It's that time again. That magical time of year when all the "Best Whiskey of the Year" lists come out. I've been searching around and found that most of these lists consist of highly aged Scotch and limited release or allocated Bourbon, and while I'm sure these drams are delicious, the fact remains that most of us will likely never taste most of these, so over the next five days, I present to you this longhorn's humble top 5 whiskies of 2020. Most of us could agree that this was not our best year. However, all the time spent at home resulted in expanded imbibing of our favorite brown beverage. This is the criteria for my list: (1) The whiskey has to be readily available on store shelves. No special releases. This means the most excellent Wild Turkey Masters Keep expressions I tried and rated this year are out, though you should feel confident to buy on sight. (2) Every dram on my list is $80 or less. Everyone should be able to taste great whiskey, and yes, I realize my definition of "great" might be different than others, but that's the fun of what we all do here, and (3) I had to have tasted it in 2020. None of the whiskies on my list were released this year, but this year is when I finally got around to them. Coming in at #2, I present the only Scotch on my list this year, and a humble blend no less. I'm often asked what my "favorite" scotch is, or what my "favorite" distillery is, or what the "best" value for a good scotch is. There's a different answer to each of those questions, and it doesn't always stay the same. I pulled back from buying as much single malt this year because of the damn import tariffs here in the USA, and stuck mainly to my bottles of Glendronach and Ardbeg I had purchased last year, while purchasing mainly North American spirits. After a lengthy period of Bourbons, Ryes, and Canadian whiskies, I started to take another look at the blended scotch section at the store, which hadn't been impacted by tariffs. Compass Box was an early favorite of mine when I was first exploring scotch, and this bottle may be their best offering of any of their products. Peat? Check. Sherry? Check. Malt? Check. Grain? Check. This bottle quite literally is the "compass" to the four corners of Scotch whisky. Got a friend that wants to get into scotch? Tell them to buy this bottle, and then whatever flavors they like, you can point them further in that direction. Plus, it's just a delicious whisky, which of course is what John Glaser was going for in the first place. #2 whiskey of the year for 2020 is the Compass Box Glasgow Blend. Special thanks to @ScotchingHard for putting this one on my radar this year. Cheers!