The Most Memorable Whiskies of 2021

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It’s no secret that I got my start writing whiskey reviews on Reddit. I still feel a special connection to the r/bourbon crowd and each year I write a “Cake Day Roundup” to celebrate the most memorable bottles of the last 12 months.

Today, November 9th, happens to be my Cake Day and as usual I’ve compiled a list of my most memorable whiskies I’ve tasted over the last 12 months.

This list is not a reflection of whiskies I have given the 10 highest scores to, but rather whiskies that have made such an impression to me from what I expected them to be like that I can’t help but talk about them to anyone that listens.

My inspiration comes from the guys over at Breaking Bourbon and their “Year End Roundup” where the trio would pick the whiskies that they thought were special and the ones they thought were disappointing.

The difference is that instead of their opinions on a particular whiskey being a consensus among the three, they could now express their own preferences individually. I enjoyed seeing how differently they looked at their whiskey.

For my own roundup, I don’t have to bounce my ideas off of anyone else, but I do try to stick to a few rules when I consider which bottles are eligible and which aren’t. Each year I fine-tune the rules a little bit, but here are the guidelines I hope to stick to:

2021 Whiskey Roundup Guidelines

1. No highly allocated bottles. You’ll never see a Van Winkle, BTAC, Birthday Bourbon, Four Roses Small Batch Limited Edition or Michter’s 20/25/Celebration bottled on here. These are all world-class whiskies by default. Of course they’re going to be good.
2. All bottles should have been released (as in: setting on a store shelf somewhere) sometime between November 9 last year and November 9 this year. As an addition to this rule, a bottle that came out before November 9th last year can be used if it didn’t first appear on the shelves until November 9th, 2020 here in Indiana.
3. I will not pick a specific single barrel to be on this list because the amount of people that could experience it are so small. However, if there is a specific line of single barrels that all have the same thing in common and are continually being put out, then those will be eligible. You’ll see what I mean when you see which bottles made it on the list and I’ll make sure to point out that these can be obtained by most people in most states.
4. I do not set a price cap on which bottles can and can’t make the list, but as a general rule of thumb, I haven’t gone over a bottle that was $150 retail (this happened to be last year’s Michter’s 10 Year Rye and the Belle Meade Honey Cask). I also can’t control what the secondary market demands for these bottles either but I try to pick ones that a person can have a legitimate shot to obtain with some effort.
5. Lastly, but most importantly, the whiskey has to be MEMORABLE. If by no other metric, this one is the most subjective yet carries the most weight. When a person asks me what the best whiskey I’ve had recently is, these are the whiskies that I’ll name right off because of how memorable they are

Now that you know what I’m looking for in a bottle, here is my list:

Top 10 Most Memorable Bottles of 2021

 

10. Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Special Release Barrel Proof Rye Whiskey

Jack Daniel’s Special Release series was only in its third year when they dropped a rye whiskey bomb that obliterated most other competitors rye whiskey releases.

There were clues that something like this would be released because there was a Tennessee Taster’s release that contained barrel proof rye whiskey in it about 6 months earlier.

If you’re unfamiliar with Tennessee Taster’s, think of it as Jack Daniel’s version of the Buffalo Trace Experimental Collection even down to the fact they’re only released in 375ml bottles. When the Special Release Rye Whiskey did come out, enthusiasts everywhere sang it praises with how powerful, oily and flavorful of a rye whiskey it was.

The most impressive part to all of this was that a state other than Indiana (MGP) or Kentucky could create such an amazing rye whiskey after ignoring the category for so many years. If you’re looking for a bottle now, it’s worth noting that the consensus is that they taste even better if you can find the really high proof ones. Good luck!

9. Russell’s Reserve Single Barrels from Warehouse E

Technically, Warehouse E was one of a handful that were selected for stores to pick from in 2020 (G, S and B were also big players). But when the pandemic hit, Wild Turkey slammed the brakes on all of their single barrel selections for many months.

This created a backlog to where the stores and groups that had done a pick weren’t receiving their bottles until the very end of the year. It wasn’t until November 2020 when the floodgates opened and everyone received their bottles all at once.

Out of all the warehouses I tried, none were as consistently unique and delicious as the barrels that came from Warehouse E. These seemed to have more complex profiles with extra fruits, exotic spices and even (dare I say) some minerality to them.

I am typically bored with RRSIB picks but last year’s barrels from Warehouse E showed that Wild Turkey still could deliver the surprises that many thought they had lost.

