GoneTrending

If you’re looking for good bourbon, we have you covered! Last Friday, the San Francisco World Spirits Competition closed out its 2022 awards at a ceremony in San Francisco, where the “best in class” bourbon winners were announced (in part by me!). The bourbon whiskeys awarded the “best in class” for their categories are considered the best of the best.

Bar none. This is the end of the very long SF Spirits Awards medal rollout.

To get this high-level award, the bourbons had to go through three rounds of double-blind tastings with three sets of judges all unanimously agreeing that the pour deserved to move up the ranks towards the finals and compete for “best in class.” That’s a lot of hoops for any spirit to get through. There were 5,000 total spirits entered this year and nearly 1/5 of those were whiskeys. So for a single bourbon to rise to the top, it has to be very distinct and absolutely delicious.

I’m going to be providing my own tasting notes on the “best in class” bourbon winners from each category below. Hopefully, those notes can help you decide whether it’s worth adding any of these bottles to your own bar cart at home. Let’s get into it!

Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months

• We Blind Tasted A Whole Bunch Of $30-60 Bourbons To See If Any Could Beat Weller
• We Blind Tasted Classic Bourbons And Were Shocked By The Winner
• The Best Ten-Year-Old Bourbon Whiskeys, Tasted Blind And Ranked
• We Tasted Bourbon Whiskeys ‘Double-Blind’ And Tried To Guess Each Bottle
• All The Double Gold-Winning Straight Bourbons From This Year’s San Francisco World Spirits Competition

Best of Class Straight Bourbon — 1792 Full Proof

ABV: 62.5%

Average Price: $100

The Whiskey:

This bourbon is around eight years old, though there’s no age statement. The juice is bottled as-is at 125 proof without the usual chill-filtration that 1792 goes through.

Tasting Notes:

This is hot on the nose with a supporting act of classic bourbon notes of vanilla, toffee, and booze-soaked oak. The palate delivers on those promises while adding in notes of cinnamon sticks soaked in mulled wine, grilled corn cobs, and dried cherries soaked in brandy and covered in dark chocolate. The mid-palate is just hot, hot, hot as a sense of Irish Spring soap arrives next to sweetgrass, vanilla tobacco, and a pile of firewood on the finish.

Bottom Line:

This is always a solid pick for any burgeoning bourbon lover. The Barton 1792 juice is part of the famed Sazerac portfolio (which includes things like, you know, Pappy and Weller), making it a refined bottle of whiskey. I personally like this one over a rock or two or mixed into a killer Manhattan, but it works really well neat too.

Best of Class Small Batch Bourbon, Up to 5 Years — Penelope Private Select Bourbon

ABV: 59.1%

Average Price: $60

The Whiskey:

This whiskey from Penelope really helps solidify the brand as a powerhouse in blending. The whiskey in the bottle is a blend of three bourbon mash bills (one is 21 percent rye, another 90 percent corn, and a 45 percent wheated bourbon — all from MGP), which create a four-grain (corn, wheat, rye, and barley) bourbon. All of this is to say that this is a masterful blend of four to five-year-old barrels into something bigger than the individual parts.

Tasting Notes:

You get a sense of dry cornmeal on the nose next to apple crumble, plenty of wintry spice, a hint of mulled wine, wet brown sugar, and a thin layer of wet-yet-sweet cedar. A hint of brandy-soaked cherries arrives on the palate with a dusting of dark chocolate powder next to more apple pie filling, spice, and buttery crust alongside a sweet, toffee-heavy mid-palate. The end arrives with a dry wicker vibe, cherry tobacco chewiness, and a hint of that dark chocolate.

Bottom Line:

This is just straight-up good. It’s unique, deep, and yet very accessible and kind of fun. I pour it over a rock to let it bloom in the glass a little.

