength, it showcases their distillate in its purest form every time. This particular single barrel is a nine-year and ten-month version from the OESV recipe.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Juicy orange rinds, bright red cherries, and sweet brown sugar aromas come flying out of the glass with this delicious bourbon freshly poured. There’s also a touch of sage, vanilla frosting, and tobacco leaf to be found.
Palate: Brown sugar and red currants are the most immediately available flavors to download once you take a first sip of this single-barrel bourbon. The dense oak introduces some clove and mellow black pepper baking spice notes, as well as grips the palate and pushes towards the finish.
Finish: The finish is mellow and lingering, with figs and cherries fusing with juicy orange notes and barrel char before pulsing off of your palate.
Bottom Line:
No matter the recipe, Four Roses Single Barrel Barrel Proof Bourbon is an exemplar of the single-barrel format, though we do have our favorites. As one of the most historic brands in all of bourbon, it’s simply a must that you try Four Roses Bourbon as undisturbed as possible at full cask strength.
Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel was first launched in 2013 on the heels of Wild Turkey’s success with Russell’s Reserve Small Batch. Non-chill filtered and always proofed to 55% ABV, this release features both general and private barrel selections.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose on Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel is full of rich oak tones as a touch of leather and cooked apples come wafting out of the glass. There’s a touch of almond extract and an underlying tone of caramel that also adds to the nuance.
Palate: Dancing across the palate at first are the cooked apple and oak notes with vanilla extract and white pepper accents, making their presence known at the tip of the tongue. The mouthfeel isn’t overly viscous, allowing the light flavor profile to swiftly find all corners of the palate.
Finish: The finish is medium length and closes with touches of brioche bun, honey, and baking spices like black pepper and nutmeg.
Bottom Line:
Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel Bourbon is such an incredible value that it feels like a crime to sing its praises to those who haven’t already been initiated into the Wild Turkey cult. That said, it’s just as difficult to keep its superlative quality a secret thanks to its relative ubiquity, rich, oak-led flavor profile, and signature Turkey kick. Private barrels of Russell’s Reserve deserve a much higher place on this list, as that’s where deviations from the norm can truly hang with the best bourbon in the world, but these off-the-shelf offerings, which tend to take a tamer, more consistent tack, deserve your attention as well.
This extremely limited expression from Rare Character marks the first time they’ve released the brand Old Cassidy into the wild. The brainchild of founder Pablo Moix and selected in collaboration with Bourb Your Enthusiasm (Frank Dobbins III), this exclusive single-barrel offering sold out in less than a minute when it was released online earlier this June. More single barrels of Old Cassidy are expected to arrive in the first quarter of 2025.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Rich black cherries, flaky pastry notes, and well-integrated oak dominate the nose. Not to be confined by those, there are further aromas of peanut brittle and dark chocolate chunks, along with a touch of allspice that really help to round out the whiskey.
Palate: Oak, flaky pastry, and cherry rhubarb flavors come barreling down the palate on the first sip. After sip number one, you’ll find a slight herbal tea note hanging around at midpalate, which turns almost sour before transforming into apple cider at the back of your palate. The oak tones rise and fall in prominence, which allows bits of brown sugar and dark chocolate to get in a word otherwise.
Finish: The finish comes complete with bright red cherry notes and Manuka honey for a medium-length sendoff that’s sure to please.
Bottom Line:
The folks behind Rare Character are purveyors of some of the best bourbon on the planet today, and Old Cassidy is a prime example of them swinging for the fences with their stellar single-barrel releases. While Old Cassidy is only one barrel into its existence, with more coming very soon, this is a brand you’ll want to seek out when the opportunity arises.
Unbeknownst to many, Old Forester President’s Choice was America’s first single-barrel bourbon. The expression, which can be traced back to 1962, originally got its name because Old Forester’s President hand-selected the barrels that went into it. Today, Old Forester President’s Choice single barrels are always bottled at full cask strength, although when it was introduced, there was also a 90.3-proof small batch version.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose on this whiskey is chock-full of layers with maple candy, deep caramel, and milk chocolate brownies representing the sweeter contingent as a fruity black cherry aroma pairs with sandalwood, clove, and vanilla on the other end of the spectrum.
