Does really good bourbon actually taste like tobacco, berries, cinnamon, and ginger?
If all you drink is Jack and Jim, you're missing out on a whole world of flavor.
Dry January is over.
These are the bourbons to try in 2022.
Barrell Craft Spirits is what is known in the booze world as a Non-Distilling Producer,
or NDP for short.
The company is based in Louisville, but they send their buyers out to obtain bourbons from
other distilleries both in and outside Kentucky and then mix them together to come up with
their own custom blends.
One of their more recent offerings, Batch 031, sent Certified Bourbon Steward and whiskey
reviewer Jeff Schwartz into near-raptures.
This "pool of liquid sunshine," as he called it, has the deep amber color found in the
finest of bourbons, and conveys a dizzying range of flavor notes to the discerning palate:
allspice, berry, black pepper, brown sugar, caramel, cinnamon, ginger, marshmallow, nutmeg,
plum, orange peel, peppermint, and vanilla.
Kind of sounds like Christmas in a glass, doesn't it?
Needless to say, this bourbon could best be described as complex, so if you're looking
to educate your palate, it's definitely one you should try.
Belle Mead Bourbon is a product of the Greenbrier Distillery, based in Nashville, Tennessee.
Belle Mead Reserve is that company's premium brand, known for its high proof (108.3, according
to the label) as well as its high rye content.
According to Bourbon Inspector's tasting notes, Belle Mead Reserve sounds as if it might be
the pastry stout of bourbons.
They first detected a strong maple syrup smell, but they then found its taste to be reminiscent
of caramel, cinnamon, pie crust, and unspecified baking spices with a few hints of oak and
pepper.
They did caution, however, that while this bourbon is a great buy if you can pick it
up for around $70, it might not be such a bargain if the price creeps up too much higher
than that.
Blanton's is a product of the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky.
Unusual for a bourbon, Blanton's isn't a blend, but is instead bottled straight from a single
barrel, and this brand claims to be the first to produce such a bourbon.
In recent years, Blanton's has become super-trendy among bourbon aficionados, such that at times
it's only possible to snag a bottle if you do so shortly after its release.
While the 2022 batch isn't out yet, if it's anything like the 2021, it's bound to be a
winner.
Breaking Bourbon reviewed last year's release and found it quite satisfying, indeed, and
well worth a price tag of around $65 per bottle.
Among the flavors you may detect in a glass of this bourbon are baking spices, brown sugar,
caramel, honey, oak, pepper, rye, and vanilla, and there's even a tiny hint of heat that
lingers after the last swallow.
Oh, and the bottle even has a little racehorse topper!
Who doesn't love free knick-knacks along with their booze?
"Blanton's features unique horse and jockey bottle stoppers, which are now a recognized
trademark."
Booker's Bourbon is a brand named for master distiller Booker Noe, a sixth-generation bourbon
maker.
His own offspring are now running things at the Jim Beam-owned distillery that bears his
name, making for at least 7 generations in the bourbon business.
Kentucky-based Booker's specializes in small batch bourbons, a concept that they were the
first to introduce back in the '90s.
In 2021, Booker's Bourbon released 4 different batches, the third of which was dubbed the
"Bardstown Batch."
When the Bardstown Batch first came out back in October, Paste magazine reviewed it and
found it "wonderfully rustic" and full of character, something different from Beam's
more typical offerings and yet in keeping with that brand's consistent levels of quality.
As for the flavor profile, they detected brown sugar, cinnamon, espresso, fruit compote,
hazelnuts, oak, and tannins, and pointed out that this batch's high proof (125) was also
quite noticeable.
Basically, this is a bourbon that starts out sweet, comes on strong, then finishes on the
dry side.
"Cheers."
The fourth and final batch of 2021 out of Booker's Bourbon bears the name "Noe Strangers"
as a testament to Booker Noe's super-sociable nature.
