The Absolute Best Bourbon Whiskey Between $70-$80, Ranked

The Absolute Best Bourbon Whiskey Between $70-$80, Ranked by Uproxx - read the full article here

Here is what we have in stock now of the top 20!
1. Peerless Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey...$69.99
Kentucky Peerless Distilling takes its time for a true grain-to-glass experience. Their Small Batch Bourbon is crafted with a fairly low-rye mash bill and fermented with a sweet mash as opposed to a sour mash (that means they use 100% new grains, water, and yeast with each new batch instead of holding some of the mash over to start the next one like a sourdough starter). The barrels are then hand-selected for their taste and bottled completely un-messed with.

2. Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Barrel Proof Tennessee Whiskey...$62.99
Where the Single Barrel Select is cut with soft limestone water to bring it down to proof, this is the straight whiskey from the barrel. These barrels are all hand-selected from the vast Jack Daniel’s rickhouses. What’s left from the angel’s share then goes straight into the bottle. That means the ABVs and tasting notes for this bottle will vary depending on which bottle you snag.

3. Barrell Vantage....$74.99
This new release from Barrell Craft Spirits really leans into unique and rare finishings. The blend is a mix of Indiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky bourbons finished in three different oaks separately before blending. In this case, that’s Japanese Mizunara casks, French, and American oak. Different toast and char levels were used for the barrels to achieve a unique palate that builds on the heritage of Barrell’s other triple cask-finished whiskeys (Dovetail, Seagrass, and Armida).

5. Knob Creek Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey...$49.99
We have "Our Missouri Customers" Single Barrel
This single-barrel bourbon is from Beam’s private barrel pick program for retailers/bars/etc. at the distillery. That means your local retailer goes out to Clermont, Kentucky, and picks a single barrel for their store only. Beam then cuts the bourbon to 120 proof (if needed), bottles it, and delivers it to the store. That also means these will vary from store to store ever so slightly.

8. Penelope Architect Straight Bourbon Whiskey French Oak Staves....$65.99
We have Build No. 5
This bourbon is all about precision blending. The MGP barrels create a four-grain whiskey that’s finished in oak staves from Tonnellerie Radoux in France. Those staves are added to the barrels to create a unique finish that’s part Kentucky and part France.

13. Hidden Barn Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Small Batch ...$67.99
We have both Series 1 and Series 2
Jackie Zykan’s (former Master Taster for Old Forester) first release at her own shingle is a sourced whiskey from Neeley Family Distillery in rural Kentucky. The bourbon is made from a sweet mash (a brand new mash with every cook instead of reusing mash for a sour mash) with a high-ish rye content in pot stills (a true rarity in bourbon these days). Those barrels aged for four to five years before Zykan picked a handful for this batch-proof release.

14. Jefferson’s Ocean Aged At Sea Straight Bourbon Wheated Mash Bill....$79.99
Jefferson’s Ocean is deeply skilled at crafting unique and very tasty drams. This expression uses a wheated mash bill (instead of high rye) that’s aged for six to eight years on land. Barrels are then loaded onto a ship and sailed around the world where the spirit and wood interact the whole time thanks to the choppy seas, creating an incredibly unique whiskey in the process.

15. Pursuit United Blended Straight Bourbon Whiskeys Finished with Toasted American and French Oak...$73.99
The latest release from the Bourbon Pursuit team is a blend of four to six-year-old bourbons. The three bourbons involved are a Finger Lakes whiskey (70/20/10 corn/rye/malted barley), an MGP bourbon (60/36/4 corn/rye/malted barley), and an undisclosed Tennessee whiskey (80/10/10 corn/rye/malted barley). Those whiskeys were finished in both American and French toasted oak barrels before batching and bottling with a touch of Kentucky water.

17. Red Line Cask Strength Single Barrel Straight Bourbon Whiskey...$74.99
This whiskey from Red Line is sourced from hand-selected barrels from MGP of Indiana. The team at Red Line picked six-year-old barrels of MGP’s iconic high-rye bourbon mash of 75% corn, 21% rye, and only 4% malted barley. Those barrels were vatted and then bottled as-is at cask strength.