It features beautifully integrated alcohol presence on the nose in particular, allowing the drinker to easily access notes of fresh rye grain, pumpernickel bread and caramel-coated green apples. Like other Barrell Bourbon batches, it was bottled at cask strength, weighing in at a robust 116.7 proof, making it a pretty solid value at MSRP. This one in particular is really unique, incorporating 4 to 14-year-old rye whiskeys from all over the globe: Indiana, Tennessee, Canada and even Poland. Although their numbered bourbon releases have a very high baseline of quality, though, my favorite 2020 Barrell release was actually rye whiskey-a style where the company has produced only three batches to date. The master blenders at Barrell Craft Spirits are best known for working with bourbon and Tennessee whiskey, but we’ve also explored Barrell’s rum blending program in the last year as well. Please note, these are not ranked-I’ve simply listed them in alphabetical order. And of course, you can always consult our blind tasting of bottom shelf bourbon brands, if you’re looking for the best bang for your buck. Likewise, these picks have a tendency to trend toward limited releases and whiskeys with higher price tags, but be aware that we’ve given a few special value awards at the end of this piece. Sadly, you won’t see much in the way of representation from several of the most hyped distilleries in the world of American whiskey-unfortunately, we can only write about what we have a chance to sample, and it’s never been harder to find certain ultra-hyped limited releases. To be considered in this section, whiskeys had to be either newly released in 2020, or hit the U.S. So without further ado, let’s get into it. Like last year, I’ve broken this down into three sections: best whiskeys, best additional spirits and bonus awards. I dove deep on issues such as out-of-control bourbon price gouging, and wrote essays on macabre corners of alcohol history.Īnd along the way, I naturally drank some damn good spirits-having reached the end of 2020, it’s time to recognize them. I explored the boundaries of emerging styles of spirits, wrote a ridiculous number of whiskey features, lists and reviews, and generally expanded my expertise in the spirit world at an exponential rate. The pandemic in particular made for a setting in which it was more difficult than ever to visit the breweries, beer bars and cocktail hubs that are my typical hangouts, and I compensated by diving even further into spirits and cocktails. If my spirits focus was “likely” central in 2019, though, there was no doubt of that fact in 2020. Mixology has become my favored alcohol language, which is exactly why I created a new Paste series called Cocktail Queries that has been running all through 2020, answering common questions related to cocktails and spirits. This was likely the result of both a disillusionment with modern craft beer styles and a slow and steady embrace of new styles of spirits for me, from malt whisky and aged rum to mezcal and amaro-and the infinite cocktail combinations that accompany them. When I sat down to list and recognize some of the best spirits of 2019 last year, I acknowledged at the time that it was likely the first year of my adult life where I consumed more alcohol in the form of spirits than in the form of craft beer.
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