10 best (but priciest!) bourbons for Father's Day, from Iowa to India
10 best (but priciest!) bourbons for Father's Day, from Iowa to India
Bourbon is no longer the value it once was. Sure, great values still exist, but a growing marketplace of whiskey nerds and a willingness to sneaker-ify the spirit has led to robust resale markets and rising prices.
You don't always wind up paying for quality. Let's talk about when you do -- especially if you're looking for a gift that delivers beyond the presentation and price tag. Today in our final breakdown for FTW's Father's Day Whiskey Week Extravaganza (tm), we're talking about the higher-priced bottles of bourbon out there.
MORE WHISKEY LISTS FOR FATHER'S DAY:
-- Best flavored whiskeys
-- Best and most affordable bourbons
-- Best spicy ryes
-- Best Scotches, from reasonable to ridiculously expensive
My aim here is to cast a wider net and avoid some of the more popular names out there. Thus, no Pappy Van Winkle or Wellers on this list. Let's venture from Iowa to India and see what we've got. These are the best higher-priced bourbons I drank this past year.
Paul John Christmas Edition
First, let me assure you Paul John's bottles are much nicer than this (look! It's pretty!). But I respect the utility of the media sample. No frills, no fancy mailer, just a bottle, some fine brown party liquors and a brief note telling you what it is.
The spirit itself unveils a sharp, sweet and slightly spicy vanilla and oak once poured. The first sip leans into those craft ice cream flavors. It's got a little honey to it, tastes a little nutty and builds toward a boozy warmth that gets to, say, a 70 degree day before cooling back down. Fruit shows up throughout that spectrum; I'm getting a lot of orange but maybe some cherry as well.
This all weaves together to create a smooth, sweet whiskey. I believe it's my first foray into Indian whiskey, so there's a chance I'm gonna assume every one I have from here on out is like a Highland malt with the dials turned hard toward "dessert." The finish brings the spice you'd expect from an aged spirit, clean and dry and leaving you to come back for more. There's a little cinnamon and some assorted baking spices that create a familiar, comforting sip.
So yeah, if all Indian malts are like this, sign me up.
Wolves American Single Malt
Full disclosure: my first sip of Wolves wasn't for a review. Instead, I plucked the bottle from my shelf after roughly three hours of assembling a six-year-old's toys on Christmas eve in hope of respite. It delivered; smooth, sippable and, importantly, clean enough to leave me mostly hangover free for the following morning's 6 a.m. wakeup call.
Neat:
It pours a lovely dark caramel color with just a little bit of bead on top. You can smell the influence of the wine casks it spent the previous five years phasing in and out of right off the top. You get a little bit of white wine and some sweet lighter fruits to go along with that boozy malt. Despite a 48 percent ABV, it smells dense but not fiery.
There's a nice, low key sweetness that rumbles throughout the sip. It's a bit like honey and coats your throat and tongue similarly. It works because there's very little burn involved here; you're pairing smooth with smooth and the result is a whiskey with very little friction that's wonderfully easy to sip.
You get a lot of fruit, ranging from a little bit of wine to some sweeter, denser fruits like apple and ... maybe some pear? Either way, the sweetness works well with the light cereal backdrop of the malt. It's unmistakable as a whiskey, but softer than a bourbon, landing delicately between a happy hour drink and an after dinner one.
The standout feature is its replayable flavor; a whiskey you can sip throughout the night without fatigue. Let's see how that translates over a little bit of ice.
On ice:
The ice blunts that malty, wine-adjacent flavor that wafts up from the pour. The ice bumps up the smoothness ratio and brings out more of the lingering honey flavor. But it dulls the malt and a little bit of the fruit inside.
That's just about what I'm looking for, though. This is a perfect unwinding whiskey -- gentle enough to be sipped liberally but still with enough soft complexity to be interesting. This is more of a crowd pleaser than a heavy Scotch. It's a little sweet and slightly basic. But it works great over ice.
Heaven's Door bourbon: The Bootleg Series Vol. VI Aged 12 Years
This was released in conjunction with A Complete Unknown. That's the Bob Dylan movie I have not watched, but gladly would have in order to drink good bourbon. The bottle is a painted white with a barrio or holler landscape, which is lovely but doesn't give you a good look at the spirit inside.
Fortunately, it pours the rich molasses color you'd expect from a bourbon that's nearly a teenager. It's dark and the smell coming off the top is rich rum raisin ice cream with a swirl of caramel. There's also a little tobacco, like you're dealing with a nice maduro wrapper cigar, though maybe not as earthy.
That tobacco lingers in a crisp finish, but there's a long way to go before you get there. It's a remarkably complex spirit, giving off that caramel raisin up front and a little chocolate. You do get a lot of that oak flavor, which imparts a little vanilla but mostly that light, Swisher-Sweet-but-good vibe that closes each sip and gives you something to think about.
You start light and end heavy, which is a lovely way to do it. There's little heat and absolutely no burn, which is what you'd expect from a 12-year bourbon but, more importantly, from a $500 one. That's a tremendous amount of money to spend on booze, but everything, from the presentation to the finish, is top shelf. The whiskey is smooth and complex. But, yeah, that's... pricy.