Best of Class Single Barrel Bourbon, Up to 10 Years — Nashville Barrel Co. Single Barrel Bourbon

ABV: Varies

Average Price: $90

The Whiskey:

Nashville Barrel Co. is doing some of the best work in the bottling game, full stop. They’re sourcing incredible barrels (a lot from MGP) and bottling them as-is without any cutting, filtering, or fussing — they let the whiskey speak for itself and it’s kind of magical. This expression tends to be five to eight-year-old barrels that will vary slightly in the flavor profile while always leaning into bold and distinct flavors.

Tasting Notes:

Depending on which bottle you come across, expect a nose full of cotton candy, buttered popcorn, vanilla beans, freshly baked cherry pie with a lard crust, and plenty of caramel sauce, mild leather, hints of oak, and a dollop of orange oil. The palate will lean into the spice with plenty of cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and allspice with maybe a hint of anise and sweetgrass before a mid-palate of Almond Joy and salted caramel candies take over. That sweet mid-point will give way to a finish with nutty dark chocolate clusters with hints of dried fruits, old leather, sweet oak, and plenty of wintry spices.

Bottom Line:

This is one of the funniest and best whiskeys on the list. It’s just a classic pour all around that delivers more and more depth the more you nose and taste it. But at the same time, it’s also a fun and easy drinking experience that you can just go with. It’s a great balance.

Best of Class Special Barrel-Finished Bourbon — TX Texas Straight Bourbon Finished in Cognac Casks

ABV: 50.8%

Average Price: $65

The Whiskey:

This Texas bourbon is made at Firestone & Robertson Distilling Company with an undisclosed mash bill. What we do know is that this whiskey spends two years maturing under the hot Texas sun before it’s transferred into Cognac casks for a final 17-month rest.

Tasting Notes:

Apricots and floral honey mingle on the nose as a hint of raw oats, soft leather, and plum pudding round things out. The palate leans into the spices from the wintry plum pudding with plenty of lush vanilla and salted caramel sweetness on the mid-palate. The finish ramps up the dark brown spices with a Red Hot vibe as the floral honey returns with a hint of grape seeds and skins on the dry backend.

Bottom Line:

This was one of the biggest surprises of the night. The Texas whiskey beat out some stiff competition in a very wide (and growing) category. That all said, this is a super easy sipping experience with a nice and fruity vibe that’s as good for beginners as it is for hardcore bourbon stans.

Best of Class Wheated Bourbon — W. L. Weller 12 Year

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $350

The Whiskey:

This expression of Weller rests in the warehouse for 12 long years. A fair amount of juice is lost to the angels during that stretch. In the end, the whiskey is vatted from the barrels that survived and then proofed down to a soft 90 proof.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a deep, creamy sweet corn note on the nose that gives way to old wool sweaters and vanilla pancakes rolled around soft marzipan. The palate has a warm biscuit vibe with hints of buttery toffee syrup and old cutting boards that still smell of dark spices and dried fruit. The end takes its time and touches back on the cakey vanilla, buttery syrups, soft marzipan, and old, fruit-stained wood as it gently fades away.

Bottom Line:

This was a no-brainer. I had a dram or two yesterday of this and, yeah, it’s just freaking great. It’s so easygoing while delivering a big flavor profile. It’s classic through and through.

Best of Class Tennessee Whiskey — Jack Daniel’s 10 Year

ABV: 48.5%

Average Price: $400

The Whiskey:

This new age statement released from Jack Daniel’s feels like a throwback to a bygone era in Tennessee Whiskey. The whiskey is aged for at least ten years. During that time, the barrels spend time in the “Buzzard’s Roost” at the top of the rickhouse. Once they hit the right flavor profile, those barrels are moved to the bottom floors of other warehouses to slow the aging down. Finally, the whiskey is vatted, proofed, and bottled.

Tasting Notes:

This opens with a rich matrix of cherry syrup, apple cores, sticky toffee, vanilla ice cream, and a thin line of wet and sweet wood. The palate opens up towards the dark fruit but dries it out and married it to a sticky and spicy tobacco leaf while toasted cedar soaked in salted caramel vibes with dry corn husks that are just singed. The finish really takes its time as the cherry attaches to an old cinnamon stick and the tobacco takes on a sticky chewiness with a mild savory fruit edge.