8. Spirits of French Lick William Dalton Wheated Bourbon

I had never tried a Spirits of French Lick product until I had the chance to taste their first wheated bourbon made entirely on site. Most craft wheated bourbons are a hot mess of weird petrochemical tastes, overly sharp wood notes and astringency.

Needless to say, I was not expecting much until I took my first sip. But then that first sip really opened my eyes to a style of craft bourbon that had eluded me for some time – it didn’t come off as young and even tasted great! William Dalton delivered a tasty sip of chocolate and fruit that not only transformed my views of craft wheated bourbon, but of Spirits of French Lick too.

They obviously know something that other distillers don’t as this product changed my mind that craft wheated bourbon could be very good. And at around $60, it’s one of the more affordable craft whiskies out there to boot. This bourbon didn’t get a super high score from me, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t memorable.

I just know it’s going to get exponentially better as future releases keep coming out. And as one final compliment, this may have been one of the first bourbons I thought of when I sat down to create this top 10 list.

7. Starlight Distillery Cigar Batch Single Barrel Rye Whiskey

Starlight Distillery (also in Indiana) has been on fire lately with the sheer quantity of various barrel finishes they’ve put their rye whiskey and bourbon in.

But none may be more unique than their “Cigar Batch” Bourbon and Rye Whiskey single barrels. For slightly less than $80, you might only be getting a 4 year old product but the barrel finish alone is easily worth the cost of a bottle.

Using Brazilian Amburana barrels, the tastes and scents are unlike anything on the market right now. It’s not going to be for everyone because it is so perfume/floral/tropical fruit forward, but everyone needs to find a way to get a sample of this just to see if it’s for them or not.

It will change the way you think a whiskey should taste like and blow your mind with its uniqueness.

6. Michter’s Toasted Barrel Finished Rye Whiskey

Michter’s has released both their Toasted Barrel Rye and their Barrel Strength Rye over the past 12 months, but only one made it on this list. I vastly preferred the taste of the Toasted Barrel Rye and I even put it up against the original release from 2017.

Although the 2017 won in a blind comparison, the results were extremely close. The toasted barrel finishing helps add additional sweet, marshmallow-y notes to an already very good rye whiskey. It’s exactly what is needed and is always a treat to find.

The one part I can’t understand though is why people value Michter’s Toasted Barrel Bourbon more than its rye whiskey counterpart. The rye whiskey is bottled at barrel proof and the the flavors you get from it accentuate the rye whiskey, not just kind of blend in with the existing tastes common in their bourbon.

It is for this reason that Michter’s shows yet again that they are more well known for their rye whiskey than any other whiskey they currently produce.

5. Bomberger’s Declaration Bourbon 2021

A second Michter’s product in the top 10?! How can that be? Bomberger’s Declaration has been a fantastic product for a number of years now and keeps getting better each subsequent year.

It doesn’t carry an age statement, but it’s about as close as it comes to drinking barrel proof Michter’s Whiskey (it is always 108 proof). But what gives it a leg up over it’s brother is the types of barrels that are used to age it: 36 month air dried Chinquapin Oak (compared to their standard 18 month air dried white oak used in all of their other products).

Chinquapin Oak may not be too different from white oak, but I find it to impart extra flavors almost like it was finished in a toasted barrel. Each year Michter’s blends in more bourbon that has been aged in these special barrels in relation to the total batch and I find it’s better for it.

It’s rich and complex and the low proof allow all of the flavors to shine through rather than be smothered by a huge punch of proof. The 2021 release is said to use the most Chinquapin Oak barrels yet in a batch which leaves the question: why not just make the entire batch out of bourbon aged in these barrels?

4. Bardstown Bourbon Company Discovery #4

Bardstown Bourbon Company is *this* close to being able to release their own bourbon and rye whiskey without blending it in with other aged stocks they have purchased from various Kentucky and Indiana distilleries.

But I’m not pushing them to hurry up the process or anything. On the contrary, after one sip of the Discovery #4 release that came out late in 2020, I was blown away by what I had assumed to be their futile attempts at copying Barrell Bourbon.

Boy was I wrong. BBC used only double-digit aged bourbon from Kentucky (likely Beam, Heaven Hill and Barton) and the resulting blend was so harmonious that I would’ve sworn this could’ve carried a price tag 4 times higher and still been justified.

The blend resulted in a delicious candy bar/fruit laced/oak packed bourbon and it absolutely flew off the shelves. But the most astonishing thing about Discovery #4 is the fact that BBC has completely ignored what made this recipe so great and has released the next 2 batches with Dickel bourbon in them.

I’m not saying that Dickel made them bad, but it surely took away the magic that release #4 had created.