Palate: Brownie and black cherry are most evident initially, enveloping your palate in a dark, rich sweetness. Initially, it has some heat on it, but it’s just enough to prod you and let you know it’s there. The liquid is full-bodied and silky, hanging out on the back palate with a touch of leather and mesquite barbeque sauce flavor.
Finish: The finish contains a bit of smoked black cherry to go along with the familiar taste of corner brownies and lovely oak tones.
Bottom Line:
Old Forester President’s Choice recently claimed the top spot in our “best of Old Forester” ranking, and given how iconic the brand is, it should come as no surprise to see its best offering listed here. This single-barrel expression is reliably delicious, and difficult though it may be to find, those who seek them out will be met with quite the bounty.
Brook Hill is the top-of-the-line series from the wildly successful Rare Character brand. By cherry-picking some of the best liquid in its inventory, Rare Character offers these premium bourbons (and ryes) in a single-barrel format, undiluted at cask strength in limited quantities.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose entices with marshmallow creme, dark chocolate, and burnt honey, which goes a way toward explaining the name, as well. What’s most impressive about the aromas of this bourbon is how rich and well-defined they are without being obnoxiously bold. In fact, this bourbon takes the opposite track and burrows deep into your olfactory system with subtle ease, making it feel like the aromas are enveloping your senses with even the most modest inhalation.
Palate: The palate of this whiskey is immediately remarkable for being velvety, dense, and rich. What I constantly come back to is the flavor of Luxardo cherries on the front palate, which then graduates into a sticky toffee with a whisper of clove on the back of the palate. It’s slick, to be sure, but it also has some grip — hugging the edges of your tongue and imbuing your palate with a light dusting of dark chocolate truffle flavor and vanilla between the beautiful cherry notes which bob up and down like a buoy at sea.
Finish: There’s an intimate kiss of sweet, rich oak that coats the palate with an oily texture before you’re allowed to say goodbye to this sip. It closes out like a much older bourbon, minus any hints of dry oak, hugging your palate for a satisfyingly long time.
Bottom Line:
This single-barrel series showcases some of the best bourbon available today and highlights how vital barrel curation is for any brand built on sourced whiskey. Rare Character’s ascent in the bourbon world has been a white-knuckle ride. For the greatest thrill yet, you’ll want to seek out a bottle of Brook Hill immediately.
Willett Family Estate, more than any other contemporary American whiskey brand, has cemented itself as the premium house for sourced, single-barrel bourbon. Thanks to the absolutely prodigious stock of well-aged barrels that the brand built its name on back in the late aughts, the Willett Family Estate amassed a cult following of fans dedicated to decyphering its cryptic barrel codes and ascertaining which distilleries produced its exceptional stock of whiskeys. Today, the brand has self-distilled bourbons up to 11 years old, but the word is that they’ve still got some of those hyper-aged sourced barrels being held back for future releases.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nosing notes are full of dunder and molasses, evocative of the nickname this one received, Trinidad Sour, with cinnamon sugar, mocha, and stewed date aromas following closely behind.
Palate: Once in the mouth, the liquid is viscous and expansive across the palate with many of the same notes from the nose, but they’re joined by crème brulée, torched orange wheel, and rich oak.
Finish: The finish is extensive and features more of that delicious interplay of vanilla custard, caramel, savory dates, and barrel char.
Bottom Line:
Because Willett, like many other brands, doesn’t disclose where each of its barrels is sourced from, there’s certainly some fun in trying the single barrel selections in their Family Estate series and guessing the distillery of origin. That, however, misses the point, as Willett’s unique maturation location contributes an outsize amount of flavor to the end products. With an established track record of excellence, you’d be better off simply sitting back and savoring what’s in your glass because these pricey pours are a must-try for every hardcore bourbon enthusiast.
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