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This year’s Top 100 took some time to assemble. Read my admission about why I am so late.

That being said, I absolutely loved this year’s American whiskey releases. It was a banner year for blenders, single malt producers and small craft brands. In fact, as turmoils hit the bigger brands, I’d say the smaller guys garnered some ground in marketing circles and caught a lot of eyeballs with grassroots campaigns.

Fans from the likes of Dark Arts, H.K. Young and Barrel King are carrying the torches for these businesses far beyond the distances whiskey ambassadors could. In fact, for the first time in my career, I’ve selected an overwhelming majority from independent brands for my Top 100.

Why?

I believe Non-Distiller Producers, NDPs (a phrase coined by my friend and mentor Chuck Cowdery), are the companies truly serving the whiskey geeks, people like me, who don’t care about 80- to 90-proof volume bourbons. We just want good whiskey. Ironically, these NDPs are buying juice from the very larger distillers who’ve somewhat ignored us.

Anyway, enough with the rambling. Let’s get to the list.

NEW BOOK…Bottom Shelf: How A Forgotten Brand of Bourbon Saved One Man’s Life

The Criteria

The whiskeys must excite me. They must offer something to the American whiskey world that I find fantastic and or innovative. This is my list, and my list alone. You can absolutely see what trends I support and don’t support by what’s on this list.

No single barrels were considered. Why? Single barrel products can have up to 2,000 different barrels in the market, maybe even more. So if I crown 1 single barrel the best, does that mean the brand’s 1,999 single barrels are also the best? Absolutely not. In fact, no two single barrels ever taste the same. Thus, no single barrels knowingly made this list.

ASCOT High Scores. Anything that received a high score from me in the ASCOTs gets an entry.

Club Marzipan and YouTube reviews pushed several into this year’s list.

But sometimes, I taste something at an event and it catches my palate, or I taste with friends and am wowed. I’m not the reviewer who records every tasting note, but I remember what excites me. And this is the list for 2025, which is technically last year, but because I am late, it’s in 2026……

The 2025 Top 100 — Unranked

• 2025 Still Austin Tanager Cigar Blend Bourbon, 107.5 proof, $150
• 291 Big Horn Colorado Bourbon, 132.8 proof, $129
• A. Smith Bowman Cask Strength, 139.7 proof, $99.99
• Angel’s Envy Cask Strength, 122.6 proof, $250
• APW 10 Year, 122.5 proof, $200 (sold as 2 pack. 200 ml)
• APW 15 Year, 107 proof, $200 (sold as 2 pack. 200 ml)
• Bardstown Bourbon Company Double Barreled Discovery Series #13, 110.8 Proof, $100
• Bardstown Bourbon Company Ferrand, 111.8 proof, $100
• Bardstown Bourbon Company Normandie Calvados Finish, 104.2 proof, $150
• Barrel King Fantasy “Nutella Turkey Bour-Rye” Hazelnut Liqueur, Cacao, and Apple Brandy Finished, 114 proof, $125
• Barrell 12 Year French Oak Finish, 115 proof, $150
• Barrell Batch 35 Blend of Straight Bourbon, 114 proof, $80
• Blue Note Special Reserve Bourbon, 116.3 proof, $50
• Bomberger’s PFG Kentucky Straight Bourbon, 100.2 proof, $140
• Booker’s 2025-1 Kentucky Straight Bourbon, 125.7 proof, $100
• Booker’s 2025-3 Kentucky Straight Bourbon, 125 proof, $100
• Bourbon De Luxe 8 Year Batch 3, 119 proof, $130
• Brother Justus Founders Reserve American Single Malt, 125 proof, $130
• Brothers Bond Bottled in Bond 7 Year Indiana Bourbon, 100 proof, $60
• Brothers Bond: Regenerative Bourbon, 95 proof, $50
• Bulleit Cask Strength Kentucky Straight Bourbon, 120 proof, $60
• Buzzard’s Roost Cigar Rye, 105 proof, $100
• Bywater Four Grain Louisiana Bourbon, 93 proof, $50
• Calumet 15 Year Kentucky Straight Bourbon, 110 proof, $150
• Castle & Key 7-year Cask Strength Wheated Kentucky Straight Bourbon, 120 proof, $100
• Cedar Ridge Double Barrel Iowa Rye Whiskey, 105 proof, $60
• Central Standard Craft Distillery: Cabin Strength Bourbon Whiskey, 115 Proof, $70
• Chicken Cock Mizunara Bourbon, 105 proof, $100
• Circle City 12 year Rye Whiskey, 122 proof, $150
• Clyde Mays 6 Years Bourbon, 114 proof, $50
• Dark Arts Armagnac Finish 16 Years, 125.2 proof, $200
• Dark Arts Barely Legal Bourbon – Small Batch, Cask Strength – 8 year, 115 proof, $150
• Dark Arts Blend of Sour Mash finished in Honey Cask, 102.8 proof, $100
• Elijah Craig A125, 118.2 proof, $75
• Fathertime Bourbon / Second Child Syndrome / Empty Nester Strength, 118 proof, $80
• Forbidden Batch 3, 95.2 proof, $100
• Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch, 109 proof, $250
• Frank August Batch 5/9, 104.5 proof, $80
• Frey Ranch Harvester Series: Anniversary Edition (First Harvest), 121.14 proof, $100
• Frey Ranch Quad Malt – Batch #2, 90 proof, $80
• Garrison Brothers Guadalupe, 107 proof, $150
• Garrison Brothers Sonora, 108 proof, $130
• George T. Stagg, 142.8 proof, $300+

