Top 10 Bourbons I Still Hunt and Always Buy!

Oh, hello. You caught me thinking about my, my choices for this particular video. So fun video today, guys. I got asked by a viewer a really good question. What are the bottles I still hunt for or bourbons that if I walk into a store and I see it, it really doesn't matter if I've tried it yet or reviewed it yet. It doesn't matter. I'm buying it. It's a great question with most answers coming pretty easily to me, but then a few I did have to really think about. So let's find out what I'm still buying today on the Mastin Drum. What's up folks. I'm Jason C from the Mastin Drum. Welcome back to the show. Like subscribe and help grow the channel for 2023. Now with all the samples, barrel picks, bottles, I get to review bourbons. I think are bad bourbons. I think are good, great, whatever it's going to be. There's a lot to consider when I'm going to purchase a bottle these days. Now of course there are bourbons and samples that I try. And if I really like it, ultimately I will buy a bottle. But with that said, the question is, what are the bourbons these days? That no matter what, if I see them in a store, whether I've tried it or not, what are those bottles I'm buying? So I came up with 10 bottles and I think there's a mix of some harder to find ones in there. And you know, bottles that I know always to me are consistently good and you know, for the most part, pretty good values. All right, so let's get started. And by the way, these are in no particular order. All right. So first one up is Elijah Craig Barrel Proof from Heaven Hill. I think this is a no brainer for most of you. Now they just went through a little bit of an age statement switch up. They dropped the 12 year and now we're going to see different ages on it for every release. It could be eight, could be nine, 10, 11, whatever the youngest whiskey is in that blend to make up that batch is what you're going to see on the label. Price on this one, MSRP is normally around 65 to 70 bucks. But if you see even for a little bit more than that, I still think it's a good value. Now batches can vary. Some are better than others, but it's hard to deny this being such a great value. And no matter where I am, if I walk into a store and I see one of these on the shelf, I'm buying it. Next one up is Knob Creek 12 year. I think this is one of the best representations of what Jim Beam Disolate could taste like at a high age. It's got a lot more flavor to me. It's very balanced. It's not too Oak forward. It's not too sweet, really great balance for $65. You're talking about a 12 year old 100 proof bourbon from again, another heritage distillery from Jim Beam. I think this one just absolutely knocks it out of the park at retail or even, even if it's a little bit more money, I'm buying it. Next one up with these single barrels from Lucky 7. Now Lucky 7 has been sourcing bourbon for the last several years now. And some of these single barrels that come out are absolutely delicious. You can find some pretty high age statements on here. You're looking at 14 years on this one, 15 years on this single barrel. They also have a 12 year called the hold up. They have the holiday toast, which is a very popular one. They have the Frenchman, which is a French Oak finish. So they have a good variety of bourbons that they offer for everybody. However, these single barrels, these high age single barrels that are sourced and I believe they're sourced from Barton, but I'm not sure if they're getting other whiskeys from other places now as well. But as long as they can keep up bringing out some of these higher age stated single barrels for 140, 150 bucks, that high of age, this type of quality in a bottle, it doesn't matter. I'm buying it. Next one up is a little bit harder to find. And that is Eagle Rare 10 year from Buffalo Trace. Eagle Rare 10 year I think is one of my favorite products that Buffalo Trace makes. I put it right up there with Stack Junior and a couple of other releases. Now you guys know me. I think generally a lot of the stuff that Buffalo Trace makes is a little bit overhyped. However, I think Eagle Rare 10 year is probably one of the best bottles that they make. Now there are some other 10 year bourbons and whiskeys out on the market, but something about Eagle Rare 10 is just so uniquely delicious. And if I see this bottle anywhere, and I know this is one is getting harder to find depending on what state you're in. These are either flooding your state or you can't find it at all. So it really comes down to that. However, if I'm in a store and I see this generally close to retail, I'm buying it. So I'm going to stay with Buffalo Trace here and go to Stag, previously Stack Junior. You know, this is one of those bottles where it was really hard for me to maybe add to the list. But I had to think to myself, if I walked into a store and saw this, even if it was upcharged a good amount of money, am I buying it? I probably am. The argument to add this to the list really came down to what's always available. And right now Buffalo Trace Antique Collection gets harder and harder to get each and every year. So I feel like this bottle, which comes out two times a year. So you have two shots to get it. It's probably one of those bottles that I needed to add to the list because not only is it, you know, obviously very hard to get because it's Buffalo Trace, but they're also really delicious. So if I see one of these, when I walk into a store, you know, I gotta say I'm picking it up. Joseph Magnus Cigar Blend has been one of my favorites for a very long time. Now I know these bottles are still about 200, $250. And you know, supposedly the whiskey in this is getting younger. We don't have those old, old stocks of MGP that they used to use back in the early batches. And now they seem to be getting a little bit younger. However, when you talk about Nancy Fraley and what she does to blend these, each one is a little bit different. There's something about the quality of this. When you put this up against other finished whiskeys, I mean, look at the market today. Everyone's doing a cigar blend, a cigar batch, or they're at least trying to mimic what this is. And even though this is a little bit more of a rarer bottle, this is one of those bourbons that if I see a bottle in a store, especially at retail for 200 bucks, $225, it's one of those bottles I just can't say no to. Now, if you go online to josephmagnus.com, you could read Nancy Fraley's tasting notes. They're extremely descriptive. And if you find a batch that matches up to what your