We don't believe there is one "best" bourbon, but there are bottles that are best for certain moments. It's a cask strength blend created by the blending masters at Barrell Craft Spirits and it is a doozy. The NAS version would be better with a little more age and at a higher proof. And in Division Two we have Old Forester Signature 100 proof up against Wild Turkey 101. No, this isnt a single barrel expression. If I tasted this flight again, theres a very good chance Id have different results. You may or may not see these bottles show up in a more official form in a future version of this guide once we've tried them ourselves. Here we go.. Price Range: $20 to $30. Could this be its year? Many of these regional brands were ones gobbled up by the big distillers in the consolidation that followed Prohibition in the US or they are expressions that were left out of the marketing campaigns that created the big national brands. This is strikingly similar to Woodford on the nose with the same vanilla, tobacco, mint, and floral fruit. Four Rosess upgrade over its standard offering blends 180 barrels of four different recipes per bottling. Flavor Profile: Sweet This bourbon over-delivers for its price and continues to be one of the best value picks on the market. Yes. Boy, was I wrong! Flavor is smooth and a bit musty, with hints of vanilla, banana, cinnamon and a dash of charred oak spice providing a bitter note. 72 percent corn, 18 percent rye, ten percent malted barley. Sour mash and bottled-in-bond, non-distiller-producers and high-ryes. This is a classic bourbon thats been around for a long time. With Distiller, youll always know whats in the bottle before you spend a cent. The bourbon is made by Jim Beam, and retails for around $20 per bottle. Next time you have a blind tasting throw Larceny in to the mix and see the results. It bears no age statement and is bottled at 92 proof. This is a smooth, almost delicate whiskey, and makes an excellent sipper. Egg nog spices kick this sip off. Were just sayin. Really enjoyed reading it and appreciated your message. Retail - $55; Secondary - $90+ Evan Williams 23 Year Old Bourbon - T2. This is not a new phenomenon and it plays a large role in blended bourbons. The first Black blender at a major distillery, Major previously made waves as the Whiskey Blender at Bulleit. It has a highly complex taste, with everything from cotton candy and cayenne pepper to macadamia nuts and underripe blackberries showing up across the nose and palate. There are a variety of Very Old Barton bourbons on the market including an 80 proof, an 86 proof and a 90 proof. Weller CYPB, Weller Full Proof, Redemption Wheated, Wilderness Trail Wheated Mash Bill etc, would all be added. You can get two of these for the price of one Woodford. #3 barrel char. He attended the University of Kentucky in the mid to late 1990s. Ive had or have everything on the easy list. Larceny Bourbon ABV: 46% Distillery: Heaven Hill Distillery, Louisville, KY Average Price: $26 The Whiskey: This is the exact same juice that's just aged a little less. A store near me does private barrel selections of OWA and they are outstanding. It's also the first brand. You can follow him on Facebook and Twitter @BillStraub and email him at [emailprotected]. Here are my rankings the Best Wheated Bourbons in each category. Please be responsible. Sazerac 18 typically demands the highest price in the Buffalo Antique Collection line. Average Price: $20. The result is bottled at 93 proof. The mash bill here, made entirely of non-GMO grains, is 65 percent corn, 30 percent rye and 5 percent malted barley. Notwithstanding the number of bourbon brands, however, and the veritable explosion in craft producers, now close to 2,000 operating distilleries, over 95% of all of the bourbon made in the United States is produced by 13 large distilleries owned by eight major beverage companies. ABV: 43% I walk in and find 15 year old Pappy in a red velvet sack sitting on the shelf for about sixty dollars a bottle. I almost included Bernheim Wheat Whiskey in this list, since even though its a wheat whiskey, it taste a LOT like a wheated bourbon due to its high corn content. This is such a dynamic whiskey, Minnick says. Sour Mash: A fermentation technique used by almost all bourbon distillers that employs pre-fermented mash from a previous distilling in a new mash. While there's no age