The 25 Whiskeys You Need to Try Before You Die

The whiskeys herein are not the best whiskeys in the world. There isn’t even a rating system or greater calculus behind their choosing. This is simply a list of whiskeys that, in one way or another, matter.

Some of the bottles, like Johnnie Walker Blue Label or Old Grand-Dad 114, tell a story about where whiskey has been. Others, like Bulleit’s ubiquitous rye or Buffalo Trace’s Blanton’s line, quietly reshaped whiskey history. And then, of course, there’s whiskey that’s just so good, so unique and so iconic, it makes the cut by force of will.

How many have you tried?

Buffalo Trace Antique Collection

• Availability: Allocated

Shortened to BTAC by its followers, the crown jewel of Buffalo Trace’s whiskey-making empire is an annual show-off session for its best juice. The collection includes an uncut rye bomb, extra-aged Eagle Rare bourbon and Sazerac rye and, what every bourbon enthusiast is perpetually hunting down, George T. Stagg and William Larue Weller. The former is essentially extra-old, barrel strength Buffalo Trace, the latter is a barrel strength Pappy that can be even trickier to track down.

Fireball Cinnamon Whisky

• Availability: Widely Available

Laugh all you want, Fireball has earned its spot on a bucket list bourbon sheet by sheer force. And though it is not technically a whiskey, it is the ground floor entrance for millions of soon-to-be whiskey drinkers. To have not slugged a shot of it is the whiskey equivalent of having not tried Miller Lite.

Weller 12

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• Availability: Allocated

A $20 Buffalo Trace bourbon available everywhere is now $200+ and nowhere to be found. What happened? Hype. Whiskey writers, shop owners and bourbon lovers started calling it “baby Pappy” because of a shared wheated bourbon mashbill, and it began to disappear. Is it worth the sky-high price it goes for nowadays? That can only be answered after you’ve tried it.

Booker’s Bourbon

• Availability: Allocated

In the context of bourbon history, Booker’s represents the beginning of bourbon premiumization. Before it, American whiskey was considered cheap schlock, unworthy of comparisons to the stuff being made across the Atlantic. Then its creator and namesake Booker Noe put it on the shelf for $50, a ridiculous figure for American whiskey in the 1980s, and ushered in the beginning of serious American hooch.

Four Roses 2017 Limited Edition 50th Anniversary Small Batch

• Availability: Past Release

Likely the most iconic of Four Roses’ annual limited edition series, 2017’s tribute to Al Young’s time at Four Roses has sadly became more iconic with his passing. The legendary Four Roses ambassador and bourbon historian insisted that the release had to be like the old stuff Four Roses made, and it had to look like it, too. The bottle is is styled after bottles from 1967, and the whiskey inside is a blend of 23-, 15-, 13- and 12-year-old juice. Your best best at getting a taste is ordering a pour at a well-stocked bourbon bar.

Hibiki 21

• Availability: Allocated

A number of Japanese whiskies undory the Suntory flag could be here, but Hibiki 21 is a classic example of Japanese whisky decadence. As with all Hibiki entries, it contains spirit aged in American oak barrels, Spanish Olorosso sherry casks, ex-bourbon barrels, ex-wine casks and the iconic Japanese Mizunara oak barrel, which is easily the most expensive maturation barrel money can buy. It is the pinnacle of a line that was created to cater to the Japanese palate, and shows incredible finesse in its intense, almost tea-like floral structure. Its rarity and price in the US represent the downside of the category, which hasn’t been able to keep up with demand in close to a decade now. It’s always Suntory Time.

Wild Turkey 101

• Availability: Widely Available

Deep char barrels, high rye content, sturdy proofing and a classic 7-ish years spent maturing (really a blend of 6-, 7- and 8-year old whiskey) for $20 to $25 makes Wild Turkey’s famed 101 offering a bottom shelf whiskey cheat code. It packs enough punch — in proof and flavor — to serve as a suitable cocktail whiskey, and its peppery-vanilla depth lends to drinking on the rocks, too. By the end of the Russell era at Wild Turkey (may it never come), the father-son duo’s prized bourbon deserves a spot in a museum. This is more than 100 years of family distilling know-how in a bottle you can nab for the cost of a movie date.