This was a man who, as his family tells it, once invited 300 bikers over to his house
for lunch.
So is this the kind of bourbon you'd buy for your 300 closest friends?
Probably not, at least if you were even lucky enough to find a bottle of this - it’s rare
to find a bottle for less than at least double the retail price of $89.99.
Should one of your friends offer to pour you a shot, though, they're a true friend indeed,
and you shouldn't hesitate to accept.
While Whiskey Apostle says that the Booker's small batches are generally pretty solid,
they rated this one as a standout.
Fittingly for its December release, this whiskey was slightly reminiscent of peanut brittle,
along with notes of baking spices, caramel, chocolate brownies, cinnamon, honey, oak,
pepper, and vanilla.
Sounds like a tasty -– if pricey –- holiday treat.
If you want a high-quality bourbon at a brown paper bag price, well, dream on.
If you can pony up about $30 a bottle, though, then Elijah Craig Small Batch is the bourbon
for you.
Despite the name, it's not one of those hard to come by limited releases.
That being said, though, Elijah Craig Small Batch is still a decent sipping bourbon rather
than one that cries out to be masked with cocktail mixers.
Vinepair calls Elijah Craig Small Batch "a quality but affordable weekday sipper," while
Liquor.com considers it to be a gateway drug for bourbon newbies wanting to expand their
horizons.
Should you go exploring, some of the flavors you might encounter in a glass of this bourbon
include apples, bananas, butter cookies, caramel, and vanilla.
Elijah Craig Small Batch is not too complex, nor, at 94 proof, is it terribly boozy for
a bourbon.
What it is, however, is a little bit sweet, a little bit spicy, and thoroughly enjoyable.
Frey Ranch is a bourbon distillery that not only isn't located in Kentucky, but is nowhere
near that part of the country.
The Freys do their ranching in Nevada, and started distilling their signature blend in
2006 on property that’s been in the family since 1870.
The bourbon made by Frey Ranch comes from grains grown on the ranch.
In fact, the grain is harvested, malted, distilled, aged, and bottled onsite, making the final
product something The Whiskey Jug dubs "farm-to-glass."
The bourbon mash is about two-thirds corn, while the rest of the home-grown grains they
use are about equally split between rye, wheat, and barley.
So does Frey Ranch have a taste to match its pedigree?
Its fans agree that it does, finding it to be quite a smooth sipper as well as something
that also works well in bourbon-based drinks.
Among the flavors you'll find in a glass of Frey Ranch are bananas, biscuits, cinnamon,
cocoa, hay, nutmeg, polenta, toffee, and vanilla.
Larceny Barrel Proof comes out several times per year, typically in winter, spring, and
fall.
While the 2022 batch from Bardstown, Kentucky's Heaven Hill Distillery does not appear to
be out yet, the C921, which was the September 2021 release, is something well worth seeking
out.
What's more, its quality gives us high hopes for this year's batches.
While Larceny's barrel proof bourbons vary in proof, the C921 was on the high end at
122.6.
It is a blend of bourbons aged from 6 to 8 years and contains a blend of corn, wheat,
and barley.
Breaking Bourbon, while not overly impressed with Larceny's 2021 winter and spring barrel
proof bourbons, was quite taken with the C921 and determined it to be the best this brand
has offered to date.
They found it to be extremely flavorful, noting hints of black cherry, browned butter, charred
oak, cream soda, maple syrup, molasses, oak, plum, raspberry, and vanilla.
While the original retail price for this bourbon was around $50 a bottle, bottles are now on
the scarce side and their prices are correspondingly higher.
Knob Creek is a Kentucky distillery owned by Jim Beam that specializes in just 2 things:
bourbon and rye whiskey.
Their small batch 9-year bourbon is somewhat of a rarity these days, as very few bourbons
still retain that age statement.
They describe Knob Creek as a very well-balanced bourbon, blending both spicy and sweet notes
and tasting of caramel, cinnamon, cloves, oak, tobacco, and vanilla.