Bottom Line:

This was the other no-brainer of the night. This is a really good pour of whiskey that’s helping re-shape the way people think about Jack Daniel’s. If you can get your hands on a bottle, you will not be disappointed.

Best of Class Small Batch Bourbon, 6 to 10 Years/Best of Class Overall Bourbon — Old Ezra 7 Year

ABV: 58.5%

Average Price: $97

The Whiskey:

This brand from Luxco is still sourced juice though they did start distilling their own in 2018. This bottle is a seven-year-old blend of barrels with a bourbon mash bill of 78 percent corn, 12 percent malted barley, and ten percent rye, which just so happens to be Heaven Hill’s bourbon mash bill. These barrels are blended down and left as-is at cask strength for bottling.

Tasting Notes:

This is a pretty classic bourbon from nose to finish with a strong sense of rich caramel, pancakes with plenty of vanilla, sweet oak, wet brown sugar, and a whiff of cherry tobacco. The palate leans into the woody brown spices as a dark cherry vibe sweetens the mid-palate. The end circles back to that sweet oak and spicy cherry tobacco on a short finish.

Bottom Line:

This was another big surprise. “Best of class overall Bourbon” is a huge win for Lux Row. I really dig this, but it’s wild that it beat our Weller and Jack. Moreover, you can actually get this on the average liquor store shelf right now. Though that’s going to change after this award. Consider yourself warned.

It’s been a bit over a month now since Rina Sawayama announced her latest album, Hold The Girl. The LP’s September release is still a few months away, which means there’s plenty of time for more advance singles.

The latest one arrives today as Sawayama shares “Catch Me In The Air,” a spacious and driving single of which Sawayama says:

“I really wanted to write about this weird relationship with single parents — you do catch each other in the air. […] ‘Catch Me In The Air’ was written in between lockdowns with Oscar Scheller and Gracey. I wanted the whole song to sound like it was on an Irish coastline, like a Corrs video. We put in a key change to go into the chorus, at the end of the pre-chorus to make it lift and soar like a bird. I then worked on it more with Clarence before taking it to Stuart Price. This was the first song that Stuart and I worked on together, and it was the most incredible experience. I’m such a huge fan of his work with Madonna and Kylie [Minogue] so it was a dream come true. We would send each other stock images of coastlines, people doing yoga on a pier, meditating in the middle of a field, hay bales, etc. to get inspired sonically.”

Listen to “Catch Me In The Air” above.

Hold The Girl is out 9/2 via Dirty Hit. Pre-order it here.

It’s no secret that networks will often want to take their biggest hit and try to develop a spin-off, though it seems like only a handful really make it out into the world. So it makes sense that Netflix would want to explore some more Upside Down-themed stories, and they might be doing just that.

While speaking with Variety, those Duffer Brothers were at it again chatting about the upcoming season four finale that is being hyped as the most upsetting episode ever, but they also started discussing the potential spinoffs that the series could inspire.

Netflix has yet to confirm a spinoff, and it will likely not happen until Stranger Things wraps after next season, but the brothers have already started sketching out a timeline for a new series. “There’s a version of it developing in parallel [to season 5], but they would never shoot it parallel,” Ross explained. “I think actually we’re going to start delving into that soon as we’re winding down and finishing these visual effects, Matt and I are going to start getting into it.” The brothers have famously been fine-tuning the finale just days before it airs.

Matt Duffer then added, “The reason we haven’t done anything is just because you don’t want to be doing it for the wrong reasons, and it was just like, ‘Is this something I would want to make regardless of it being related to Stranger Things or not?’ And definitely. Even if we took the Stranger Things title off of it, I’m so, so excited about it,” Matt adds. “It’s going to be different than what anyone is expecting, including Netflix.” We are all well aware of what happens when you reboot a show for the wrong reasons.