flavor profile looks like, then it's an immediate buy. So Joseph Magnus for me, I'm definitely putting on the list. All right. So this is where we get to a little bit of the single barrel portion of the show, because there are so many single barrels out there. And I know there's a lot of you out there that probably no matter what the single barrel comes out, depending on the brand, you know, you're probably going to maybe buy it depending on what it is. Actually, you guys can leave a comment below. What are some of the single barrels that you guys love that no matter what you see or when you see it, you're buying it. I have three of them. The first one is Jack Daniel's single barrel barrel proof. Now the shelfer version of this, the ones that you could just walk into a store and buy are really good too. You could just walk in, buy one off the shelf and they're usually pretty good. They're obviously very dense. They're dark. They have a lot of flavor and kind of give you a huge amped up version of what Jack Daniel's is. But when you talk about some of these single barrels, you really start to taste the flavor profiles and the vast array of flavors that could come from Jack Daniel's. This one is from Matt at ADHD Whiskey. I've done a couple of single barrel picks and you could get flavors from, you know, peanut butter and jam to like that dense bananas foster to chocolate, to Oak, to spice. These are absolutely delicious. And again, one of those single barrel selections that I'm going to buy every time. The next single barrel on the list is four roses, private selects. I can't say no to these. When I walk into a store and I see that somebody has done one of these, not only do I want to know the recipe and I know some people really, they want to dive in on that recipe. Like what recipe is it? How old is it? What tier is it? There's a lot of different factors that you can talk about when you look at the four roses, private selects. Some people care about what tier it's aged in. If you have a lower tier, like tier one, you could generally expect the lower proof, but the higher tier to your four to your five, you can get a much higher proof. Then on top of that, you have the ages of these. These can range anywhere from nine years all the way up to 11 years sometimes. And of course, more importantly, people care about the recipe that's being used. They can use 10 different recipes. They have two different match spills with five different yeast strains. You combine those numbers together and you could create 10 different recipes. And if you do land on a favorite recipe, it's always fun to run in and find your favorite recipe in a private select. But even if it's not your favorite recipe, I always tell folks to go on and try these because chances are you're going to get an absolutely fantastic bourbon from four roses. These private selects, it's an immediate buy. You knew this one was coming. Russell's Reserve single barrel store picks from wild Turkey. These are, I probably have more picks in my collection of this bourbon than any other. So when I was prepping to make this video, I counted on my single barrels. I have about 63, 64 single barrels of a Russell's Reserve. And I know that sounds a little crazy, but there's so many different warehouses at wild Turkey that can offer you some different flavor profiles. And that's what I love about it. Now these are always about 110 proof. They're non-chill filtered and their ages usually can be right around the nine year mark. But if you're lucky, sometimes you can find a 10 year and even an 11 year for about 65 to 70 bucks. Not only am I getting my favorite bourbon for my favorite distillery, but I'm getting different variations and different flavor profiles from any single barrel that's selected. Now like any single barrel, there are going to be a lot that are better than others, but these Russell's Reserve picks generally, I usually always like. And if I walk into a store and I see someone has done a Russell's Reserve store pick. Yup. You guessed it. I'm buying it. And if I can, I'm buying a couple. All right. So on my last selection here, and this is probably the only unicornish bottle that I have on the list. Now you could talk about any hard to get LE that you may want to spend money on. But when it comes to me and what the value is and what I think I'd get my hands on easier than anything else, where there's really one bottle only that I could think of. It's the Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon. Now there's a good amount of bottles I could put in this slot. I mean, George C. Stagg, William Llewellyn, King Kentucky, Parker's Heritage, you name it. There's a lot of them. For whatever reason, I think these Four Roses LE's are a little bit still under the radar. I think when BTAC gets announced and all those other really highly regarded bottles that release every fall, the Four Roses seems to kind of float under the radar a little bit. Now you heard me talk about the different recipes in the single barrels. These LE's are generally a very high age blend of some of those single barrel recipes. So the ages in this whiskey get up to 20 even surpassed 20 years old. A little bit of that blended with some 14 year, 12 year each blend each year is different. And on top of that, these are generally affordable. Usually I could find one for about 160 to 180 bucks. And even though that seems like a lot of money for the ages of whiskey you're getting from one of my favorite distilleries from Four Roses, I think it's worth every penny because these generally never disappoint. Now the proofs on this will range each and every year. The ages of the whiskeys and the bourbons that go into this blend, they will range each and every year. Brent Elliott has a way of blending all these different recipes that he creates at Four Roses to make something really spectacular each and every year. So again, this is that release that I have a good shot of walking in a store and finding it. And if I do, it's not even a question I'm buying it. All right guys. So that is my top 10 list of bourbons I will always hunt and bourbons I will always buy no matter what. So let me know your top 10 down in the comments. If you liked the video, please hit the like button. Also hit the subscribe button on your way out. And as I always say, it's not about the whiskey, it's the people you share it with. Cheers. Love seeing you guys. Let me know down in the comments what your top 10 are. Remember, don't forget to do that. Now I'll see you next time right here on the Mastin Drum. Cheers guys.