Too much for me to splurge on. But if you're looking for a splash gift or just want to treat yourself, you're getting a conversation starter and a pretty damn good bourbon.
Bhakta Whiskeys
Let's begin with the obvious. Bhatka's entire aesthetic is gorgeous. The tapered, ridged bottle looks like something stolen from the set of Metropolis or, if a more-current-but-still-dated vibe is more your thing, from the underwater city of Rapture. Let's talk about three A-grade expressions from Vermont.
2014 Armagnac Cask Finish Bourbon
It pours an enticing dark walnut color, lending credence to the fact it made it all the way to third grade inside oak casks. This is a nine-year malt, though only 125 days of that stretch was spent weaving through the fibers of armagnac barrels.
The smell is grain forward and sweet. There's the expected warmth of a 52.7 percent alcohol by volume cask strength whiskey. You get sweet caramel up front, which gives way to that heat you smelled earlier. That's the bouncer at the door. It's one you probably know how to get past if you're dropping $150 on a bottle of whiskey.
There's a little acidic fruit and that ongoing, creme brulee-ish current that comes with the caramel wafting from the top. It lingers, balancing between that sweet and spice before ultimately landing in the former camp. That makes it easy to come back to, but also potent enough to shine with an ice cube or two dropped in -- hey, drink however makes you happy.
Ultimately, it's a very nice bourbon that lives up to its bottle and accompanying price tag. The finish has an almost dessert quality to it, and it hides its big boozy payload well even with that aforementioned warmth.
2011 Armagnac Cask Finish Bourbon
As you might expect after the 2014, this is a nearly 13-year-old bourbon. That promises a smoother ride, tempered by a slightly stronger ABV at 55.5 percent. It's also got less corn (84 percent, down from 99 percent in the 2014) and the addition of rye and malted barley, which promises a little extra spice and warm dessert flavors.
Once again, it pours an engaging dark brown. Despite the higher ABV, the nose is less boozy than its younger peer. You get a little bread pudding, some brown sugar and the roasted malt that makes up its backbone.
You get sweetness up front before the warmth of a cask strength dram clocks in, bringing a wave of flavor with it. It's a melody of fruit flavor; lots of stone fruits (cherry, plum... date?), some raisin and that sweet, crystallized sugar vibe that ringed the 2014 version. It's not overly sweet, despite the sugar of the opening. The fruit flavors work well together, each bringing their own minor influence with a bit of baking spice to create a weird, boozy pie.
As expected, those extra three years create a mellower, smoother ride. That fruit lingers after it leaves your lips, giving you something to think on after it's gone. At the same price point as the 2014, but made in a smaller quantity, this is the bottle on which I'd rather splurge.
1928 Straight Rye Whiskey aged in Calvados and Armagnac Casks
This is a mix of five-year-old rye (60 percent), XO calvados (30 percent) and Armagnacs spanning multiple decades but starting as early as, you guessed it, 1928 (10 percent). Well, OK. That's... a lot.
It pours slightly lighter than the bourbons. It smells much lighter too, with heightened notes of fruit and a little floral tone. There's a little dark sugar to it, sticking with the pie adjacent undercurrents of Bhakta's over whiskeys.
Wow. The first sip is crisp. There's the sweet malt of the rye, but you also get a snappy fruit influence from the calvados. A little pear, some green apple and a very mild heat. That fructose sweetness lingers, even as the sharper fruit flavors fade away. It leaves a minor coating on your tongue, leaving a little vanilla alongside it.
This all makes me think I may like calvados more than I anticipated. And that it works well alongside rye. The blend is smooth and complex. While the 100-ish year old Armagnac makes little more than a cameo, it's also a conversation starter that doesn't put this bottle out of the price range of its peers. And at $69, it's significantly cheaper than Bhakta's headline bourbons.
Cedar Ridge The Beverly QuintEssential
This whiskey holds a special place in my heart. In part because it's Cedar Ridge, and everything they've done, including a Slipknot bourbon, is pretty good. But this bottle arrived at the end of the NFL playoffs. When my final story was filed after Super Bowl 59, this is the drink I poured to shut my brain off and untangle the knot of anxiety that had looped through itself over the previous 23 weeks.
I liked it then thanks to bold fruit flavor and a smooth finish. But I was also in no mood to actually review it. Now, we're pouring it again.
And, again, it's a lovely dark tea color. The smell off the top is roasted malt, a little salt and gentle stone fruit flavor -- cherry, plum and a little bit of chocolate. The bottle, with its ridged, segmented sections, deserves mention as well. It stands out in a Hibiki kind of way, which makes sense because as a Cedar Ridge flagship bottle it's a special expression.
The first sip is... wow. There's so much going on here and I really, really like it. You begin with sweetness and a minor brine that takes me back to some of the Islay scotches I prefer. You get some cherry and some baking spice and a little bit of warmth. Then, the finish. It's chocolate raisins and a little bit of malted milk. It's almost decadent, with the sherry cask the spirit spent six years breathing through really shining.
