American Whiskeys To Watch For In Summer 2019

By Richard Thomas

Although I don’t necessarily think of summer as prime whiskey drinking weather (especially not here in the United States) more prime releases are coming out during this period. My belief this trend is driven in large part by the already crowded autumnal release season; it’s harder for newer creations to receive proper attention with so many already popular annual releases coming out, so the last few years have seen more one-shot and new annual limited editions coming out in spring and summer.

Mid-summer provides a good time to look at the season as a whole. Many releases have been announced, sent to distributors and now rest on store and bar shelves; others are still to come. What follows are some particularly choice whiskeys to keep an eye out for.

Bourbon

A.D. Laws Bottled In Bond Four Grain Bourbon ($80): Symbolizing the growing maturity of the craft whiskey sector, Colorado’s Laws Whiskey House has raised the age statement on their four year old bottled in bond four-grain bourbon (the statutory minimum for bonded whiskeys) to six.

Baker’s 13 Year Old: This is one of those forthcoming items that we know about from the TTB filings, and should come out this month. Beam Suntory has made a regular habit of releasing unique or extra aged versions of the whiskeys from their premium Small Batch Collection brands lately, such as Booker’s Rye or Knob Creek 2001.

Baker’s has long been a neglected brand in that family, but no longer. This summer it is receiving a facelift and this almost double aged version (normal Baker’s is a 7 year old).

Barton 1792 12 Year Old ($50): For many an aficionado, it’s middle aged, 10 to 15 year old bourbon that truly hits the sweet spot, not the very old whiskeys that attract so much attention with their high age statements. American whiskeys aren’t like Scotch, after all, being aged in new oak and in a substantially different climate. Thus a 12 year old Barton 1792, bottled at 96.6 proof, should be of great interest to fans of all stripes, not just those of the distillery in question.

We will be reviewing Barton 1792 12 year old in the next week, and this release is currently in distribution.

King of Kentucky ($150): This second installment of the modern King of Kentucky is a different creature from the first. Whereas that one was a curious Brown-Forman bourbon, made from stock other than that of Old Forester, nothing official was said about this one, and all things considered at least some of it is probably drawn from Old Forester. It is a single barrel (hence my previous statement), one year older than the first King of Kentucky at 15 years, and bottled at cask strength between 121 and 135 proof.

Weller Full Proof ($50): For several years now, everything made with Buffalo Trace’s wheated bourbon recipe has become viewed as “Baby Pappy,” or younger versions of Pappy Van Winkle. This expanding mania began with W.L. Weller 12 Year Old, but as time has gone by it has come to encompass all the other Weller bourbons. Thus it should come as no surprise that when Buffalo Trace announced that it was releasing a high octane version of Weller in June, it immediately became a hot ticket item.

Weller Full Proof is not a cask strength whiskey. “Full Proof” for whiskey means it is bottled at the same strength at which it is entered into the barrel, in this case 115 proof. Weller Full Proof is a new annual limited release, so expect successive releases in coming years.

Other Whiskeys

Michter’s Sour Mash Toasted Barrel ($60): Michter’s has built on the success of its Toasted Barrel Bourbon and the recent acclaim garnered by its Sour Mash Whiskey by combining the two. This continues is the third toasted barrel release, following 2017’s Toasted Barrel Rye.

Woodford Reserve Wheat Whiskey ($35): With this release, Woodford Reserve completes the quadrology of American Whiskey: bourbon, rye, malt and wheat. Even more noteworthy than that, Woodford is the only distillery with all four major types of American Whiskey in regular release (Heaven Hill is known to make malt whiskey, but has no regular release brand as such). But wait, there is more: this is also a four-grain wheat whiskey! If you aren’t firmly decided on at least trying a pour of this after reading those three things, officially discount yourself as a whiskey geek, because absolutely you are not one.

Rye

Parker’s Heritage Heavy Char Rye ($150): This year’s installment of Parker’s Heritage is a rye whiskey aged in barrels charred to “Level 5.” The normal maximum is Level 4 (55 seconds “on fire”) and Heaven Hill typically uses Level 3 (35 seconds), and in this instance Level 5 is defined as 85 seconds. Deeper charring drives a more oak-influenced whiskey, and it should show nicely in this 8 3/4 years old release, bottled at 105 proof.

Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Cornerstone Rye ($175): Among longtime rye fans, Wild Turkey has often held a special place. I have therefore thought a Master’s Keep rye as overdue; in my opinion, the second or third Master’s Keep should have been rye. We are finally seeing one this month, in production run of 15,000 bottles at 109 proof.