Lagavulin 16

• Availability: Widely Available

Full of sweet smoke and dryness, Lagavulin 16 perhaps the most classic example of the Islay scotch whisky — and, if it matters, it comes with a recommendation from one Ron Swanson.

Red Spot Irish Whiskey

• Availability: Allocated

Before the distillery’s demise in the 1960s, barrels of Mitchell & Son company whiskey were splotched with a blue, green, yellow or red paint to indicate their aging potential. Revived in 2018, the newly formed Spot Whiskeys pay tribute to the traditional Irish single pot still distilling of old. At 15 years old and bursting with fruit flavor, Red Spot is the highest-end of the lot, and represents some of the best whiskey the country has to offer.

Bulleit Straight Rye

• Availability: Widely Available

A divisive, affordable masterstroke by one of America’s greatest living distillers in Larry Ebersold. Ebersold and the secretive operators at MGP in Indiana created a 95 percent rye, 5 percent malted barley mashbill for a dozen craft distillers or more and it took over the category, defining what rye whiskey tasted like (hot) for a generation of whiskey drinkers. Bulleit’s ubiquitous straight rye is the most famous result.

Henry McKenna Single Barrel

• Availability: Allocated

This is a time capsule to whiskey hype in early 2019. What was once a $35 bourbon available everywhere became a $100 ultra-premium whiskey lining the top shelf overnight, all it took was a San Francisco World Spirits Competition crown. The price may drop from peak hype, but it’s unlikely you’ll ever see it next to your regular old Knob Creeks, Four Roses and Buffalo Trace again.

Maker’s Mark

• Availability: Widely Available

Maker’s Mark has changed over time; not the whiskey, but the brand. In its early days it was known as a premium whiskey, carrying the tagline “It tastes expensive … and is.”As the whiskey industry has evolved, Maker’s, despite being bought and sold by multiple mega-corporations (it’s owned by Beam-Suntory today), is still very much the same distillery it once was. They still rotate barrels from the tops of warehouses to the bottom to account for differing temperature and humidity levels. The bourbon is still wheated and still carries a higher-than-normal barley percentage. Through decades of growing and becoming one of the most-sold whiskeys in the world, they’ve even preserved the hand-dipped wax bottling practice. Though made in absolutely monstrous quantity today, it is as well-crafted a whiskey as can be.

High West Rendezvous Rye

• Availability: Widely Available

The first whiskey from the first distillery in Utah since Prohibition ended was created by whiskey mad scientist David Perkins, who combined old MGP rye with the green as can be stuff he had made. The result is a timewarp in your mouth — a biting, young rye with a slow, drawn out finish. Today, it represents the early days of the craft whiskey boom, and what nimbler distillers can do to create whiskey that competes with the big dogs.

Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7

• Availability: Widely Available

The single greatest economic force in the American whiskey canon, JD is a behemoth. Brown-Forman’s money printing machine ships nearly 14 million cases of the stuff every year, which translates to something near 175 million bottles annually. That’s reason enough to pour a Jack and Coke, even if it’s just to see what the fuss is about.

Old Forester Birthday Bourbon

• Availability: Allocated

Birthday Bourbon arrived right as the American whiskey boom began in earnest, riding the wave of ultra-rare, ultra-premium whiskeys that captivate thousands of collectors annually. Its late summer, early fall release also acts as the unofficial beginning to whiskey hunting season, when most major distilleries begin releasing their most prized stuff. On a smaller scale, its release is an earmark between era at Old Forester — before Birthday Bourbon, the brand was mostly a budget pick with a relatively small following outside of bartenders; since its release, Old Forester has filled out its lineup on every shelf at the liquor store, cementing itself as a full-stack whiskey label.

Jameson Irish Whiskey

• Availability: Widely Available

Yes, Irish whiskey is getting up off the mat again. Old family distilleries and new innovators are driving new growth, but Jameson still makes up well over half of sales, and kept the entire category afloat for decades.

