New American Whiskeys: Puncher's Chance, High West, Very Olde St. Nick & More

The week’s rolling announcement of our Top 20 Whiskies of the Year is completed today, with the unveiling of whiskies 11-20. As always, the drumroll began on Monday with Nos. 10, 9, and 8, followed by 7, 6, and 5 on Tuesday, and 4,3, and 2 on Wednesday. Yesterday came the big day, with the reveal of our Whisky of the Year, and we finished up today with the rest of the list. With due congratulations and celebration for the winners, we will soon begin the quest for next year’s winners. It all starts here, on the pages of our Whisky Weekend new releases.

In keeping with the ways of the modern whisky world, this year’s Top 20 features a number of international collaborations, notably Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Voyage, whose rum barrel finish is a joint effort with Jamaica’s Appleton Estate. In this week's new rollouts, we have Puncher’s Chance whose latest, The Unified Belt, blends Irish whiskey and bourbon. Meanwhile, from the American West, High West is back with its American single malt, still a fairly limited release but one that’s growing. Wilderness Trail in Kentucky celebrates its 10^th anniversary with a limited release 10 year old, while Very Olde St. Nick gets into the Christmas spirit with two releases.

Puncher’s Chance The Unified Belt
Style: Blended whiskey
Origin: Multiple (Kentucky and Ireland)
Age: Not stated
ABV: 48%
Price: $150
Release: December
Availability: Nationwide

Need to know:
The Unified Belt takes 4 year old Kentucky straight bourbon with a mashbill of 70% corn, 20% rye, and 10% malted barley and blends it with two whiskeys: a 4 year old, 100% malted barley Irish whiskey that was finished in bourbon barrels, and a 14 year old bourbon that was finished in a combination of first-fill Pedro Ximénez and oloroso sherry casks for up to 15 months. The casks for this release were sourced by Louisville-based IJW Whiskey Co., and the whiskey was blended by IJW master blender Steven Hughes.

Whisky Advocate says:
While Puncher’s Chance is owned by Eugene, Oregon-based Wolf Spirit, its whiskeys are distilled or sourced entirely by IJW Whiskey Co., which has laid down 100,000 barrels of bourbon, rye, and wheat whiskey, all without its own distillery. That’s set to change in the near future, however, as word came out last year that the company was building a $200 million distillery in Shelbyville, Kentucky, where it will continue to make whiskey for Puncher’s Chance and others, but also for its own brands still to come. Puncher’s Chance is a boxing reference, and Unified Belt is no different—it refers to a boxing champion who holds at least two world championships of major sanctioning bodies, in an allusion to the marriage of Irish and American whiskeys in this release. Such a blend isn’t unheard of—Brian Nation, once the longtime master distiller at Irish Distillers and now the master distiller at Minnesota-based O'Shaughnessy Distilling Co., has been making Irish-American blends under the latter's Keeper's Heart label since 2021.

Samuel Maverick Straight Triticale Bottled in Bond
Style: Triticale
Origin: Texas
Age: 4 year old
ABV: 50%
Price: $135
Release: December
Availability: Limited

Need to know:
Invented by a Scottish botanist in the 1870s, triticale grains are a hybrid of wheat and rye that meld the spiciness of rye with the sweetness of wheat. The triticale grains in this whiskey were sourced from the Texas panhandle; while Maverick founder Dr. Kenneth Maverick had ordered several thousand pounds of rye, a mix-up at the silos led to the distillery receiving a whole lot of triticale, in what Maverick now refers to as a “happy accident.” This also marks Maverick’s first bottled in bond release.

Whisky Advocate says:
Triticale whiskies are uncommon but not unheard of, generally coming from craft distillers. When done right, a triticale whiskey should be soft yet flavorful, with enough spice to attract a rye lover but not so much to turn off those who prefer a mellower dram. Others playing around with triticale include Spokane, Washington-based Dry Fly Distilling, and Tumbleweed Spirits in British Columbia, Canada.

High West High Country
Style: American single malt
Origin: Utah
Age: Not stated
ABV: 44%
Price: $80
Release: December
Availability: Limited

Need to know:
High West’s High Country single malt is back for a limited time. The latest release is a blend of 3 to 10 year old whiskeys, all of which are pot-distilled. It was aged in new and second-fill oak barrels. High Country is available at High West’s Wasatch distillery and its Park City saloon, as well as at retailers nationwide.

