Angel's Envy, Cream of Kentucky, Lux Row, WhistlePig, Speyburn & more [New Releases]

Angel’s Envy is creating excitement with today’s official unveiling of a new addition to the range, its first in many years. Elsewhere in the bourbon world, Jim Rutledge, formerly of Four Roses fame, continues his revival of Cream of Kentucky, the legacy brand acquired in 2019, with two new releases. Rutledge's whiskeys are still sourced for now as he moves toward opening his own distillery. Meanwhile, Lux Row has a new sherry cask-finished bourbon, and WhistlePig revs it up with another Formula 1-themed release.

There’s much more on offer, including new bourbons from Hidden Barn, Wyoming Whiskey, and O.H. Ingram, as well as a new cask finished scotch from Speyside single malt maker Speyburn. On the collectibles side, scotch distiller Benromach has a 50 year old single malt, made before Benromach was acquired by its current owner, Scottish independent bottler Gordon & MacPhail, in 1993. Alas, the price for this precious liquid falls into the if-you-have-to-ask-you-can't-afford-it category, at $25,000 a bottle.

Finally, for all you Halloween fans, New Hampshire-based Tamworth Distilling is getting spooky with its annual release of Graverobber Unholy Rye (40%, $35), crafted with maple syrup tapped from mature maple trees from an old Colonial graveyard on New Hampshire’s Great Hil Farm, just down the road from Tamworth. It’s available for pre-sale starting today and will hit the shelves in New Hampshire’s state-run liquor stores soon.

Angel’s Envy Triple Oak Straight Bourbon

ABV: 46%
SRP: $75
Availability: Nationwide starting October 1

It’s not often that Angel’s Envy introduces a permanent whiskey to the lineup. The last one, a rye whiskey finished in Caribbean rum casks, came in 2013, and at the time it joined just one other bottle—a straight bourbon finished in port barrels. That's set to change on October 1 with the addition of Triple Oak, a blend of whiskeys finished in three unique barrels: Hungarian oak, chinkapin oak from Kentucky, and French oak.

The new whiskey started as the Angel’s Envy flagship bourbon, which is aged in white oak with a level-3 char. Master distiller and blender Owen Martin then put the whiskey into a combination of second-fill French oak barrels and first-fill Hungarian oak and chinkapin barrels; ultimately, about 20% of the blend is finished in French oak, with the chinkapin and French oak accounting for about 40% each. Martin notes that combination will be subject to change over the years—the breakdown of barrels (and whether they’re first-fill, second-fill, etc.) will be tweaked to maintain the same flavor profile.

When Martin joined Angel’s Envy in 2022, he became the brand’s first master distiller since founder Lincoln Henderson. This is the fourth whiskey he’s released, and it’s safe to say we’re fans thus far—last year’s cask strength rye and bourbon earned scores of 94 and 92, respectively.

Cream of Kentucky Small Batch Bourbon

ABV: 50%
SRP: $70
Availability: Available across 34 states

Cream of Kentucky Cask Strength Bourbon

ABV: 57%
SRP: $100
Availability: Available across 34 states

Cream of Kentucky’s two newest bourbons have a shared mashbill of 72% corn, 18% rye, and 10% malt. Both are sourced from an undisclosed distillery and have no age statement. The whiskeys are available in 34 states, making them the most widely available Cream of Kentucky releases to date.

Cream of Kentucky is produced by J. W. Rutledge Distillery, which is led by longtime Four Roses master distiller Jim Rutledge. The Cream of Kentucky brand dates back to the 1880s and rose to prominence in the ’30s, but it was discontinued some decades later. Rutledge brought Cream of Kentucky back from the dead in 2019, and he has released sourced whiskeys under the label since then.

