What to Drink
When only the best Bourbons will do
Celebrate National Bourbon Day on June 14 with these delicious award-winning bourbons.
Pour yourself a glass, sit on the porch, and chat with a friend. Or mix up a cocktail. Bourbon Day has to be done right with only the best bourbons in your glass.! Try these celebratory award-winning bourbons for the day:
Yolo Brothers Bourbon Whiskey
Yolo Brothers Bourbon Whiskey, Source Facebook
Named in recognition of all those hard-working sons of Yolo County who grow, harvest, and distill from farm to glass. Yolo Brothers Bourbon™ is a Super-Premium Kentucky-style California craft whiskey produced in small batches by hand. They start with a mash of local-sourced yellow corn, rye, wheat, and barley. The resulting spirit is double-distilled and carefully aged in charred new American oak barrels until ready for filtering and bottling. Yolo Brothers Bourbon™ is deep amber-colored with a nose reminiscent of bright, soft oak, vanilla, and sweet grains. It starts soft and round with mild tannins and a pleasant alcohol tingles and builds then slowly fades with a long sweet finish of candy corn, caramel, rye spice, and toasted wood. It is a gold medallist bourbon whiskey with 92 points at the Bartender Spirits Awards 2021.
Southern Star Standard High Rye Straight Bourbon Whiskey
High Rye Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Source Facebook
Southern Star Standard High Rye Straight Bourbon Whiskey is a gold medallist bourbon with intense flavor and complexity that will excite the palate and satisfy your bourbon cravings. Aromas of caramel, vanilla cotton candy, and a hint of leather combine with flavors of rye spice, wood, and fruit for a sensory experience you will seek and enjoy again and again. It has a creamy mouthfeel and a long pleasant finish. It scored 91 points at the Bartender Spirits Awards 2021 with a gold medal.
The Southern Bourbon Champagne Mimosa is our recommended cocktail with this bourbon.
Ingredients:
- 1.5 oz. Southern Star Standard High Rye Bourbon Whiskey
- 1/2 oz. Orange Liqueur
- Several dashes Angostura Bitters
- Several dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
- Dry sparkling wine
- Garnish with an orange twist
Directions:
Stir bourbon, orange liqueur, and bitters with ice and strain into a chilled Champagne glass. Top with sparkling wine and garnish with an orange twist.
Bourbon Barreled Big Gin
Bourbon Barreled Big Gin, Source Instagram
Warm and woody with a hint of spice and notes of juniper turned up just right. Bourbon Barreled Big Gin is crafted for the curious. This gold medallist bourbon is "rested for six months in once-used bourbon barrels from Heaven Hill Distillery the flagship Big Gin is enriched with flavors of vanilla, charred oak, and tannins. The innovative and dimensional flavor profile is lovely, and this expression provides to those who want to try something new," as said by Alex Myers, Head Distiller. Try it with salmon or pork and grilled garden veggies like carrots or asparagus. The spirits are made in Seattle, Washington, owned by Hood River Distillers. Big Gin is crafted by bartenders, for bartenders, designed with old-time ginners and true beginners in mind. There is something for everyone in every sip.
Mix up different cocktails that can be crafted from this bourbon.
Nashville Barrel Company Single Barrel Bourbon
Single Barrel Bourbon, Source Facebook
Nashville Barrel Company is known for offering their hand-selected barrels to individuals and groups to select and call their own. Nashville Barrel Company's Single Barrel Bourbon is a gold medallist bourbon with 90 points at the Bartender Spirits Awards 2021. It is fruity, balanced, and beautifully aged. Fruity, candied, with flavors of creme brûlée sugar, it tastes like dark chocolate and cherries.
Indiana Straight Bourbon
Indiana Straight Bourbon, Source Facebook
100% local grain to the still; distilled and aged on-site in Indiana at MGP, where the whiskey ages 25% slower than on the West Coast and conforms to a traditional bourbon character of complex grain expression.