Whatever the spinoff may be, let’s hope it takes place in the ’90s so that Netflix can get the Spice Girls to reunite. Hey, they were able to get Kate Bush out of hiding. Anything can happen!

(Via Variety)

The long and strange cycle of Jeopardy! guest hosts following the death of Alex Trebek may soon, finally, come to an end. That is, of course, if the announcement of a new host actually sticks this time.

It’s been nearly two years of drama since Trebek’s passing, as the long string of guest hosts and outrage following the announcement of Mike Richards as his replacement has filled headlines and sparked plenty of controversy. But all of that is apparently coming to an end.

As Variety detailed in a backstage interview with Jeopardy! producer Michael Davies at the Daytime Emmys, the folks behind America’s most popular syndicated game show are gearing up to officially announce a replacement for Trebek. Davies, now at the reigns of the show following the departure of Mike Richards in the fallout of his own attempt to take over as host, said the “awkward” phase of the show did have some good news: namely in some spectacular runs from contestants:

“The scandal was, as we call it at ‘Jeopardy!,’ ‘the awkward months,’” executive producer Michael Davies said backstage. “But it showed the power of our audience and how passionately our fans care about the program, which is just so important. What’s happened over the course of the season — Matt Amodio, and Amy Schneider and Mattea [Roach] and Ryan [Long] — really made us just remember how incredible the game is. The stars of our show and Mayim [Bialik] and Ken [Jennings] have done incredible job hosting.”

Davies is certainly not wrong, as we’ve seen some records fall and huge paydays during the stretch where no one really knew who would be hosting at any given time. But the bigger story is that the show expects to name permanent hosts “very soon.” And not just one.

Davies added, ‘we hope to have a hosting announcement very, very soon. But with all of our plans for ‘Jeopardy!’ — which is more ‘Jeopardy!,’ not less, more versions — we’re going to need multiple hosts to represent the entire audience, to represent the entire country, in order to take this franchise forward.”

The “more versions” Davies is referring to are the primetime ABC events that Mayim Bialik is currently slated to host, though there has been some speculation that something different is now in the works. The whom here is, of course, the biggest question on fans’ minds, but it’s certainly intriguing that Jeopardy! is comfortable having multiple hosts tackling different formats of the show. By now fans certainly have their favorites, and though it will be impossible to please everyone it seems like they are confident there’s plenty of answers in the form of questions for everyone that wants the hosting podium.

(Via Variety)

Earlier this year, Chicago rapper Vic Mensa was arrested on felony narcotics charges for possession of hallucingenic mushrooms and LSD at Washington Dulles International Airport after returning from Ghana with Chance The Rapper. US Customs and Border Protection noted he had 41 grams of liquid LSD, about 124 grams of Psilocybin capsules, 178 grams of Psilocybin gummies, and six grams of Psilocybin mushrooms in his luggage. According to TMZ, a representative for Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney says Vic pled guilty to one count of possession of a Schedule III controlled substance — a misdemeanor — in exchange for a year of unsupervised probation.

The lesser penalty came in lieu of a 12-month jail sentence and includes a $1k fine, 25 hours of community service, and a substance abuse assessment. Vic also gave a statement to TMZ, calling for reform of drug laws to decriminalize hallucinogens and advocating their use in mental health treatment. You can read that statement below.

In this case, I have decided to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge. I have been extremely vocal about my mental health, the culture at large and access to mental health treatment. It is important to note the extensive research being done on the topic of psilocybin [shrooms] and the many significant movements underway for legalization and decriminalization.

Esteemed universities such as Johns Hopkins, University of California, NYU, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and The Imperial College of London have all immersed themselves in years-long research programs with full departments and centers dedicated to this work. Unfortunately, our laws have not kept up with the research showing that psychedelic plants and compounds can be successfully used to treat otherwise treatment-resistant mental illness .

