The Top Scoring Whiskeys From March 2017

Millstone comes from the Zuidam distillery, a Netherlands family-owned distillery that has been making liquors and genevers (the juniper flavored national drink of the Netherlands and Belgium) for more than 50 years. Zuidam uses copper pot-stills and a wide variety of casks to produce many different big flavored malts. This 12 year old is matured for 8 years in first-fill American oak. It is then transferred into very old oloroso sherry casks, reconstructed from 500/600 liters to 250 liter barrels to finish its aging. It is bottled at 46% ABV. Note: Not available in the US.

This 100% rye mash whiskey debuted in May 2016 and is the oldest expression to date in WhistlePig's lineup. While waiting for the distillery's own whiskey to finish aging, they use juice sourced from Canada to bottle as their own. It has spent 15 years maturing in three types of casks: new, charred American oak barrels; former bourbon barrels; and new, charred Vermont white oak. It was developed with terroir in mind as the star of this show is the white oak grown on the Vermont distillery's estate in Shoreham. It is bottled at 46% ABV.

Made to adhere to the standards of the Bottled in Bond act of 1887, Law's Four Grain Straight Bourbon Bonded must be aged for a minimum of 4 years, made in a single distilling season, using the grains of a single season, made by one distiller at one distillery and aged in a federal government-bonded distillery.

Union Horse Distilling Co.(fka Dark Horse) opened in 2010. All of its products are distilled in Chester Copperpot — the distillery's 500-gallon column/pot-still. This Reserve Straight Bourbon is a sour mash made from 80% corn and 20% rye aged up to 5 years in new, charred American oak barrels.

Dailuaine distillery was built in 1852 by William Mackenzie and was the first distillery in Scotland to install the famous "pagoda-style" roof that became a popular design. Today, owned by Diageo, its malts are primarily used for the production of Johnnie Walker blends. This single malt was released as part of the "Flora and Fauna" series, a collection of single malts from the more obscure and unknown distilleries in Scotland. Note: This is not available in the US.

PC5 was the first bottling in the "PC" collection; it is a 5-year old heavily-peated (40 ppm) single malt distilled at Bruichladdich. It is bottled at cask-strength of 63.5% ABV. Only 6,000 bottles were produced; this is now a highly collectible whisky.

Penderyn is the first distillery in Wales in more than a century, picking up on a whisky-making tradition that dates back to the middle ages. Along with the Legend and Myth, the Celt is part of the brand's "Welsh Dragon" range of 41% ABV expressions (versus their signature 46%). It departs from the distillery's house-style of ex-bourbon cask maturation combined with ex-Madeira wine cask-finishing. This malt is finished in ex-peated Scotch casks instead of ex-Madeira wine casks to add a new dimension to the whisky. The whisky is non-chill filtered and bottled at 41% ABV. Note: This is not currently available in the US.

Corbin Cash Merced Rye Whiskey came about after the Souza family realized that they needed to grow a nitrogen-fixing crop to fertilize the soil in-between harvest of sweet potatoes, the main product of the family farm. Not only does the Merced rye fertilize the soil, it's also the only grain used to produce this rye whiskey. The rye is grown, harvested, fermented and distilled all on the Souza family farm. After aging for almost 4 years in custom-charred white oak barrels from Missouri, the whiskey is bottled at 45% abv. Availability seems to be limited to California at the moment.

Sourced from Alberta, Canada where it was distilled and initially aged, Whistlepig 10 Year was first released in summer of 2010. It is made from 100% rye. After aging a total of 10 years with some aging done in Vermont, it was bottled at the Whistlepig Farm at 100 proof.

The third release in Bruichladdich's PC series. The whisky is some of the first to be distilled by Jim McEwan at the newly reopened Bruichladdich, entering the casks in late May of 2001. The Port Charlotte series is an homage to the Scotch whisky produced at the Lochindaal Distillery in Port Charlotte, Islay, a few miles south of Bruichladdich. Lochindaal, which was mothballed in 1929, was known for its heavily peated whiskies; a retired stillman from Bruichladdich, Roderick Macleod, provided McEwan with tasting notes of the original whisky, which serve as the basis for this interpretation. The PC7, named the Sin Doigh Ileach (translated: "it's the Islay way"), celebrates the people of Islay who contributed to the reopening of Bruichladdich. The whisky is seven years old, non-chill filtered, and bottled at the casks' strength of 61% ABV.