Knob Creek's Small Batch 9-year bourbon falls under the "budget" category as it can still
be found for around $30 a bottle, and in some cases even less than that.
Despite Knob Creek's bargain-basement price, this bourbon has won several gold medals at
international spirits competitions.
While Knob Creek Small Batch 9-Year makes for a great cocktail mixer, something that
won't overwhelm your Manhattan or mint julep, it makes for a perfectly respectable everyday
sipper, as well.
If you're a fan of limited-release top shelf bourbons and Nobel Prize-winning songwriting
genius Bob Dylan, then have we got a whiskey for you: Heaven's Door Master Blenders' Edition!
Dylan owns the distillery, and by all accounts, the man is quite the whiskey aficionado, so
he's not going to attach his name to any old bottle.
"I don't want to disappoint anybody.
Tell me what I should say."
While not all celebrity-branded booze lives up to the hype, Heaven's Door Master Blender's
Edition seems to be well worth the price.
You can still pick up a bottle for around $100, which is not bad at all considering
its striking Dylan-designed artwork.
Heaven's Door Master Blender's Edition is a 100-proof 10-year bourbon that has been
finished off in a sherry cask.
The Whiskey Wash says this bourbon won 2 gold medals at last year's World Spirits Competition
in San Francisco, and they did not disagree with the judges.
They found this whiskey to be, while not overly complex, sweet and very enjoyable.
While most of its flavors are on the sugary side –- caramel, oatmeal raisin cookies,
and white chocolate –- there's also a hint of tobacco that helps to balance things out.
New Riff Distilling does all their own distilling in-house, and one of their signature spirits
is the bottled-in-bond New Riff Kentucky Straight Bourbon.
This spirit is 100 proof, 30% rye, and made without the use of chill filtration.
Breaking Bourbon feels that New Riff is onto a good thing with their Kentucky Straight
Bourbon.
While it is high in rye, they find it to be sweet and easy to drink, flavorful without
being overwhelming.
Tasting notes include baking spice, caramel, ginger candy, marshmallow, oak, and vanilla.
Yet another point in New Riff's favor is that the Kentucky Straight Bourbon is widely available
and comes in at a modest $45, comparing quite favorably to other bourbons at this price
point.
While Stellum Spirits launched just last year as an offshoot of Barrell Craft Spirits, they've
already been making waves in the spirits world.
According to the company website, Stellum Black is made from the distillery's reserve
barrels, and is meant to present a flavor profile both robust and complex.
Whiskey Raiders feels that Stellum has hit this one right on the maple-scented nose.
They tasted this bourbon and found Stellum Black to be reminiscent of butterscotch, corn
syrup, nougat, peanut brittle, pecans, pound cake, tobacco, and toffee.
It's clearly superior to earlier Stellum releases, as befits the increased cost — at $99 bottle,
Stellum Black has a price tag double that of Stellum's cheaper offerings.
They make whiskey in Wyoming?
Who knew?
While the Mead family, which runs Wyoming Whiskey, haven't been in the booze business
for all that long, they are evidently doing it right.
The proof — 96 proof, to be precise — lies in each bottle of their Wyoming Whiskey Single
Barrel Bourbon.
This bourbon, which is made from the top 1% of what the distillery produces, was first
released in 2020.
By November of that year, it was all sold out.
Wyoming Whiskey released a second bottling of this popular bourbon in October 2021, and
although some retailers may still have bottles from this batch in stock, that's not likely
to be the case for too much longer.
So what makes Wyoming Whiskey Single Barrel such a standout bourbon?
The Lane Report says that it's all down to terroir, terroir, terroir.
What other bourbon, after all, is made from grain grown in Wyoming?
Overall, this bourbon is complex, yet smooth, soft, and eminently sippable, something sure
to appeal to bourbon neophytes and aficionados alike.
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