Top Shelf Whiskey Picks From The Distiller Community

Each release of Elijah Craig Barrel Proof is an uncut small batch of 12 year-old bourbon bottled straight from the barrel. Each batch varies by proof. A121 is the first release for 2021, bottled at 123.6 proof.

Four Roses Small Batch Select Bourbon is a non-chill filtered bourbon using a recipe selected by Master Distiller Brent Elliott. Four Roses has 10 bourbon recipes available to craft its bourbon offerings which are made from two different mash bills and five different yeast strains. Small Batch Select is made from six of the ten: OBSV, OBSK, OBSF, OESV, OESK, OESF. Each bourbon in the small batch selection will be six or seven years old. This is the first new brand extension for the brand in 12 years. It joins the other permanent releases of Four Roses Bourbon, Small Batch, and Single Barrel bottlings. Available as of spring 2019 in Kentucky, Texas, California, New York, and Georgia with other locations to follow in the future. (SRP $59.99)

Port Charlotte 10 Year is a permanent addition to Bruichladdich's portfolio and replaces the multi-vintage Scottish Barley bottling. Made using 100% Scottish barley from the Inverness Shire region. This 10 year old bottling matures in a variety of casks: 65% in 1st fill American whiskey, 10% in 2nd fill American whiskey, and 25% in 2nd fill French wine casks. Port Charlotte bottlings are the heavily peated single malt line distilled at Bruichladdich with the barley peated to 40ppm. Bottled at 50% ABV, it is non-chillfiltered and has no color added. Available beginning May 2018.

Woodford Reserve is known for aging their bourbon in heavily charred oak barrels, which give the whiskey a distinctive, deep, rich flavor and feel. Double Oaked is the same bourbon, given a second maturation, or finish, in barrels that have been toasted twice as long, but charred much more lightly than the other casks, for an additional 9 months. A package redesign was introduced in late 2016, featuring a shorter and wider bottle. It is still bottled at 45.2% ABV.

As the name indicates, this is a small batch whiskey comprised of selected whiskey barrels which were aged in Warehouse C. This warehouse was constructed by Colonel E.H. Taylor Jr in 1881. This bourbon is also a bonded whiskey which means that the bourbon was distilled in one season, aged for at least 4 years and bottled at 50% ABV.

Arriving in the US in early 2014, the Green Spot is a single pot still whiskey produced at the Midleton Distillery and made exclusively for Mitchell & Sons. These wine merchants would buy casks of pot still whiskey and age in ex-sherry casks. These days, sherry casks only amount for 25% of the barrels with the remainder being ex-bourbon. The name is derived from the dab of paint used to identify the barrels by age, which in the Green Spot's case, is 7-8 years.

Released by Kentucky Bourbon Distillers (KBD), a family-owned independent bottler and producer, this small batch rye (source(s) not disclosed) is aged for four years. It's bottled at cask strength.

Eagle Rare 10 Year Bourbon is one of the flagship products of the Buffalo Trace collection of whiskeys. It is made from 10 year old bourbon aged at the Kentucky distillery. The barrels are hand selected for quality and consistency before bottling.

Though not officially (read, legally) established until 1816, there are records that date distillation here going back to 1742. Malted barley produced just a hop, skip, and a jump away at neighboring Port Ellen is utilized. Everything is long at this distillery: fermentation, distillation, and maturation. Good things do indeed come to those that wait. Bottled at 43% ABV after 16 years in oak barrels.

The first mass-produced single-barrel bourbon, bottled by Master Distiller Elmer T Lee in 1984, gets its name from Colonel Albert Blanton. Colonel Blanton spent more than 55 years producing, studying and upholding whiskey traditions; holding almost every job imaginable at what is now the Buffalo Trace Distillery. Insider's note: Save the stoppers. They spell out Blanton's and depict eight different moments from the beginning to end of a horse race.