From Bourbon to Tequila: The 13 Best Spirits Right Now

Cuveé Cask Finish: Glenfiddich Grand Cru

The timing for this release couldn’t have been better. Just a few short months after the Scotch Whisky Association announced a relaxing of its rules about the types of cask in which scotch whisky can rightfully age, Glenfiddich came out of the gate with a beautiful and boundary-pushing new expression. Aged for 23 years in American and European oak, it’s then finished for up to six months in casks originally used for what goes on to become some of the world’s most incredible sparkling wine.

Glenfiddich’s spirit of experimentation has incited fresh ideas across the Highlands, Lowlands, Islay and more. But Brian Kinsman, malt master there, has been messing about for some time already, perfecting the process and dialing in the time spent in those French cuveé barrels to make the whisky sparkle. And sparkle it does: While the brand’s signature dried-fruit and banana notes are still forward, drinkers will now notice subtle vanilla, brioche, candied lemon and pear flavors. Nearly all the whisky’s rough edges have been smoothed. Don’t worry— there’s still some heat, making the Grand
Cru an exceptionally elegant dram.

Single Malt Scotch: The Macallan Edition No. 5

Of the Macallan’s five-bottle Edition series, this curious and fascinating whisky is our favorite so far. It diverges from the typical Macallan path of aging in sherry-seasoned casks. In something of a shocking departure, whisky maker Sarah Burgess and her team aged the liquid only in American oak barrels.

But the gamble pays out. The single malt is notably lighter and brighter than its cousins. Absent the nutty sherry notes, flavors of vanilla, toffee and pear shine through, along with gentle spice notes such as nutmeg and ginger. All the elements blend into a balanced, harmonious sum.

Which brings us to the other creative aspect of this fine whisky: its purple label. The color, unique to Macallan, was developed in partnership with the Pantone Color Institute. While the label proclaims this as a celebration of Macallan’s natural color, that feels like old news to us (no premium distiller adds coloring to its best batches these days). More interesting is the choice of hue itself: Purple, the most royal of the rainbow’s colors, feels appropriate for a spirit as complex as this whisky.

Peated Whisky: Octomore 10.4 Virgin Oak

Distiller Adam Hannett has done remarkable things with Bruichladdich’s peated-scotch series, taking the degree of peat (measured in parts per million, or ppm) to unusual heights. And he keeps experimenting. For this 10th edition of Octomore, Hannett showcases his obsession with terroir by using exclusively Scottish barley, even devoting one expression, the 10.3, to grain grown specifically in Islay.

The most interesting—and surprising—of this series is the 10.4, the youngest whisky ever released by Bruichladdich, aged for just three years. While it might seem a wee lad, at 88 ppm this is still a peated brute befitting the Octomore name, but it’s also a surprisingly balanced dram, with delicious nuances from the high-toast char (on new French Limousin barrels) beneath the pungent smoke. The punch of a virgin-oak cask is just the match for this young peat monster, the most limited bottle in the range this year, with just 12,000 available.

Irish Whiskey: Teeling Chestnut Finished Single Cask

Until last summer, the only place you could buy a new bottle of this particular single malt was at Teeling’s Dublin distillery. But to satisfy Americans’ escalating lust for Irish whiskey, a special release of 846 bottles was earmarked for the US, and fans did their happy dance. What makes this triple-distilled 13-year-old so special is its unusual finishing cask: After its allotted years aging in old bourbon barrels, the liquid went into cask No. 29555—a barrel made of chestnut wood. The rare barrel finishing combined with the malted barley characteristics of Teeling single malts produces a spicy, salty-nutty and floral suite of flavors with an unmistakable hint of—you guessed it—warm chestnuts.

Bourbon: Angel’s Envy Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in Tawny Port Barrels

This second release in the brand’s Cellar Collection is the oldest bourbon yet from the Louisville distillery and every bit as good as the first, sherry-cask edition—maybe better. The Henderson family (that would be Angel’s Envy founder Wes Henderson and sons Kyle and Andrew), essentially bourbon royalty at this point, is especially fond of the number 10, having launched the brand in October 2010. This 10-year-old whiskey was finished for 10 months in French oak seasoned with tawny port, picking up delicious dried-fruit and chocolate notes layered atop roasted nut, baking spices and black-pepper heat. Port finishes are an Angel’s Envy signature; both its flagship and its cask-strength bourbons spend months in port-wine barrels, but this dark-amber tawny-cask finish takes the liquid to another level. With this limited run of 5,400 bottles, the Hendersons have scored a 10.