Blanton’s Bourbon

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• Availability: Allocated

Created by Elmer T. Lee, one part of the band that saved American whiskey from extinction along with Booker Noe, Jimmy Russell and Parker Beam, Blanton’s was, by most accounts, the first single barrel whiskey ever. It’s credited with a role in kickstarting the premiumization and proliferation of bourbon around the globe (along with Booker’s, Old Grand-Dad and others). Nowadays it serves as both the entry- and expert-level collector’s whiskey, depending on how far you’re willing to go down the rabbit hole. Beginners might seek out Blanton’s with a dump date that matches their birthday, or collect all the cork stoppers (buying them through that link is cheating), while experts track down rare international market releases like the barrel strength Straight From the Barrel, or even rarer releases like those only found at the Le Maison Du Whisky festival.

Angel’s Envy Cask Strength (First Edition, 2012)

• Availability: Past Release

After decades of lifting the likes of Jack Daniel’s and Woodford Reserve to new heights, Lincoln Henderson retired, founded a new whiskey brand with his son and casually released a barrel-finished whiskey that’s become the high water mark for the practice. Only 600 bottles of the heavy duty port-finished whiskey were ever released, so settling for a more recent cask strength release from the brand isn’t the worst thing.

Old Grand-Dad 114

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• Availability: Widely Available

A favorite among bourbon insiders and value hunters, OGD114 is a pivotal piece of bourbon history. Released in the same era as Blanton’s and Booker’s, it’s one of the whiskeys credited with saving the category from collapse in the ’80s, though it doesn’t get near the press or sales of its contemporaries. Good for you. You can taste this high-rye, high proof piece of bourbon history for $25 in some states, where Booker’s and Blanton’s run close to three-times that.

Hakushu 12

• Availability: Discontinued

If Icarus were a bottle of booze, he’d be Hakushu 12. Once a $50 bottle you could find in most decent liquor stores around the U.S., it is now a discontinued product that sells for nearly three times that price. Luckily, there are still bottles floating around, and, thanks to its intensely wild mountain environment in central Japan, it remains perhaps the most clear example of terroir in the greater whiskey world. It’s also the last of the Suntory whiskies to feature peat, making for a nice side-by-side pour with other Japanese whiskies or proper scotches.

Laphroiag Cask Strength

• Availability: Allocated

I’m counting this as a twofer: one for classic Laphroaig 10, and one for its meathead twin brother. Though not necessarily the greatest abuser of peat in Scotland, Laphroiag is probably its best known advocate. The standard 10-year-old expression is available almost anywhere for a fair price and should be tried alongside the cask strength expression, which suits the proof-obsessed American palate nicely. I would pour it with a splash of water to avoid blowing a tastebud.

Johnnie Walker Blue Label

• Availability: Allocated

King of kings, Johnnie Walker’s Blue Label serves as the definition of what a blended whisky can achieve and, as Aaron Goldfarb writes in PUNCH, a time when scotch reigned. It was then deemed “close to perfection” by Whisky Advocate (where it also earned a 97/100 rating, the highest in publication’s history) and the “Cristal of the blended whisky world” by Whisky Exchange. As it was in its heyday, Blue Label remains a must-try whisky.

Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye

• Availability: Widely Available

When whisky writer Jim Murray named this then-$30 bottle of relatively unknown Crown the best whiskey of 2016, the whiskey world was angry, but it vanished off shelves nonetheless. It was the first Canadian whisky to claim the title, and has lived a more posh life on a higher shelf ever since.

Nikka From the Barrel

• Availability: Widely Available

Nikka’s From the Barrel is the best widely available Japanese whisky to ever arrive on American soil. Unlike Suntory’s near-extinct Yamazaki and Hakushu lines (and its highball-focused Toki brand), From the Barrel has never been hard to find. It arrived in the U.S. in 2018 and Japan three decades before that and the makers claim there are more than 100 unique malt and grain spirits blended within. It’s prototypical Japanese whisky without the assumed Japanese whiskey price.

Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 23-Year

• Availability: Allocated

No American whiskey inspires emotion like Pappy. If you don’t have it, it’s the symbol of grotesque price inflation caused by the Bourbon Boom; If you have it, it’s one of the best things you can put in your mouth. Whatever it is or isn’t, Pappy 23 is the undisputed king of the Van Winkle Collection. Find it and form your own opinions.

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