Unique for MGP is the 4-grain bourbon; the corn and rye provide the backbone, the wheat uplifts both aroma & flavor, and the barley harmonizes the three. Straight Bourbon Whiskey, straight from the barrel, assembled, proofed, and into the bottle. No charcoal or cold filtration. 49% ABV maintains persistent bourbon and grain flavors in an old-fashioned, mint tulip or on ice. It is a gold medallist whiskey produced by Coit Spirits and got 90 points at the Bartender Spirits Awards 2021.
Rye Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Rye Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Source Instagram
Rye Straight Bourbon Whiskey, silver medallist at the Bartender Spirits Awards 2021, has corn, rye, and malted barley. It has a dark charred caramel color. It has flavors of caramel corn, and sweet toffee on the nose that draw you into balanced and malty rye. The producer of this bourbon, 18th Street Distillery is the first award-winning artisan distillery to open since prohibition in Hammond, let alone Northwest Indiana. They are very proud to have their name etched in history as the only operating distillery in the city of Hammond.
Trail’s End Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Trail’s End, Source Instagram
Trail’s End is an ultra-premium Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey finished with Oregon Oak. This bourbon is produced by Hood River Distillers and is a silver medallist at the Bartender Spirits Awards 2021. Crafted using premium barrels of Kentucky straight bourbon, Trail’s End traveled along the treacherous terrain from Kentucky to Oregon, following a path similar to the one that Lewis and Clark once blazed. Not too far from the end of the Oregon Trail, they finished their bourbon in Hood River with Oregon Oak, and the result is exceptional!
Texas Pecan Brown Sugar Bourbon
Texas Pecan Brown Sugar Bourbon, Source Facebook
The newest spirit, Texas Pecan Brown Sugar Bourbon, is a silver medallist at the Bartender Spirits Awards 2021 and is available by the bottle at the Blackland distillery. This small-batch bourbon is perfectly balanced with a gentle—but identifiable—pecan taste on the front palate, a mouth of just-sweet-enough sugar bourbon as the dominant characteristic, and a smooth finish that leaves you wanting one more sip. We love it on ice or mixed in any bourbon cocktail that speaks to you.
Low Rye Bourbon
Low-Rye Bourbon, Source Facebook
Low-Rye Bourbon, a silver medallist at the Bartender Spirits Awards 2021, produced by Copper Sky Distillery, features a different view into the flavors of bourbon. As it waves about the glass, this whiskey presents itself with a chestnut oloroso sherry color with a contrasting physical appearance of fine and delicate sheets of oil yet large and heavy tears of whiskey on the sides of the glass. The aroma of the spirit is well mixed, leading to a rich and complex scent that is mellow. Dominant smells of sweetened pickled peaches, confectionery fondant, and warm honey are back with fresh cinnamon, dusty oak, and spruce. Tucked away in the reaches of the aromatic bouquet, one may even find milk chocolate, vegetation, and a red apple. The flavors have a separate story to tell. The taste is a menagerie of teas and honey with an orchestration of baking spice, black pepper, butterscotch, and burnt vanilla to support. The spirit finishes with a light tingle on the tongue, presenting flavors of frugally sweetened black tea, roasted chestnuts, and baking spice. As a somewhat robust bourbon, it finds a home amongst cold winter nights and marries beautifully into any classic cocktail.
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Molly Brown Bourbon
Molly Brown Bourbon, Source Facebook
Each small batch of Molly Brown Bourbon begins with their signature, 3-grain blend of 75% corn, 18% rye, and 7% malted barley. These flavors are melded together to perfection by their meticulous on-the-grain distillation process then aged in-house in 53-gallon new American charred oak barrels. The result is a beautifully balanced Bourbon with a familiar corn sweetness upfront followed by subtle spice and complexity derived from the rye and barley as it rolls over the tongue. Alluring notes of maple, caramel, complex vanilla, subtle oak, hints of malt, dried fruit, and spices come together for a perfectly balanced symphony of flavors. Refresh your glass with the new standard in Bourbon. Molly Brown Bourbon is a silver medallist at the Bartender Spirits Awards 2021.
