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Look, whiskey can be very cheap and perfectly drinkable. But, let’s be honest, there’s nothing special about a ten-dollar bottle of booze you can find at any happy hour across the country. If you’re giving someone a gift and want it to wow, you need to go a little deeper. So we’re calling out bottles that are meant to wow.
The ten bottles below start at the $100 mark and go up from there. We didn’t call out anything over $350 — we can talk about super expensive and rare bottles another time. These are the bottles you should be able to find pretty much anywhere and will put a big smile on your giftee’s face when they crack them open.
Belle Meade Single Barrel Bourbon
Style: Straight Bourbon Whiskey
ABV: 54%
Age: 10 Years
Distillery Location: Nashville, TN (Aging/Bottling)
Price: $99.99
The Whiskey:
Belle Meade Single Barrel is a masterclass in how great bourbon can be. The staff of Nelson’s Green Brier in Nashville take their time in selecting the absolute best barrels in their rickhouse to create this single barrel experience. The juice is hand-selected and bottled directly from the barrel with zero filterings or cutting. This is the real deal and it shines.
Tasting Notes:
Since this is a single barrel expression, no two bottlings are going to be the same. We still can dial in what to expect from the high-rye bourbon. Expect a baseline with clear vanilla, oak, and caramel that’s accented heavily by big rye spice notes. Floral flourishes with hints of apple orchards and freshly bailed straw will flutter in the background. It’s a warming whiskey that typically ends with a big burst of spice and oak.
Talisker Distillers Edition
Style: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
ABV: 45.8%
Age: 10 Years
Distillery Location: Isle of Skye, UK
Price: $109.99
The Whisky:
Talisker Distillers Edition is a special whisky from the Isle of Skye’s oldest distillery. The seaside location helps impart uniqueness to the spirit. The double barreling program in Amoroso sherry casks brings a depth and texture to the whisky that helps it shine brightly amongst the Talisker lineup.
Tasting Notes:
Wisps of smoke by way of a briny beach on a misty day greet you with a note of sultana sweetness. Creamy roasted malts and heather mingle with clear notes of sherry richness and plum syrup. Earthy peat picks up as vanilla and dark cocoa bring about a sweet-yet-slightly dry finish.
Peerless Rye
Style: Straight Rye Whiskey
ABV: 53.8%
Age: 24 Months
Distillery Location: Louisville, KY
Price: $114.99
The Whiskey:
Peerless Straight Rye is the rye you should be drinking regularly — price be damned. The whiskey is a hand-crafted masterpiece from a small distillery where the grain-to-glass experience is the focus of crafting a great dram. There’s no filtering, no cutting with water, and the mash is a sweet mash, compared to a sour mash. The difference is a sweet mash uses a new set of grains, water, and yeast with each fermentation. A sour mash uses some of the previous mash in the next fermentation, much like sourdough bread.
Tasting Notes:
Rich maple syrup cut with bright notes of citrus open this sip up. That syrup edges into brown sugar territory as the subtle yet clear rye spice rears its peppery head. Finally, the oak with an echo of vanilla come into play as the spice mellows and fades on the senses with a warming embrace.
Jameson 18 Years
Style: Irish Whiskey
ABV: 40%
Age: 18 Years
Distillery Location: Midleton, Ireland
Price: $119.99
The Whiskey:
Jameson 18 Years is a great way to fall in love with Irish whiskey. The triple-distilled spirit is aged in a combination of former bourbon and sherry barrels for 18 years. The best of the best is combined and then finished by mellowing in first-fill ex-bourbon barrels until it’s just right.
Tasting Notes:
Spiced toffee meets toasted oak with a feel of an aromatic oils bar. The spicy toffee carries the taste towards hints of old leather, more toasted wood, roasted almond, and a dose of vanilla. As the end nears, the spice, toffee, and wood combine for a big finish that lasts.
Lagavulin Distillers Edition
Style: Singel Malt Scotch Whisky
ABV: 43%
Age: 16 Years
Distillery Location: Isle of Islay, UK
Price: $159.99
The Whisky:
Lagavulin Distillers Edition takes the beauty of Lagavulin’s best casks of whisky and finishes them off in Pedro Ximnez sherry casks. The unique and highly sweetened sherry casks balance with the peated malt used to make this iconic whisky, creating a masterpiece scotch whisky.
Tasting Notes:
You can’t miss the peat and vanilla as clear saltiness undercuts the sweet raisin nature that keeps the smokiness in check. The peated malt comes through with a grassy note as the smoke peaks and the salt cuts back in while carrying vanilla, roasted coffee, and stone fruit to the fore. That fruit marries the peat as the smoky nature brings about a long, salty finish.
