Carbon & Oak

Old Dominick's 8 Year Reserve Bourbon brings unexpected chocolate and stone fruit richness to a 100-proof, non-chill filtered pour out of Memphis. Here's the full tasting review, production notes, and verdict.

A revived label from the Lawrenceburg distillery Julian Van Winkle once ran — recommended over the rye by a liquor-store owner, and worth listening to.

I can't say I grew up knowing much about the brand. When I first started drinking bourbon, I was firmly in the Jim Beam camp. In our group of friends, there was only one die-hard Jack Daniel's fan, and over time even he graduated to Gentleman Jack. But that's about as "premium" as our shelves ever got. Woodford Reserve simply wasn't part of the conversation.

Most rye starts as grain someone else grew. Frey Ranch grows every grain it distills, on the same Nevada high-desert ranch its family has farmed since 1854.

The first time I ever tried it was on my first guys' trip to Kentucky. We ended up with a pour of the 2019 Shenk's alongside the 2021 Bomberger's Declaration, and at the time I honestly didn't know much about either bottle. I just knew they were annual releases from Michter's that seemed to have developed a loyal following.

Bardstown built its name blending sourced whiskey out in the open. The Origin Series finally answers the question hanging over the place: what does Bardstown taste like when it's entirely Bardstown?

About a year ago I finally made the trip to Denison to visit Ironroot Republic. At the time, all I really knew about them was Harbinger. I'd tried it before and, if I'm being honest, it didn't completely win me over. But after touring the distillery and tasting through the rest of the lineup, I went back to that same bottle with a different perspective. Maybe it was better the second time around, maybe I understood what they were trying to do a little more.

This one just happens to carry the name of the man who started it — the master distiller who selected the barrels that became Blanton's, and later got a bottle carrying his own name.

Unlike most bottles that land on my shelf, this one doesn't come with decades of history or a long list of previous releases to compare it against. In fact, 1792 Kentucky Straight Rye is the first-ever straight rye whiskey to join the brand's permanent lineup, making it one of the newest additions to the 1792 family. Rather than simply putting a rye mash bill into production, Barton 1792 took a thoughtful approach to developing this whiskey. Master Distiller Ross Cornelissen

Named for a stretch of rich farmland along the Kentucky River, Rock Hill Farms is one of Buffalo Trace's most elusive single barrel bourbons. Like Blanton's, Elmer T. Lee, Hancock's Reserve, and Ancient Age, it's built from the distillery's famous Mash Bill #2—a higher rye bourbon recipe that Buffalo Trace has never officially disclosed but has become legendary among bourbon enthusiasts. For years, Rock Hill Farms quietly lived in the shadow of Blanton's and Elmer T. Lee, yet

Okay, this one is going to be a little different. I'd never heard of Crittenden Distillery before getting a pour of this at a bottle share, and honestly, they don't seem to have much of an online presence yet outside of Meta. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes word of mouth travels faster than searching for something you don't even know exists yet.

I hadn't planned on picking up a bottle of Green River Honey Finished Bourbon. Truth be told, I'm still a little skeptical of the flavored whiskey boom that's swept through bourbon over the last few years. Some releases have been better than others, but few have left me wanting to buy a bottle, let alone recommend one.

This bottle was shared with me, as I'd never sampled—or purchased—a Blood Oath release before. I went into this tasting completely blind. Other than knowing the brand was produced by Lux Row, I really didn't know what to expect.

Few things capture a whiskey enthusiast's attention faster than a big age statement and a proof north of 140. I think that's one of the biggest reasons American Light Whiskey (ALW) has gained so much attention over the last few years.

The frenzy of the bourbon boom has cooled. Shelves that sat empty for years are beginning to fill back up, and while we probably won't see age statements magically reappear on bottles like Blanton's or find ultra-aged releases collecting dust the way enthusiasts remember from the 1990s, there is something equally exciting happening.

Any time there's a new addition to the Beam lineup, I get a little excited—not necessarily because of what's in the bottle, but because it serves as a reminder of where my bourbon journey started.

Finding Eagle Rare at or near MSRP used to be a no-brainer for me. At one point, I may or may not have had a closet full of the stuff. It was my tried-and-true daily drinker when I first moved to Washington, D.C.

While I've tried a fair amount of the Wild Turkey and Russell's Reserve lineup over the years, I can't believe I've never picked up a bottle of Rare Breed until now.

This bourbon review may come with a small amount of bias, as I originally hail from Virginia and had the pleasure of discovering A. Smith Bowman Distillery nearly seven years ago. While I never had the opportunity to taste Batch #2, I've followed these releases closely and have enjoyed what the distillery has put forward so far.

Every bourbon drinker seems to have that one bottle they recommend when someone asks for the best value on the shelf. For a lot of people, that bottle is Old Grand-Dad 114.