Speculators and detractors have written of the dreaded whiskey bubble for close to a decade now. Are we ready to accept that American bourbon, whiskey and rye aren’t going anywhere? Last year, bourbon eclipsed $4 billion in sales, despite huge losses in emerging European markets, thanks to retaliatory tariffs stemming from airplane subsidies. If a trade war and a pandemic can’t stymie the aftershocks of the Bourbon Boom, what can? These are the best American whiskeys I’ve tried in 2021. (Last Updated: 1/29/2021)
Pursuit United
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It would be naïve to suggest bourbon is the only spirit with an engaged and enthusiastic community of drinkers, but bourbon certainly hosts the largest number of fanatics, compared to its distilled counterparts. No whiskey exemplifies this quite like Pursuit United, a whiskey made by the bourbon world’s most popular podcasters — Kenny Coleman and Ryan Cecil of Bourbon Pursuit — turned whiskey blenders. The brand’s debut bottle blends whiskey from Finger Lakes Distilling in upstate New York, Bardstown Bourbon Company out of Kentucky and an undisclosed Tennessee distillery into a truly wicked pour. It smells like maple syrup and tastes like burnt sugar.
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Dewar’s Portuguese Smooth
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In 2019, scotch whisky let down its hair (a bit). The world’s most tightly defined spirit could now be the subject of the cask-finishing experiments so popular in the rest of the whiskey world. Distillers immediately seized at the opportunity to diversify their lineups, and none have done it as well as Dewar’s, whose offerings are affordable, weird and — very quietly — excellent. Portuguese Smooth is 8-year-old scotch that hangs out in ruby port casks for four months before bottling. In the absolute best sense, it smells like boozy Capri Sun and tastes like pie.
Learn More: Here | Shop Now: $25
Ezra Brooks 99 Proof
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It’s unlikely Ezra Brooks 99 — sibling to the great and underappreciated Old Ezra — will garner much attention in the whiskeysphere. It’s a brand few have heard of made by a distillery no one knows (Luxco) that was just purchased by a notoriously mysterious mega-producer. More for me, I guess. Ezra 99 is a higher proof variant of the brand’s standard 90 proof offering, and the flavor and body are better for it. Sitting on the very competitive lower-middle shelf, it holds up.
Learn More: Here | Shop Now: $25
Thomas S. Moore Chardonnay Cask Finish
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A new line of whiskeys from Barton 1792 distillery that focuses on what the brand calls “extended cask finishing” and includes a chardonnay-finished whiskey is not something I expected to enjoy, but here we are. The whiskey is moderately aged (5 to 7 years) then holed up in an ex-chard barrel for another 2 to 5 years. Considering most cask-finished whiskey gets, I don’t know, six months or so in the secondary barrel, Thomas S. Moore whiskeys are going full send. Bottled just under 100 proof, the chardonnay-finished variant is very fruity, but not overly so. It tastes a bit like Four Roses with a strawberry dropped in it.
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