Rye: Whistle Pig The Boss Hog VI: The Samurai Scientist

This fierce and spicy rye honors the cross-cultural sharing that has resulted in the creation of some of the world’s best booze. While the Japanese learned the art of distilling whisky from the Scots, in the 1890s legendary Japanese chemist Jokichi Takamine, known as the Samurai Scientist, introduced the American whiskey industry to koji fermentation, which uses certain molds or fungi in the distillation process to imbue a spirit with a rich kind of umami flavor.

WhistlePig employed the technique for this rye, then aged the result in oak barrels for 16 years—and after that, in a unique collaboration between the Vermont distillers and Kitaya, an award-winning Japanese brewer of sake and plum liquor (umeshu), the whiskey was finished in 11-year-old aromatic umeshu barrels. Just 90 casks were made, and each cask-strength bottle is marked with its barrel number. The oldest Boss Hog whiskey from WhistlePig yet, it’s extremely pungent and tastes of tobacco smoke, ginger, baking spices and a faint, earthy broth. The bottle is topped with a pewter sculpture of a fierce samurai—another nod to Takamine.

Bourbon Blend: Little Book Chapter 03 The Road Home

This unique whiskey is an ingenious blend of all four original Jim Beam Small Batch bourbons: 9-year-old Knob Creek, 9-year- old Basil Hayden’s, 11-year-old Booker’s and 12-year-old Baker’s, with a few getting a little extra aging before being added to the mix. Freddie “Little Book” Noe, eighth-generation Beam distiller and son of current master distiller Fred Noe, decided the proportions of each bourbon included in this third “chapter” in the Little Book whiskey series.

“I felt the time was right to honor Granddad by blending specially aged bourbons from his Small Batch collection,” says Noe. “But I knew, if I was to experiment with the liquids my granddaddy developed, I had better create a damned good final product.”

This potent whiskey, the Noes say, won’t ever be made again. Here you’ll find bourbon’s usual vanilla and caramel notes, along with licorice and cherry; a splash of water opens up additional notes of cedar and citrus. No doubt Freddie’s granddaddy Booker Noe would approve.

Canadian Whisky: Heaven’s Door Bootleg Series, Vol.1

Pretty much everyone knows Bob Dylan the musician. Fewer know Bob Dylan the artist—the “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” singer is a prolific drawer and painter—and perhaps fewer still know that Bob Dylan is also a distiller. The singer teamed up with entrepreneurs Ryan Perry and Marc Bushala to establish Heaven’s Door Spirits in 2018, making a compilation of bourbons and ryes, and the trio’s latest venture represents an impressive leap into the premium end of the spirits market. This limited-edition, 26-year-old Canadian whisky features a low rye mash bill, which allows the subtle notes of coconut—from its finishing in Japanese Mizunara oak—to shine through.

Just 3,000 individually numbered ceramic bottles were made, each with its own leather case and bearing one of Dylan’s paintings, Train Tracks. If the art doesn’t tip you off that there’s a journey ahead with this whisky, the “Vol. 1” in the name should—a welcome promise of encore performances.

Añejo Tequila: Patrón Extra Añejo 10 Años

The tequila shelves get more crowded every year with new brands—and new añejos in particular—arriving to meet the current thirst for aged spirits. Within the añejo segment there’s been an explosion of extra añejo tequilas aged for more than three years; among them, Patron’s new Extra Añejo 10 Años stands out both for its remarkable decade-old stature and for its unique flavor profile, which is as near to a scotch as an agave spirit can get.

Ten years is an exceptionally long time to age any liquid in Jalisco’s hot, arid climate, where the evaporation rate averages more than 6 percent per year—that’s a lot of agave juice lost to the angels’ share. But like doting papas, Patrón’s tequileros gently nurtured the spirit that remained within the American and French oak barrels and, 10 years later, we’re treated to a rich, golden tequila that fills the glass with fragrances of flowers and cedar and the mouth with whiskey-like vanilla, citrus and dried-fruit flavors. The spirit has a backbone of beautifully soft agave but without tequila’s typical peppery heat. Because of its very small run, this is a US exclusive—don’t miss it.

Joven Tequila: CP73

Jovens used to get a bad rap—and for good reason. Typically a silver or blanco tequila mixed with color additives and non-agave-based sugars, occasionally with a splash of añejo, they were, shall we say, no bueno.

But all that’s changed. Now some top producers are making beautiful jovens that blend blancos with platinum añejos or even extra añejos, no coloring or sugars added. CP73, made with 100 percent premium Blue Weber agave, is bright and clean with fresh green notes that work beautifully within a classic margarita or other citrusy cocktails. One sip can transport you to a serene beach on the Sea of Cortez—which makes sense, since the tequila launched last year with the debut of the Four Seasons resort and residences in Costa Palmas. CP73 is the brainchild of Jason Grosfeld, CEO of the property’s developer, Irongate. The “73” in the name refers both to his birth year and to the number of samples he tasted while perfecting the tequila. Only 168 numbered bottles were made in Amatitán, Jalisco, for this inaugural batch, and they’re only available at the Costa Palmas property.