• Hard Truth High Road Rye, 93 proof, $60
• Heaven Hill 90th Kentucky Straight Bourbon, 107 proof, $125
• Heaven Hill Unity Kentucky Straight Bourbon, 107 proof, $225
• High Wire Jimmy Red Wheated Bourbon Limited Release 7 Years, 107 proof, $100
• H.K. Young Wheated, 122.4 proof, $75
• Iron Fish Four Cask Whiskey, 115 proof, $85
• J. Mattingly 1845 Classic Bourbon Whiskey, 119 proof, $110
• J.T. Meleck American Rice Whiskey, High Proof Small Batch, 118 proof, $60
• Jack Daniel’s 10 Year, 86.6 proof, $100
• Jack Daniel’s 14 year, 126.3 proof, $150
• Jackson Purchase, 117.8 proof, $40
• Jefferson’s Reserve Cask Strength Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, 130 proof, $70
• K Luke Batch 14, 117.2 proof, $80
• K. Luke Toasted Rye Barrel Strength Batch 5, 117 proof, $120
• Kentucky Senator John Edwards, 107 proof, $50
• King’s Family Tennessee Standard Blended Bourbon, 107 proof, $120
• Larceny C925, 119.6 proof, $50
• Lasso Motel 18 Year American Whiskey, 121 proof, $200
• Leipers Fork Tennessee whiskey bottled in bond, 100 proof, $60
• Leipers Fork Bourbon bottled in bond, 100 proof, $60
• Maker’s Mark Keepers Release, 109.2 proof, $100
• MB Roland Straight Corn Whiskey, 108 proof, $50
• Michter’s Sour Mash Toasted, 86 proof, $150
• Milam & Greene Unabridged Batch 2, 117.6 proof, $100
• Minden Mill Nevada Straight Rye, 94 proof, $80
• Nashville Barrel PSA5342 KEEPSAKE – cask strength small batch, 119 proof, $120
• New Louisville Bourbon (Nashville Barrel), 128 proof, $100
• New Riff Balboa Rye, 100 proof, $80
• OH Ingram River Aged, 100 proof, $60
• Old Dominick Tennessee Whiskey, 85 proof, $40
• Old Forester 1920, 115 proof, $60
• Old Grand-Dad 16 Years, 100 proof, $195
• Old Line Cask Strength American Single Malt, 124 proof, $80
• Old Soul Tintype 2, 122.2 Proof, $125
• Palmer’s Stretch Rye, 97 proof, $70
• Peerless Cognac Finish Bourbon Batch 1, 112.1 Proof, $200
• Peg Leg Porker Tennessee Straight Bourbon Whiskey Black Label, 90 proof, $60
• Pinhook Vertical Series Rye – 9 Year, 111.2 proof, $150
• Pursuit Triple Mash Rye, 121.8 proof, $100
• Rabbit Hole Amrûlé Sour Mash Rye, 104 Proof, $40
• Redemption 18 Year Rye, 109.9 proof, $200
• Remus Gatsby Reserve, 102.8 proof, $300
• Remus Repeal, 104 proof, $100
• Rieger Straight Bourbon, 90 proof, $35
• Sazerac 18 Year, 90 proof, $150
• Seelbach’s Private Reserve 8 Year, 118.3 proof, $100
• SirDavis American Whisky, 88 proof, $80
• Southern Star Paragon Bottled-In-Bond Wheated Bourbon, 100 proof, $60
• Starlight Toasted Barrel Limited Release, 106 proof, $80
• Three Chord: Strange Collab, 99 proof, $50
• Westland 10 Year Garryanna, 100 proof, $200
• Westland Wine Cask Finish, 92 proof, $150
• Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Beacon, 118 proof, $200
• Willett Small Batch 4 year old, varying proof, $50
• Woodford Sweet Oak, 110.4 proof, $100
• Woodinville 8 Year Rye, 100 proof, $100
• Yellowstone Special Finishes: Rum, 100 proof, $100

Fred Minnick is the author of the upcoming book, Bottom Shelf: How a Forgotten Brand of Bourbon Saved One Man’s Life (Sourcebooks, Feb. 17, 2026)

Read more: Top 100 American Whiskeys of 2024 Ranked

Note: Fred Minnick is partners with Pursuit Spirits founders on the Bourbon Pursuit Podcast, but is not affiliated with their spirits brands.