I thought my initial impression of this whiskey may have been the exploding synapses of an exhausted brain. You could have plied me with Malort and I probably would have sipped it happily after the NFL season wrapped. But The QuintEssential is every bit as good as I remember; sweet with just a little spice, warm and complex and, ultimately, a good memory wrapped in a gorgeous package.
Fox & Oden American Single Malt Whiskey
So let's talk about single malt. It's different from "single barrel," which means a bourbon that's been aged in a single barrel and thus can differ noticeably from bottle to bottle. Single malt means it's just one grain in the mix and that it's all from the same distillery. So, it's a bit of a marketing ploy than an indicator of quality -- you're better off with a bottled-in-bond in most cases than a single malt -- but it's still a fancy sounding wrinkle.
Fox & Oden is part of a Michigan whiskey revival that includes the genuinely great Joseph Magnus. The rye was lighter than expected, but still a delightful sipper. The single malt, hand-numbered and in a bottle befitting a craft distillery, pours a proper mahogany. It smells, from the top, like big, boozy fruit. Raisin, cherry, a little bit of burnt sugar. It's like an 1800s pudding, which means you get a little roasted heat with those sharp fructose flavors.
That sweetness hits up front and lingers through the entire sip. Underneath it you get some more fruit -- a little citrus, maybe even a little bit of chocolate and honey? -- before a smidge baking spice clocks in late. There's warmth, but no burn despite its 94 proof toll. The texture is a bit thicker than I'm used to, but that's not a problem.
It's really quite nice. This is a spirit I could sip all night -- slightly bready, slightly sweet and with a little floral influence and a lot of fruit. Some single malts fail to live up to the hype of its label. This one does not.
Ducks Unlimited 10-year (by the World Whiskey Society)
This is an absolutely gorgeous bottle. It's in an absolutely gorgeous case. And it's 10-year, cask strength bourbon. And I get to write about it, because my job is the fever dream of an overserved 19-year-old college student.
Seriously, look at the presentation on this guy!
Anyway, this pours a gorgeous mahogany. It smells like oak and vanilla, all playing a supporting role to a boozy stone fruit -- a little raisin and cherry and, I think, a little caramel. The opening sip is sweet on your lips but absolutely gives way to that cask strength. This is STRONG. Not undrinkable, obviously, but with enough heat to let you know this isn't an 80 proof spirit.
That leaves you with a sweet, warm bourbon that brings a lot of flavor at the expense of the smoothness you might expect from a 10-year whiskey. At cask strength, you're getting a pure expression straight from the barrel, which is effectively a challenge. Ultimately, the headline is stone fruit, molasses and a little vanilla, all against a backdrop that's warm but doesn't quite burn.
I'm on board. Maybe not at $300, but given the absolute beauty of the case and bottle, it's a proper price for a solid spirit and a gorgeous presentation. I wouldn't buy this for myself, but I would buy it as a gift. And I'd be happy as hell to receive it.
Joseph Magnus Triple Cask
From October's "A" review:
Wow. Just uncorking this bottle makes it clear where this whiskey came from. There's a distinct sherry smell that floats out of the neck once you crack the seal.
Pouring it into a proper glass reveals a rich tea coloring and a complex, fruity nose. You're getting those grapes, sure, but there's a little cherry, peach, and other stone fruits to turn a simple sniff into an olfactory pattern of paisley.
It's awesome.
The first sip is notable in how long it lingers on your tongue and how many different permutations it runs through over what feels like 10 full seconds. The warmth of a 100 proof bourbon is there -- though it never burns -- as you go from sweet fruit, to grain, to a little spicy ...plum? to oak and finally a return to that cognac beginning.
There's a lasting chewiness to each sip; a dry finish with rounded off edges, if that makes sense. I'm not a wine guy, but the grape-stained barrels here impart a lot of flavor beyond your standard vanilla/oak/tannins. Those weave their way into a proper bourbon in a spirit of cooperation rather than combat.
There's just so much to unpack here, but all of it is good.
If you're looking for a bourbon to sit and take your time with, Magnus should be your jam. As long as you're OK with a little cognac and sherry in the mix.
Smokeye Hill Straight Bourbon Whiskey
The bottle promises five years in the barrel and a 93 proof spirit -- toned down from cask strength, but still a bit stronger than your typical pour. It smells slightly spicy, with vanilla, cinnamon and a little green apple-ish fruit to it.
It's sweet up front, with that apple sweet-and-sour candy vibe casting its lot from the outset. That doesn't hang over the sip, however. There's a lot lurking underneath. There's some mild spice which helps build up that pie-adjacent profile; some light clove and a little heat. The body is medium dense, but the finish still lingers gently on your tongue with a little burnt sugar to it.
There's a slight acidity that helps carry things along. No burn, but a little warmth and some cutting spice that bumps up the replay value of this bourbon. That makes it valuable and versatile -- a worthy sip neat, on ice or in the occasional cocktail (but I wouldn't throw it in with just anything).
The straight bourbon may not have as much cache as the well-lauded Smokeye Hill Barrel Proof. But it's also about one-third the cost of its venerated brother. That makes it a solid value -- and a fancy tasting whiskey at a reasonable price.
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