statement on the bottle, it's believed that Double Oaked is aged for at least six years. Youd think that would make it a shoe-in to win my blind tasting. Small Batch: A subjective term signaling a bourbon made using a select number of barrels or recipes in a blended bottling. On the palate, the whiskey is smooth and sweet, with vanilla and caramel and a little dried fruit. The dram leans into a honey-sweet edge with the oak, mild spice, and hint of dark chocolate popping at the end. That brand was owned for a while by Julian P Pappy Van Winkle, and is considered the inspiration for the Pappy Van Winkle bourbon. Buffalo Trace is more bright, vibrant, tropical, fruity, and herbal. Just bought a bottle of Larceny and the more I get into the bottle the more Iike it. At $30 per bottle, this is an outstanding value for an aged, over-proof, classic bourbon. Kentuckys population is 4.3 million people. Makes it easy to see why some newbies often cant tell the difference between some of these bourbons, right? Early Times had already won a blind tasting with me previously, having captured gold in theBourbon Pursuit blind BIB Showdown. The palate carries that spice into peppery territory with hints of oak, vanilla, tart apples, and honey. If you want craft bourbon, we love New Riff's dedication to Bottled-in-Bond whiskey-making and rich flavor profiles. Nose: Honey, caramel, wintergreen, almond. The latter is a blend of a 16-year-old bourbon and a 15-year-old high-rye bourbon that pays tribute to the family's first distiller, Jacob Beam, and it's said to be some of the best bourbon being produced at the busy distillery. It has none of the harshness youd expect from a 133.2 proof bourbon, and doesnt undergo chill filtering instead just using light filtration to remove barrel char flakes. The whiskey is produced by Brown-Forman. I drink bourbon. Ive always found a bright nutmeg note, which can really stand out in blind tastings. (Read the recap.). Try it on the rocks. Distiller Score: 86. Bourbon with an age statement and available at barrel strength for a good price? Its not complex, but the sweetness is really nice the way it hits the palate. Additionally, Four Roses uses up to five different yeast strains for its bourbons, and all are used here. If you can get your hands on the bottle like the Dutton clan did in season 5 of Yellowstone youll be treated to notes of creamed corn, toasted vanilla and a heavy dose of wheat. For instance, Jim Beam, Bakers, Knob Creek, Old Crow, and Old Taylor all have the exact same mash bill (75/13/12 corn/rye/barley), barrel char (level #4), and barreling proof (125 proof). On the palate, there is a distinctive honey sweetness accompanied by cinnamon and nutmeg. Overpowering taste and smell of alcohol. The holy grail of bourbon brands announced its annual slate of whiskeys in October 2022, and the release includes a total of five bourbons along with a rye. The bourbon business is dominated at retail by a handful of national brands. If you love cinnamon notes, youll love this, Minnick says. New Riff Distilling was founded in 2014. Hence, I find the 20 year Van Winkle offering to be a truly fine bourbon, while the 23 year is a mess in the bottle. Larceny, Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, NAS. He is a native of Louisville, KY in the heart of Bourbon Country. Distillers Gin Guide: Styles to Know and Brands to Try. The 15 YO version is similar but far richer and complex. Maker's Mark Cask Strength vs Weller Full Proof . Along with Old Overholt Rye, Old Grand-Dad falls under The Olds family of whiskeys released by Jim Beam. This was so complex, with a 20-second finish and layered in vanilla that it was easily the winner. Henry McKenna Single Barrel, 10 YO, 50% ABV, is bottled by the Heaven Hill distillery. Black Label Extra-Aged is bottled at 43% ABV. It now goes on to compete for Best American Whiskey. At retail prices between $20 and $30, it is among the best priced wheated bourbon currently available. It is aged at least 4 years in a bonded warehouse and is bottled at 100 proof in a trademark square, white label bottle. This bourbon may benefit from some airtime. They were right. . Minnick has a unique use for one of bourbons classic names. In bourbon's growth, consumers have paid the price for its popularity. Head on over to Distiller, or download the app for iOS and Android today! The 6 year age statement