3. Abraham Bowman Cask Strength

The last 12 months have been kind of a disappointment for the Sazerac Brand as a whole. Stagg Jr Batch 14 was kind of a dud, Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye is the worst it’s ever been, Weller Single Barrel exists for some reason and the 2021 GTS was cancelled.

But just like all superhero movies, an unexpected ally appears at the last minute to save the day. Only this time, it did not come from Buffalo Trace or Barton, instead it was from a tiny distillery in Virginia.

A. Smith Bowman Distillery completely blew away the bourbon drinkers of the world with an unexpected 10 year old release that was bottled at a tongue-melting 141 proof. I had it, it blew me away and it is currently rated higher than another whiskey on this list. So why is it not ranked #1?

I’ll try to explain my rationale but it may not satisfy everyone out there. The answer is basically because it’s too good. Simply put, if you’ve had EH Taylor Barrel Proof, George T Stagg and Stagg Jr before, you kind of know what to expect in this drink.

It didn’t lack in the flavor department but what it did lack is by not being unique enough. I knew what to expect with this release and it didn’t let me down.

But when the dust settled and I had a chance to think back at all of the whiskies that made me say “wow” this year, I thought more about the next two whiskies on this list that came out of nowhere to impress me just a little bit more than this bottle of Bowman Cask Strength did.

The Final Two: Barrell Seagrass versus Russell’s Reserve 13 Years Old Bourbon 

Back and forth I went for months, talking with everyone I knew about the conundrum I was in: which whiskey would I name as my whiskey of the year for 2021?

I tossed and turned at night. I tasted and re-tasted each one. It was, frankly, one of the hardest decisions to make because they are both so different from each other. How could a barrel-finished rye whiskey compete with one of the torch-bearers of classic American bourbon?

Barrel finished rye whiskey certainly wasn’t a new category at all. It had been perfected by High West in 2012-2013 when they released their first Act of Mid-Winter Night’s Dram which used Port barrels to accentuate all of that highly aged Barton and MGP rye whiskey.

But as the years went on, it was Barrell that became the poster child for barrel finishes after the ridiculous success of Dovetail and their Barrell Private Release lines. They used each finishing barrel and whiskey at their disposal with expert care and nailed each one.

Seagrass is their latest special release that is like a buffet of flavor in your mouth. It takes you immediately to the tropics with a surprisingly fruity and sweet experience that perfectly compliments the rye whiskey underneath. It just does so many things right.

The biggest sign I saw that this was going to be a success was that friends of mine who had never bought a Barrell product before finally took the plunge… and were shocked with how much they liked it. Even more friends, who generally disliked barrel finishes on their whiskey, were forced to admit how well Madeira, Rum and Apricot Brandy worked together with the rye whiskey. A

nd the best part about it was that I could tell experienced and novice whiskey friends that buying a bottle of Seagrass should absolutely be their next purchase. I was even certain that they could actually find it on the shelves without any markup.

Being this accessible meant that more people will actually get to try one of the best whiskey releases of the year which is not something that I can say with confidence about any other whiskey on this list.

But after everything I just said and all of the love I have for Seagrass, it missed achieving my #1 most memorable whiskey of the year by just a hair.

But it wasn’t for any flaw of its own, it was because the whiskey that claims to the top spot is just so good that basically everyone I know still talks about it. That whiskey is the 2021 release of Russell’s Reserve 13 Year Barrel Proof Bourbon.

I will be the first to admit that I thought it was a stupid and lazy idea from Wild Turkey to give us a release that I basically saw as “Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel +.”

On the outside, it looked like they let their bourbon age another 4 years and gave it a measly 4 extra proof points. The price increase to $70 (retail) wasn’t bad, but I immediately dismissed it as a unimaginative attempt at a new product when all of the other distilleries were cooking up things that were really special. Boy was I wrong.

To describe that particular “note” (or notes) that one would find in a bottle of very old bourbon is hard to do and varies from person to person. But if you know what I’m talking about, then it will make sense to you.

For me, “RR13” is all about the oak. It tastes completely different because modern Wild Turkey just doesn’t taste that old anymore. What I mean by that is even while tasting single barrels of Russell’s Reserve or Rare Breed, they both taste younger than you’d expect. To me, extreme age tastes like a furniture polish taste/scent.

Sometimes it comes off much like your grandparents furniture or the smell inside of an old house’s cabinets. You just can’t artificially recreate it and there are no shortcuts to achieving it; just time in a barrel. That’s what makes it special and that’s why I can’t stop thinking about it.