I have contributed positively to many communities and will continue to do so with this case. My hope is that the silver lining to this matter will be increased focus on the effectiveness of psychedelics to treat mental illness and mood disorders that millions are battling with depression and anxiety with hope that all of our laws will change accordingly.

(Spoilers for Season 3 of The Boys will be found below.)

The Boys continues to ratchet up its outrageous antics, many of which culminated in last week’s “Herogasm” that’s being called the best episode of the show. The episode was so filled with bodily fluids that the production actually ran out of a key fluid, and now, showrunner Eric Kripke is revisiting how that episode came together in the writer’s room.

To refresh, though, it’s worth noting that Amazon (according to Kripke) only had a problem with one scene that had been planned for Season 1. That scene was retooled and ended up surfacing in the Season 2 finale (those moments where Homelander pleasured himself atop a skyscraper), so of course one wonders whether Amazon felt a little apprehensive about any of the “Herogasm” scenes.

Well, they apparently didn’t have a problem with the scene where Mother’s Milk ends up walking into a fountain of… Father’s Milk.

So which scene (out of many lurid ones that also passed) did give Amazon pause? The one where The Deep got randy with not a fellow Supe but with an octopus:

As Kripke told TV Line, this promoted “a lot of discussion” for the following reasons (and obviously, that octopus was a CGI creature):

“For some crazy reason, Standards has a policy against bestiality. They’re so uptight, really. The discussion of that scene and how we pulled off that scene actually triggered a lot of alarm bells at a lot of different levels at Amazon because you’re not supposed to show people f-king animals, and I get it. But my pitch to them was always like it’s so absurd [that] it wouldn’t be out of place in a Farrelly brothers movie. So it’s hard to call it prurient bestiality. It’s ridiculous. To my knowledge, I don’t even think octopi have orifices down there. So there was a lot of discussion of like what are the shots, and what can we do and what can we get away with?”

Kripke added that The Boys is actually one of the reasons why Amazon enacted a “Standards & Practices department,” which make sense. Further, the showrunner added that the show nixed an underwater sex scene with a female Supe (akin to a Creature from the Black Lagoon thing) that emerged from the water and “sprayed all over Hughie.” Yet in the end, most of the spraying happened to Mother’s Milk. You gotta feel for the guy losing his favorite jacket like that, but to be fair, I think Hughie went through enough this episode. Being naked in a house full of copulating Supes probably isn’t as fun as it sounds.

(Via TV Line)

The next 48 hours will apparently be a staring contest between Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets, played out via various reports and leaks coming from both camps.

On Monday morning, we got word that Kyrie had requested, and been granted, permission to find sign-and-trade offers from other teams as he seeks a new deal before Wednesday’s deadline to exercise his player option. However, that is easier said than done, as Irving hasn’t exactly made himself the most desirable trade target in recent years, with perception around the league that his on-court value isn’t worth the off-court headaches that come with him being on the roster. With Irving seeking a new home, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that there is only one team with real interest in a sign-and-trade, the Los Angeles Lakers, but they don’t have a package that interests the Nets.

That, of course, is a problem in acquiring Irving if he opts in to his contract — which is the only way the Lakers could land him due to the hard cap — but there is one alternative that was initially floated as almost laughable but now seems like an actual possibility: Kyrie opting out and signing a $6.3 million taxpayer midlevel in L.A.

Doing so would be giving up $30 million next year, but Irving has made it clear that money isn’t everything to him in recent years — most notably losing paychecks all of this past year in his refusal to get vaccinated — and if there were ever a star-caliber player to make such a move, Irving would be at the top of the list. There will surely be more leaks from both sides over the next two days — and possibly, all the way into free agency — as the leverage game is afoot. It certainly seems like this one is coming from the Brooklyn side to indicate they aren’t willing to trade him to the Lakers and making clear that Kyrie’s options are limited.