is now gone and replaced with just the number 6 on the handle, but they bourbon is indeed at least 4 years old. In my early review days, I wanted to compare anything and everything that seemed similar. Wheres the thirsty modern man, farmer or otherwise, to begin? Learn how your comment data is processed. In the past decade, good brands went from available to allocated and from $15 to $40. Additionally, it was aged at least 4 years under government supervision, and it is bottled at 50% ABV. 4. As with all Pappy releases, the actual price youll pay for a bottle will likely be significantly more, but in a welcome change of pace, the yields were higher in 2022 than in previous years, so more bottles were available than usual. For this reason, I started selecting a Best Everyday Bourbon. On the palate, there are pralines (candied pecans), orange zest, along with caramel, maple syrup, some mint and spice notes of cinnamon and clove. So, I switched it to Evan Williams Bottled-in-Bond, a very widely distributed bourbon from Heaven Hill. As it turns out, it came in my top 10. If you find it, buy it. Bourbon is a type of whiskey that needs to meet a few criteria to officially be called "bourbon." This is Buffalo Traces higher-rye bourbon mash bill even though its not that high comparatively. The whiskey is based on a mash bill of 62% corn, 28% rye and 10% malted barley. It is a wheated whiskey, that shares a common DNA with Old Fitzgerald and the Pappy wheated bourbons. All of the Weller expressions share the same mash bill. The finish is long, caramel-sweet, with a lingering cinnamon and a cooked cereal note. These are two of my favorite daily drinkers both coming in at roughly the same proof, roughly the same price, and both readily available from respected distilleries. It bears no age statement and is bottled at 92 proof. Last year, I tasted a dozen bourbons that were widely available and selected Ezra Brooks 7-year-old Cask Strength. One of the best new whiskeys of recent memory, Stellum is a more affordable Barrell Bourbon. Am looking forward to trying some of the others you listed. Its also the same juice that doesnt spend quite as long in the rickhouse and gets blended with minorly different barrels for an end product thats very similar to Basil Haydens. For something around $30, you get an expertly blended whiskey aged a minimum of 8 years with notes of cherry, orange, almond toffee and oak and bottled at a casual 90 proof. But it goes into the barrel a 114 proof instead of 125 proof. One of the few universally praised non-macro whiskey makers in the U.S., its 6-year-old offering is Bottled-in-Bond, sweet mash bourbon with flavor that suggests the "6" on the label is a typo this bourbon tastes significantly older. Mouth: Caramel, black tea, vanilla, clove and cinnamon. This is what you drink when you need a break from barrel-proof juice. So, I added it. But nowhere is the impact of the Pappy Van Winkle lineup more prevalent than in the trickle down effect it has had on other bourbons made with wheat as the secondary or flavoring grain. Made using a single recipe and barrel per bottle, its between seven and eight years old and has more complexity than the Small Batch. Regular Old Forester goes into those burnt barrels for another six to nine months. Fourth - Larceny With wheated bourbons riding a tidal wave named Pappy, Larceny flies under the radar. The juice starts its time in a new charred oak barrel (as it should) before its dumped into a second charred oak barrel that's been more deeply toasted. The price stops most people from ever getting to drink it and thats a shame. Redwood Empire Bottled in Bond Rye . Buffalo Trace vs Old Forester 86 Comparison . Non-Distiller Producers (NDP): Companies that purchase their whiskey from someone else rather than making it themselves. In 2018, Luxco opened Lux Row Distillers in Bardstown, KY so expect the bourbon to be made there in the future. A wheated bourbon brand contract distilled at Heaven Hill Distillery, Rebel Yell is owned by Luxco. But this blind tasting was not its day. The mash bill used contains: 72% corn, 18% rye, 10% malted barley. Larceny and Makers Mark can be viewed as offshoot descendants of that distillery due to the connections the labels have with those original three or connections the distillers had with the principal players in that distillery. Rye based bourbons aged