Lux Row Small Batch PX Sherry Cask Finished Bourbon

ABV: 56%
SRP: $60
Availability: Distillery exclusive, with nationwide distribution in 2025

This latest expression from Lux Row Distillers takes 4 year old straight Kentucky bourbon and finishes it in PX sherry casks for 6 months. According to master distiller John Rempe, the idea was to meld the sweeter notes from the sherry with the bourbon’s spicier profile. The whiskey is initially available as a distillery exclusive, but it’s slated to go nationwide early next year.

PX Sherry Cask is just the newest result of Lux Row’s efforts in cask finishing. When it comes to finishing, the distillery is best known for its Blood Oath series, which prominently features interesting secondary casks. But its Daviess County label has also dabbled with finishes in French oak barrels, cabernet sauvignon casks, and new barrels with varying toast levels. Ezra Brooks joined in on the fun last April with the release of a Port Cask bourbon.

With all the buzz generated by Lux Row’s other brands like Rebel, and the aforementioned ones, it can be easy to forget about the distillery’s namesake label. After all, the eponymous lineup only includes three bourbons: the newcomer, and two other expressions that blend together single barrel whiskeys. Though overlooked, the label has produced some winners: the 12 year old Double Barrel scored 94 points with our tasting panel.

WhistlePig 6 year old PiggyBack Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber Single Barrel Gin Barrel Finished Rye

ABV: 50.385%
SRP: $60
Availability: Limited; online

WhistlePig is out with a Formula One (F1) Racing-themed whiskey, released in partnership with Sauber Motorsports driver Valtteri Bottas. It’s a 6 year old single barrel 100% rye, distilled in Vermont, and bottled at 100.77 proof (a nod to Bottas’s racing number 77.) The whiskey was finished for 2 weeks in barrels that previously held OATH Gin, Bottas’s gin label which is vacuum distilled from oats and apple peels in his native Finland.

The newcomer is the second release of PiggyBack Stake F1 Team Rye, which is now an annual offering. Its predecessor came last September, and represented a collaboration between WhistlePig and Alfa Romeo’s F1 racing team. In true WhistlePig fashion, the recipe was anything but conventional: subjecting some of the barrels to varying levels of gravitational force, and finishing using lychee and oolong tea barrels. Bottas was still driving for Alfa Romeo’s team at the time, so the whiskey was bottled at 96.77 proof to reference his racing number.

Hidden Barn Organic Wheated Bourbon

ABV: 53.1%
SRP: $80
Availability: Limited; CA, CO, GA, IN, KY, NV, NM, and NY

The latest Hidden Barn bourbon was distilled, batched, and proofed by master blender Jackie Zykan at Journeyman Distillery in Three Oaks, Michigan, then transported to the Neeley Family Distillery in Sparta, Kentucky for aging and bottling. Zykan tapped Journeyman as the distilling partner for this release after previously consulting at the distillery; she ultimately selected nine barrels for the final wheated bourbon blend.

Journeyman makes its whiskeys with organic grains, a practice that Zykan has now taken to Neeley Family Distillery, the home base for Hidden Barn, as well. Hidden Barn launched in 2022, and is led by Zykan, Neeley Family master distiller Royce Neeley, and Nate Winegar and Matt Danker of Colorado’s 5280 Whiskey Society. The first release of Neeley Family-distilled Hidden Barn (a 7 year old bourbon) debuted this past summer.

Wyoming Whiskey National Parks No. 4 Mammoth Hot Springs Straight Bourbon

ABV: 49%
SRP: $80
Availability: Available in retailers across 27 states

Wyoming Whiskey Old Faithful Straight Bourbon

ABV: 54%
SRP: $500
Availability: Wyoming, California, and Colorado

Wyoming Whiskey’s two new bourbons pay homage to Yellowstone National Park. The first one is the 4th member of the National Parks series, an annual collection released in partnership with the National Park Foundation. It’s blended from 70 barrels scattered across different areas of Wyoming Whiskey’s rickhouse, which are a minimum of 5 years old.

The second whiskey, which belongs to the Wide Open Spaces series, gets its name from Yellowstone’s iconic Old Faithful geyser. It’s encompassing three barrels aged for 10 years. Only 500 bottles were produced, which are available in Wyoming, California, and Colorado.

