Every whisky drinker—whether connoisseur or casual—needs a go-to bottle, a standby that will reliably reside behind every airport bar, in every hotel lobby, at every highbrow restaurant and lowbrow dive bar alike. Go-to bottles are good to know, and even better to own—it’s the whisky you can pour when friends come over or when you simply want an unfussy end-of-day dram.
These are not those whiskies. Distilleries—often the same ones that make your go-to bottles—continually experiment with new combinations of water, barley, yeast, and wood in search of new ways to express a centuries-old old tradition. Sometimes their successful experiments even make it to market. These are a few of our favorite whiskies to reach U.S. shelves over the past several months, bottles that will boost the depth of your whisky cabinet while (for the most part) leaving your bank account intact.
Glenmorangie Allta ($99)
Most whiskies tell a story about the wood they are aged in, and some others talk up the source of their water or the microclimate where their barley is harvested. Glenmorangie Allta is all about yeast. The 10th in Glenmorangie’s annual “private edition” special release series, Allta’s raw spirit was fermented using a wild yeast strain that Dr. Bill Lumsden, Glenmorangie’s director of distilling, whisky creation, and whisky stocks, swabbed from a few ears of barley growing in the fields near the distillery. The result is—perhaps predictably—yeasty, with earthy, bready tones and a pronounced creaminess layered atop Glenmorangie’s signature orange citrus and floral notes. At $100, this bottle is undervalued.
Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2011 ($65)
The distillers at Bruichladdich (that’s “Brook-laddy”) talk about whisky the way winemakers talk about wine, and for good reason. The distillery’s Islay Barley series exists to realize the notion that scotch can embody geography, microclimate, and soil—that whisky, like wine, is about terroir. The sixth release in the series Bruichladdich’s 2011 Islay Barley (released in April) spent just six years in a combination of former bourbon barrels as well as French and Austrian sweet wine casks that had already been reused a time or two, a combination and duration ensuring the wood couldn’t overpower the flavors in the spirit itself. The nose is a mix of fall fruits and citrus with a certain earthy funk, while the taste brings around a kind of honey-barley-sugar sweetness, something light, fresh, and wholly unconventional from a place generally associated with brawnier, smokier drams.
The Glendronach Revival 15 Years Old ($90)
When The Glendronach distillery ceased production of its beloved 15-year-old expression in 2015 citing lack of available stocks, lovers of deep, dark, and complex sherry-finished whiskies mourned its passing. Its stocks now replenished, The Glendronach resurrected its 15-year-old expression in October, giving sherry bomb lovers a renewed taste of an old favorite. Aged in both Pedro Ximenez and Oloroso sherry casks, The Glendronach Revival packs the sweet and dry notes of each, creating a complexity and depth of flavor that has long distinguished this Speyside distillery. Unlike the many limited releases included here, this bottle is (blessedly) here to stay. If you’re more the scarcity-breeds-value type, it’s worth noting here that limited quantities of The Glendronach’s limited-release Grandeur Batch 10 ($700) reached U.S. shelves in May as well.