longer than 12 years, in most cases, become far too woody, and they begin to become overpowered by the barrel flavors. So the second way to look at it is really what this site is focused on- how it tastes. I want to really sit there and think about it when Im drinking it, Minnick says. Cheap bourbon isnt always as bottom-shelf as it seems. // < ! That leaves lots of expressions of excellent bourbon, many made by those same national producers, which are available only on a regional basis or have limited distribution. Distiller Score: 88. This treasure from Buffalo Traces Antique collection does its namesake a service, representing some of the worlds best wheated bourbon, a style Weller himself pioneered. I got that message twice this week from readers, and thats not a rarity. 68 percent corn, 20 percent wheat, 12 percent malted barley. I recently did a blind taste test comparing some Wheaters and surprisingly rated Makers 46 as my top pick among Makers Mark, Larceny, Old Weller Antique, and Bernheim (a pure wheat whiskey). Lots of rye spices mingle with sweet vanilla on the palate here. Foundation For Advancing Alcohol Responsibility. Note: the portfolio for Rebel Yell all received a makeover with updated labels in April 2019. Larceny is a bourbon produced by the Heaven Hill distillery made from a mash bill that is 20 percent wheat. The biggest surprise of the blind tasting since I had previously disliked it. But that doesnt mean the core ingredients dont start off the same. A 100-proof blend of 2017 and 2019 bourbons, Major's mix which is the first in Dread River's new Master Series has tasting notes of cherry, apples, oak and light vanilla. And the 2014 Parkers Heritage Original Batch Wheat Whiskey really showed what that mash bill is capable of with age and proof. Regular Four Roses (formerly called Yellow Label), Old Forester 100 Proof (formerly called Signature), Wild Turkey 101, Jim Beam Black Label, Larceny Bourbon, Maker's Mark, and Buffalo Trace. Distillery: Heaven Hill Distillery, Louisville, KY The finish is long, sweet, with maple syrup and brown sugar notes. If God gave birth to a bourbon child, this is what it would taste like, Minnick says. The 15 YO, and possibly the NAS version, are distilled at the Bernheim distillery, now owned by Heaven Hill, and matured in the Stitzel-Weller warehouses in Shively, Kentucky. Early Times Bottled-in-Bond was a contender for Best Everyday Bourbon. McKenna has a classic bourbon nose of caramel, vanilla and charred oak. It's made up of whiskeys from Indiana, Tennessee and Kentucky, with ages ranging from 4 to 16 years old. Larceny is a small batch bourbon (100 barrels or less) of barrels from the middle three floors of the aging warehouse. Division 1: Old Grand-Dad Bonded (Whiskey 1) vs Larceny (Whiskey 2) Pre-Reveal Thoughts: Both noses are sweet, but Whiskey 2 is showing a bit more graininess. Simply put, Minnick knows bourbon better than almost anyone in America. I assessed all nominations, validated them and tasted them live on YouTube to select my 2019 favorite for Best Everyday Bourbon. This is another classic bourbon with a distinctive caramel and vanilla aroma on the nose. The bourbon is believed to be approximately 6 YO. 2) Sazerac 18 Year Straight Rye This is going to be a controversial choice, but let's talk this through. Thats only three fewer years than the Old Fitz above, and its a tenth the price. Futile efforts to obtain any of the 2nd list has been a waste of time. At a minimum, bourbon must be 80 proof (or 40 percent alcohol), with its mash never allowed to exceed 160 proof (or 80 percent alcohol). The whiskey inside Early Times' wicked affordable Bottled-in-Bond expression is Brown-Forman-made, though, and it has that sweet-and-smooth Basil Hayden's thing going on, just more a more solid boozy backbone with a recurring note of caramel corn throughout. There are plenty of expressions of excellent bourbon priced under $50 from the national brands. I cover spirits, the drinks culture and business. Its so fucking amazing., Have Apple's AirPods Max? Makers is my flagship wheated bourbon. Wheat bourbons are different. It can claim to be extremely full flavored thanks to its 115 proof, and its taste profile is like a synthesis of. No need to wait for a special occasion, these are great for any day of the week. We're breaking down the varieties of rum, from sugarcane to bottle.