Rum: Kirk and Sweeney XO Edición Limitada No. 1

This brand gets its name from a Canadian schooner used during the early years of Prohibition to smuggle rum from the Caribbean to the US. Unfortunately for those who awaited its arrival in 1924, the boat and its illicit cargo were seized by the Coast Guard outside New York, with the rum confiscated and the ship put into Guard service.

But the spirit of its smuggled hootch lives on in the form of this new blackstrap molasses rum from the Dominican Republic. Aged for 25 years in American oak and bottled at a brash cask strength of 131 proof, the deep amber rum tastes of toasted oak and sherry with caramel, raisin and toffee nuances, and its crystal decanter will look shipshape on any bar.

Gin: Hendrick’s Midsummer Solstice

The last year saw a proliferation of gin, with numerous examples beautifully showcasing diverse botanical profiles, from bright and peppery to herbaceous to the floral essence of Hendrick’s Midsummer Solstice. Lesley Gracie, with her cabinet of curiosities at the Hendrick’s campus in Scotland, is the mad genius behind this gin, inspired by the June solstice, when the Earth is maximally tipped toward the sun and the planet’s flowers reach their heady, aromatic peak. If that sounds like romantic fancy, well, it is, but the gin drinks that way, too, and you can’t help but fall in love with each sip of this limited-edition beauty. While Gracie won’t reveal her secret recipe, you’ll detect orange blossoms, lemon zest and the grape-y sweetness of Spanish Broom, all brought to life with a burst of gingery heat and a long, soft rosewater finish. And while this gin is lovely on its own, it makes a gimlet absolutely sing.

Cocktail: The Corsair

The opulent restaurant Veronika, on the second floor of the new Fotografiska museum, brought a grand splash of European glamour to the New York dining scene this year with its marble-topped tables, velvet banquettes, gold-rimmed plates, shimmering, stiletto-heeled women and sneaker-clad men.

A delicious meal—delicate pierogis, superb chicory salad and Dover sole, all meticulous without being precious—was a given from chef Robert Aikens. The surprise? The Corsair cocktail, made from rye whiskey, Cognac, cinnamon, Barolo Chinato and cherrywood smoke. The clinch ingredient is that Barolo Chinato, a rarely seen cousin to vermouth made from red wine infused with macerated herbs and spices, including quinine, gentian root, cardamom, clove, rhubarb and orange peel. The Corsair’s unique mélange of sweet, savory, herbal and spicy notes is as bold and swashbuckling as the pirates that sailed on its namesake vessel—only here, the treasure is for all to share.

Innovator: Sarah Burgess

As lead whisky maker at the Macallan, Sarah Burgess develops special projects such as the Macallan Edition No. 5, one of the picks for this year’s Best of the Best. For that bottle, the Macallan team partnered with the folks at Pantone to do something that had never been done before, creating a bespoke purple color that’s now unique to them. Burgess also had a hand in the distillery’s rarest liquid, the Macallan 72 Years Old in Lalique, the Genesis Decanter, released to celebrate the opening of the brand’s new distillery and visitor center in 2018. And the way she created that whisky shows that her process goes beyond just the science of distilling and blending. Burgess, it’s clear, is also a storyteller. 

For Genesis, Burgess found five worthy casks, representing the five hills on the Macallan estate, narrowing them down to just three, with each expressing an aspect of the brand’s character. One imparted a delicious cereal quality; another, strong sherry notes; and the third had more of the fruity banana aromas that result from fermentation. The result, besides being outstanding, is one of the world’s rarest scotches.

Some distillers are quiet, behind-the-scene alchemists; others become nearly as famous as the whiskies they create. Burgess, who grew up in Speyside, certainly has the scientific chops and experience. After receiving degrees and certificates in management and distilling, she has spent two decades in the spirits world, much of it at Diageo—overseeing brands such as Oban and Clynelish—and managing everything from health-and-safety compliance to visitor centers to cask quality. But the lively distiller is also someone you’d want on the next stool during a night at the bar, or playing opposite you in a round of snooker: She snaps with energy and vibrancy, even when jet-lagged at a breakfast meeting. (She’s also quick to point out that, at Macallan, the whisky-making team is split nearly evenly between men and women, and happily hails other women in significant roles at competing brands.)

Burgess only came to Macallan in 2017, but if her future projects are as exceptional as Genesis and Edition No. 5, we can hardly wait for what’s next.