Christian Bale is in full promotional mode for his villainous turn in Thor: Love and Thunder, but despite the film marking his official entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you know a couple of Batman questions are going to pop up. Surprisingly, Bale was not only game, but he also dropped a big bombshell by revealing that he’s totally game for coming back as the Dark Knight if Christopher Nolan is onboard.

During the Love and Thunder press junket, Bale said that despite online reports to the contrary, he’s never been asked to reprise his role as Batman. But if Nolan ever came to him with a fourth movie, that’d be a whole other ball game. Via Screen Rant:

I had a pact with Chris Nolan. We said, “Hey, look. Let’s make three films, if we’re lucky enough to get to do that. And then let’s walk away. Let’s not linger too long.” In my mind, it would be something if Chris Nolan ever said to himself, “You know what, I’ve got another story to tell.” And if he wished to tell that story with me, I’d be in.

Before everyone gets their hopes up, Nolan and Warner Bros. reportedly had a contentious split during the pandemic when the studio’s then-parent company, AT&T, made the controversial decision to stream its entire 2021 film slate on HBO Max. The famed director took his next film, Oppenheimer, to Universal Pictures, which may or may not confirm those continued feelings.

That said, the studio has since merged with Discovery resulting in a change of leadership. With the execs who caused the bad blood with Nolan out the door, that could pave the way for him to return to the house of Batman for a fourth film in the Dark Knight series. “Could” being the keyword here.

Thor: Love and Thunder hits theaters on July 8.

(Via Screen Rant)

Charlie Sheen was the loudest objector to his daughter joining OnlyFans, which is rich, considering literally everything we know about Charlie Sheen.

“She is 18 years old now and living with her mother,” the Two and a Half Men actor told Us Weekly about 18-year-old Sami. “I do not condone this but since I’m unable to prevent it, I urged her to keep it classy, creative, and not sacrifice her integrity.” Sheen’s ex-wife and Sami’s mother, actress Denise Richards, had a more reasonable response, saying, “All I can do as a parent is guide her and trust her judgment, but she makes her own choices.” (The Wild Things star trusted her so much that she also joined OnlyFans.)

Since his initial comments, Sheen has apparently calmed down.

“Denise has illuminated a variety of salient points, that in my haste, I overlooked and dismissed,” he said in a statement to Us Weekly. “Now more than ever, it’s essential that Sami have a united parental front to rely upon, as she embarks on this new adventure. From this moment forward, she’ll have it abundantly.”

Sami Sheen is charging $19.99/month for a subscription to her OnlyFans, while access to Richards’ adult-friendly content will set you back $25/month. Or better yet, subscribe to someone who isn’t a millionaire and/or related to a millionaire.

(Via US Weekly)

America’s Sweetheart and Hollywood legend Carol Burnett doesn’t do interviews very often, but when she was approached by a 17-year-old to chat, it seems like she was delighted at the prospect! In a new interview with the iconic actress, Vanity Fair asked what she had been up to lately, Burnett casually announced she would be a guest on season six of the hit Breaking Bad spinoff, Better Call Saul.

While describing her lockdown experience (it appears the interview was conducted last year), the prolific comedian nonchalantly added that she would be starring in the final season of AMC’s Better Call Saul. “I’m also going to be working in August. I’m going to do a guest shot on Better Call Saul. It’s their final season. I’m in the last few episodes.” Burnett said.

Burnett will be portraying Marion for the final few episodes, which begin airing next month. Her character details haven’t been announced, though Burnett is seemingly ecstatic. “I’m thrilled to be a part of my favorite show,” Burnett said in a statement to MovieMaker. With Burnett’s comedic history and Bob Odenkirk’s out-there sense of humor, it’s surprising it took this long to make it happen!

The second half of the final season will begin airing on July 11th, with more familiar faces slated to appear: earlier this month, the dynamic two from Breaking Bad were confirmed to have a guest appearance in season six, where hopefully nobody will die before the conclusion but with this universe…you really never know.

(Via Vanity Fair)