I found out the reason why this Wild Turkey release tastes so old only after I drank it and wrote my review a few months ago… it’s because about a third of the barrels used in this batch were 19 years old!

This puts their distillation date at a time when Wild Turkey was made differently. Back in 2001/2002, it still went into the barrel at 107 proof. It was also still being made on distillery equipment that is different from the equipment used to make their products today.

Many believe this was the secret to why the older “dusty” Turkey was so damn good. Whatever the reasoning, RR13 is a spectacularly deep and rich bourbon with virtually no flaws. I’ve put it up against a lot of different modern Turkey products and it just crushes them.

Every single friend that has tried it has used the word “wow” to describe it. It also gets brought up in conversations weeks and months later. After about my 10th friend brought it up to me randomly in conversation, I knew what I had to do. This is why I am naming it my 2021 Most Memorable Whiskey of 2021.

Not all whiskey’s that are memorable for the right reasons! There were plenty that I considered duds this year. But the difference is that they were memorable enough for me to look back on and shake my head a bit with disappointment.

Most of these bottles on the list are ongoing release and have seen their quality decrease. Some were overly hyped while others just didn’t do their legacy proud.

Top 10 Duds of 2021

 

10. 2021 Michter’s Barrel Strength Rye Whiskey

This may be the first year that the rye whiskey that was used for this year’s MBSR is 100% made at Michter’s distillery in Shively (before it was contract distilled by Brown Forman).

It’s not like it’s vastly different from years past, but it tastes more youthful and a bit thinner than previous years. My opinion? They pulled the barrels for these a year or two too early. Let’s hope that next year’s will have more age than this years.

9. Joseph Magnus Cigar Blend from Batch 30 to 50

Joseph Magnus may not have invented Armagnac finished bourbon, but they made it wildly popular. Using the oldest MGP barrels they could find (12 to 20 years old), the end products were beyond rich and flavorful from Batch 1 up to Batch 17.

But then they began to quietly use an unknown Kentucky bourbon (Barton? Beam?) in the blend which raised the proof, but took away most of the richness and depth that came from using only MGP barrels. Nancy Fraley is a wizard, but even she would probably admit that these aren’t what they used to be.

8. Jack Daniel’s 10 Years Old Tennessee Whiskey

10 year old Jack Daniel’s for $70 seems awesome for the largest American Whiskey seller in the world, but it doesn’t blow my socks off or showcase anything new from the brand. It’s just slightly richer Heritage Barrel and a whole lot nuttier. I expected something more but didn’t get it with this one.

7. Little Book Chapter 5

The first Little Book release that I didn’t care for… and a lot of people are with me on this one. It’s not that Freddie didn’t try but it’s just that the sum of its parts didn’t taste special enough to warrant a +$100 bottle.

6. Old Fitzgerald 8 Year Bottled in Bond

Thin and astringent. Why the hell would Heaven Hill give us Larceny aged 1 year longer, 8 proof points higher and four times the price?! That killer bottle shape tho.

5. Barrell Bourbon Batch 028

Barrell was on an absolutely amazing streak of awesome bourbon batches ever since Batch 24 with each release being better than the last. But then came along Batch 028. While not terrible, it was shocking to see such a dip in overall enjoyment especially when it was sandwiched between two amazing releases like Batch 027 and 029.

4. Weller Single Barrel

This label does not need to exist. It is not special and it’s only robbing more people from finding other Weller products that Buffalo Trace doesn’t make enough of anyway. It’s a stupid idea and the people buying and selling it for $700 or more on the secondary market should be ashamed. If one bottle represents how evil Buffalo Trace is, this is it.

3. Rendezvous Rye 2021

After my comparison review of the 2021 release versus a bottling of Rendezvous Rye from 2017, it was easy to see just how much High West’s flagship rye whiskey has fallen over the years. Here’s to hoping that the new rye distillate that they’ve contracted out to Bardstown Bourbon Company finally elevates this label back to where it once was. But it will take many more years for that to happen.

2. Stagg Jr. Batch 14

Perhaps one of the weakest Stagg Jr. batches to come out since Batch 7, this Stagg Jr batch seemed to lack the depth that so many before and after it had. There was cherry cough syrup galore but the oak and brown sugar sweetness was very muted.

1. Knob Creek Single Barrel Store Pick Bourbons that are only 9 Years Old

After 2+ years of being the absolute best value in bourbon by offering us 13 to 16 year old barrels for around $55, we got spoiled. These 9 year old single barrels are still good, but they just don’t hit the spot like they used to. Talk about a first world problem.