Wyoming Whiskey has a long history of commemorating its home state’s national parks, Grand Teton and Yellowstone, with various releases. Alongside the new bourbons, the distillery has also donated $150,000 to Yellowstone Forever, a nonprofit that protects and preserves Yellowstone National Park.

O.H. Ingram 2024 Flagship Bourbon

ABV: 58.85%
SRP: $80
Availability: Limited

For O.H. Ingram’s 2024 Flagship bourbon, founder Hank Ingram and master blender Scott Beyer selected six barrels, all of which aged for 6-plus years on floating warehouses anchored to the Mississippi River. O.H. ages all its whiskeys on the Mississippi, citing the potential influence of diurnal temperature swings, high humidity, inclement weather, constant movement, and other environmental effects on the final whiskey.

The 2024 Flagship bourbon is premiering at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival in Bardstown, Kentucky tomorrow, September 14. After that, the bourbon will have a wider footprint, available online at Seelbach’s as well as on shelves in Kentucky, Georgia, Louisiana, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. Given that this year’s edition is a batch of just six barrels—half of the 2023 edition, which was a blend of 12 barrels—there will be fewer bottles to go around.

Central Standard Founder’s Reserve 10th Anniversary Double-Oaked Bourbon

ABV: 45%
SRP: $90
Availability: Distillery exclusive

Milwaukee’s Central Standard Craft Distillery is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a new bourbon. Precise details on the recipe are scarce, as the mashbill and age are both undisclosed, but the whiskey was finished in oak casks after its initial maturation. The whiskey launched as part of a party last month, and is currently available for purchase at the distillery.

Central Standard’s whiskey portfolio is largely dominated by bourbons, including the 2 year old Dockside, cabernet cask-finished Red Cabin, and Cabin Strength: a 4–6 year old barrel proof single barrel that, like the newcomer, is double-oaked. The distillery also offers a rye called Riverbend, alongside a handful of vodkas, brandies, and a gin.

Speyburn Rum Cask Finish Scotch Single Malt

ABV: 40%,
SRP: $30
Availability: Nationwide

Single malt scotch maker Speyburn is expanding its core collection this fall with the release of a new whiskey—Rum Cask Finish—and a re-brand for its Bradan Orach label, which is now called Bourbon Cask. As the names suggest, both whiskies are finished in barrels that previously housed other spirits to create unique flavor profiles. Rum Cask Finish was matured in ex-bourbon barrels and was then transferred to rum casks before bottling, while Bourbon Cask rested in bourbon barrels.

Both whiskies join Speyburn 10 year old in the brand’s revamped core collection, featuring newly designed labels that highlight Speyburn’s 126-year history while also incorporating a more modern design. The spirits are being released nationwide this fall ahead of the holiday season.

Benromach 50 Year Old Scotch Single Malt

ABV: 54.6%
SRP: $25,000
Availability: Limited

Speyside distiller Benromach has released a 50 year old single malt, making use of liquid distilled before the distillery was bought and reopened in 1993 by its current owner, independent bottler Gordon & MacPhail. The distillery has dabbled in 50 year old releases before, most recently coming out with the vintage-dated Benromach 1969 50 year old in 2019. This new 50 year old spent the entirety of its maturation in oloroso sherry casks, imbuing it with deep, sumptuous notes of stewed fruit, medjool dates, and flambeed banana, per the distillery. Benromach partnered with Scottish glassblower Glasstorm for the release, bottling the whisky in bespoke decanters, of which there are just 248 available worldwide.

Benromach hangs its hat on tradition—the distillery’s mission is to make single malt as it used to be in the mid-20th century, and it does so by completing every part of the production process manually and without the advent of some of today's computerized distilling technologies, as well as by maturing spirit exclusively in dunnage warehouses. Most Benromach whiskies use barley peated with Speyside peat to low levels of 12 parts per million, creating subtle smoke flavors.