Booker's Batch 2, Elijah Craig Toasted Rye, Copperworks Single Malts, and More [New Releases]

Booker's is out with its second release of the year, while Elijah Craiig makes a splash during this quiet summer season with its new toasted barrel rye. Jack Daniel's is now on the 13th iteration in its Distillery Series, the experimental annual releases that give the distilling team a chance to tinker with new ideas. This one has Jack Daniel's rye getting a secondary maturation in a new oak barrel. As with the other whiskeys in the Distillery Series, it's being sold only at the Jack Daniel's Distillery gift shop and at selected Tennessee retailers, so enjoy it if you get the chance. From Scotland, single malt whisky Aultmore, which is one of the malts in Dewar's blended scotch stable, gets to shine on its own with the release of 4 cask finished expressions. Elsewhere, Three Chord's Backstage Series, which partners with rock brands, is now live with an Allman Brothers whiskey, while Seattle-based Copperworks has three new American single malts.

Booker’s The Beam House Batch (2024-02) Bourbon

ABV: 62.3%
SRP: $100
Availability: Limited

Every batch of Booker’s pays homage to a special person, place, or theme associated with the James B. Beam Distillery. The second batch of 2024 is named after master distiller Fred Noe’s family home; his great-grandfather, Jim Beam, lived there before him, as did his father, Booker Noe, who was especially fond of hosting guests, whether they were friends, neighbors, business partners, employees, or new acquaintances.

This whiskey is a blend of five different production dates, all hand-selected by Fred. They were stored across four different warehouse locations: 14% of the batch came from the 5th floor of 7-story warehouse Z; 42% came from the 4th floor of 7-story warehouse 3; 19% came from the 5th floor of 7-story warehouse Q; and 25% came from the 7th floor of 9-story warehouse H. The age of this batch is 7 years, 2 months, and 22 days.

Elijah Craig Toasted Kentucky Straight Rye

ABV: 47%
SRP: $55
Availability: Limited; nationwide

Heaven Hill has brought a new Elijah Craig expression to market, but this one isn’t a bourbon. It’s a high-corn rye whiskey (51% rye, 35% corn, 14% malted barley) that was finished for several months in toasted and charred new oak barrels. While the exact profile of the barrel used for aging is undisclosed, the secondary barrel features a No.-1 “flash char” and was toasted for over an hour at very high temperatures.

This release combines two areas that Elijah Craig has dabbled in, but aren’t featured prominently in the portfolio: rye whiskey and toasted barrels. While Heaven Hill rye is often bottled under other labels like Pikesville, Rittenhouse, and occasionally Parker’s Heritage, Elijah Craig does feature a very impressive rye that was named our No. 7 Whisky of 2020. Elijah Craig also offers a toasted barrel finished bourbon as a core expression, which it followed up last summer with a limited edition European toasted oak finish to celebrate the Ryder Cup golf competition. The toasting process used on the new rye is completely unique from the ones for those expressions.

Toasted Rye is launching nationwide later this month, but it will be very limited at first. Heaven Hill says the rye is here to stay as an ongoing release, and wider availability might be in the cards for the future.

Jack Daniel’s Distillery Series Selection #13 Rye

ABV: 53.5%
SRP: $42/375 ml
Availability: Limited; Jack Daniel Distillery and elsewhere in Tennessee

The Jack Daniel’s Distillery Series provides master distiller Chris Fletcher with an outlet for creativity and experimentation and the 13^th release in the range innovating on the distillery’s flagship Tennessee rye. The whiskey starts as all Jack Daniel Tennessee ryes do—with a mashbill of 70% rye, 12% malted barley, and 18% corn. It’s then charcoal mellowed and put into new, charred American white oak, before being moved to a secondary, new oak barrel for an additional 2 ½ years, giving it the Twice Barreled designation.

This isn’t the first Twice Barreled whiskey Jack has released; the distillery debuted a Twice Barreled American single malt in November 2022 (that one finished in oloroso sherry casks) and followed that release up with a Twice Barreled Heritage Rye, finished in heavily toasted Heritage barrels from the Jack Daniel Cooperage, last summer. Both of those releases scored well with our tasting panel, with the rye coming in at 94 points, and the American single malt at 90.

Aultmore The Cask Finish Collection Scotch Single Malts

ABV: 46%
SRP: $58-$500/500 ml
Availability: Travel Retail exclusive

Speyside distillery Aultmore has released this collection of single malts in Travel Retail, with each whisky getting a unique cask finish. Aultmore The Cask Finish Collection 12 year old ($58) is finished in second-fill oloroso sherry casks, the 18 year old (46%, $170) in second-fill madeira wine casks, the 21 year old ($250) in second-fill calvados brandy casks, and the 25 year old ($500) in first-fill oloroso sherry casks. Master blender Stephanie Macleod is known for her cask finishing work, having shepherded other Dewar's malt whiskies deeper into the nuances of cask finishing in recent years, through releases like the Aberfeldy 21 year old Malbec Cask Finished and Dewar’s Double Double 21 year old Mizunara Oak.

When Aultmore was built in 1897, its whiskies were primarily used as blending components; that remains largely true today, as most of its malt goes into Dewar's and other blends, though the distillery does have a range of core single malts comprised of 12, 18, and 21 year old whiskies.

Three Chord Backstage Series: Allman Brothers Band Bourbon

ABV: 47.5%
SRP: $50
Availability: Limited

For Three Chord’s latest Backstage Series whiskey, the brand partnered with rock group the Allman Brothers Band, creating a blend of straight bourbon whiskeys. The final bottling consists of 75% 6 year old Indiana bourbon and 25% 3 ½ year old Tennessee bourbon finished in toasted peach wood, in a nod to the Allman Brothers’ first platinum album, Eat A Peach. (The 95 proof is also a callback to the band, representative of when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.) There are 12,000 bottles of the whiskey available nationwide, available for preorder now; bottles are expected to start shipping by early September.

Three Chord is the brainchild of musician Neil Giraldo, a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer who’s written, performed, or produced for the likes of Pat Benatar, Rick Derringer, Rick Springfield, Kenny Loggins, and more. Giraldo started releasing Backstage Series whiskeys—featuring custom blends made in partnership with leading musicians—last year, and has since collaborated with a wide variety of bands, among them indie group Dinosaur Jr. and country rockers The Cadillac Three.

Copperworks Maltsmith, Farmsmith, & Peatsmith American Single Malts

ABV: 50%
SRP: $60–$80
Availability: Copperworks Seattle and Kenmore, WA tasting rooms and online

Copperworks Distilling Co. typically releases whiskey in very limited quantities. The Seattle-based distillery tends to favor experimental one-offs and single cask expressions, typically producing fewer than a thousand bottles. But its three newest single malts are intended to be permanent members of the lineup.

Maltsmith ($60) is made using the distillery’s five-malt recipe, which combines five varieties of pale and caramel malts. It was aged in a mix of new charred oak and Copperworks American Single Malt refill casks. By contrast, Farmsmith ($70) is distilled entirely from one barley strain grown on a single farm during one growing year. Each Farmsmith batch will feature a different strain, farm, or harvest season, and the first edition is made using Baronesse barley grown by Joseph’s Grainery in Colfax, Washington. The final whiskey is Peatsmith ($80), which was smoked using local peat from Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.

Things were fairly quiet for Copperworks during the first half of the year, but it made some news last month by announcing plans to buy a nearby brewhouse from Pike Brewing—where Copperworks co-founder Jason Parker once worked as a brewer. The distillery plans to use the space mostly to start brewing its own wash, but it will also continue to tap contract brewers thereby boosting its overall capacity.