Michter’s Single Barrel 10 Years Old Bourbon
Style: Straight Bourbon Whiskey
ABV: 47.2%
Age: 10 Years
Distillery Location: Louisville, KY
Price: $169.99
The Whiskey:
Michter’s Single Barrel Bourbon takes its time. The juice is aged in hand-selected new American oak barrels with a specialty charring program. Then, each barrel is monitored to assure the highest standards for ten long years. When the barrels hit the correct moment, they’re bottled with zero interference. The result is one of the finest and most lauded bourbons coming out of Kentucky today.
Tasting Notes:
Classic is the best way to describe this expression. The caramel, vanilla, and oak all shine in an almost perfect balance. A dark toffee takes over the sip as maple syrup and charred oak counterpoint the buttery kettle corn and a hint of wildflowers and apple blossoms. There’s an echo of spice as the oaky and vanilla finish lingers on.
Jack Daniel’s Sinatra Select
Style: Tennessee Whiskey
ABV: 45%
Age: No Age Statement
Distillery Location: Lynchburg, TN
Price: $169.99
The Whiskey:
Jack Daniel’s Sinatra Select is classic Jack Daniel’s in more than one way. The tipple is a throwback to the recipe from the era of Frank Sinatra (who loved JD so much that he was buried with a bottle). Then the juice is aged in a special barrel that has had deep, concentric grooves carved into them. This allows the whiskey to absorb more oak as it ages, giving this whiskey a classic feel.
Tasting Notes:
Stone fruit and honey mingle on the nose with a hint of apple brandy and a wisp of smoke. That smoke amps up with a spicy edge that mixes with rich caramel, vanilla, and a clear sense of toasted oak. The fruits and florals take on an almost herbal element as the smoke and oak carry on towards a spicy and warm finish with plenty of vanilla backbone.
Orphan Barrel Rhetoric 25 Year
Style: Straight Bourbon Whiskey
ABV: 45.5%
Age: 25 Years
Distillery Location: Tullahoma, TN (Aging/Bottling)
Price: $189.99
The Whiskey:
Orphan Barrel Rhetoric 25 is a rare find at a surprisingly affordable price. This isn’t the rarest bottle on the list but it isn’t going to be around much longer either. Rhetoric 25 is the last release from the series and is sourced from rickhouses and cellars from orphaned barrels that are then finished off at Orphan Barrel in Tennessee. The results are one-of-a-kind whiskeys that always aim high and hit the mark.
Tasting Notes:
This is just a straight-up classic bourbon. The dram starts with the hits: rich caramel, oily vanilla pods, and toasted oakiness. There’s a sense of florals and apple orchards with a hint of grass in the background as the caramel leans into toffee and the vanilla shines. The oak fades and never overpowers as a slightly spicy vanilla edge brings this sip home.
Whistlepig Estate Oak Rye
Style: Straight Rye Whiskey
ABV: 46%
Age: 15 Years
Distillery Location: Shoreham, VT (Aging/Bottling)
Price: $199.99
The Whiskey:
Whistlepig Estate Oak Rye is the perfect example of a great aging program can create a great whiskey. Their rye — sourced from Indiana and Alberta — is finished in locally grown Vermont oak at the Whistlepig farm. The oak is so local, that only wood harvested directly from the farm is used. This helps make this rye a very Vermont pour.
Tasting Notes:
Caramel, vanilla, and oak greet you and then turn towards burnt orange rinds and a rush of allspice. That spice leads towards a full Christmas spice push accented by creamy butterscotch, old leather, and wisps of tobacco smoke. The spice and oak carry through to the end as a warmth peaks and then fades with another hint of that smoke and leather.
Berry’s Aged 40 Years Blend
Style: Blended Scotch Whisky
ABV: 46%
Age: 40 Years
Distillery Location: Scotland (Aging/Bottling)
Price: $369.99
The Whisky:
Berrys’ Aged 40 Years is a very, very rare bottle. Only 120 were produced in the U.K. and, amazingly, one of them can be yours. A little background: Berry Bros. & Rudd is one of the oldest wine and spirit distributors in the U.K. and even provides all the booze for the British Royal Family.
Tasting Notes:
Subtly is the word here. There’s a sense of an effervescent and darkly roasted macchiato dusted with dark cocoa powder upfront. Sourdough toast covered in butter, sugar, and cinnamon lead toward vanilla and milk chocolate. That’s immediately cut with a bitter dose of black tea and a very distant thought of peat. Finally, the whiskey fades into a velvet lusciousness that peaks above the bitter, sweet, and spice.