Whisky Advocate says:
High West debuted High Country back in 2019, at a time when American single malts were just coming into the collective whiskey consciousness. Now, they’re far more widespread, with almost every state in the country represented by at least one single malt. High Country has evolved somewhat since its debut, but it remains a blend of the distillery's own distillate, put together by blender Brendan Coyle.

Wilderness Trail 10 year old
Style: Straight bourbon
Origin: Kentucky
Age: 10 year old
ABV: 50%
Price: $280
Release: December
Availability: Limited

Need to know:
In celebration of its 10th anniversary, Wilderness Trail is releasing a wheated bottled in bond bourbon made from the second barrel it ever laid down. The bourbon’s mashbill is 64% corn, 24% wheat, and 12% malted barley, and the bottle is packaged in a cedar box inspired by Prohibition-era smugglers’ crates.

Whisky Advocate says:
Wilderness Trail opened its doors in Danville, Kentucky in 2013. The distillery is run by co-founders Dr. Pat Heist and Shane Baker; Heist is the chief scientific officer, while Baker is the master distiller, president, and CEO. Together, the pair have focused on small batch whiskeys, all made with sweet mash and most adhering to bottled in bond criteria. Today, the distillery is grinding one million pounds of grain every five days, and filling 220 barrels a day.

Castle & Key The Untold Story of Kentucky Whiskey: Chapter 3
Style: Straight bourbon
Origin: Kentucky
Age: 5 year old
ABV: 54.3%
Price: $175
Release: December
Availability: 400-420 bottles

Need to know:
This 5 year old straight bourbon is a blend of two barrels. It features hickory king corn, an heirloom corn varietal whose flavors were favored for whiskey production a century ago, but was eventually replaced by commodity grains. Castle & Key partnered with Walnut Grove Farms for the corn, which imbues whiskey with decadent notes of dark fruit and chocolate, similar to those you might find in rum.

Whisky Advocate says:
Castle & Key’s The Untold Story series looks at American whiskey’s history, and how African Americans specifically have contributed to the industry’s success. This third chapter, made in partnership with the Kentucky Black Bourbon Guild, tells the story of Brack Beverly, who was born enslaved and, once free, worked as a mash hand at a Kentucky distillery in the early 1900s. All proceeds from this series are donated to scholarship funds that support diversity, inclusion, and equity within the distilling industry; with the addition of this third chapter, Castle & Key expects cumulative scholarship funds to reach $100,000 by year’s end.

Very Olde St. Nick “Notorious O.S.N.”
Style: Bourbon
Origin: Kentucky
Age: 16 year old
ABV: 56.25%
Price: $758
Release: December
Availability: Limited

Need to know:
This 16 year old bourbon comes from brand owner Preservation Distillery’s collection of vintage casks.

Very Olde St. Nick “Straight Outta Bardstown”
Style: Bourbon
Origin: Kentucky
Age: 9 year old
ABV: 65%
Price: $499
Release: December
Availability: Limited

Need to know:
A single barrel bourbon that was bottled at cask strength.

Whisky Advocate says:
Preservation was founded in 2015 by California liquor wholesaler Marci Palatella. The distillery is situated upon a historic 40-acre tobacco farm in Bardstown, Kentucky; while it makes its own whiskey using pot stills and water drawn from a limestone aquifer. Most of its bottlings are currently sourced aged whiskeys. Its Very Olde St. Nick Immaculata Ancient Cask scored 92 points with our tasting panel earlier this year.

291 Colorado Whiskey Special Releases

291 XII Colorado Whiskey
Style: Rye
Origin: Colorado
Age: 3 year old
ABV: 67.3%
Price: $150
Release: November
Availability: Limited; available online at seelbachs.com

Need to know:
291 XII Colorado Whiskey (called “Twelve”) is a 3 year old cask-strength rye bottled at a gargantuan 67.3% ABV.

291 E Colorado Whiskey Batch 13
Style: American single malt
Origin: Colorado
Age: 4 year old
ABV: 60.8%
Price: $150
Release: November
Availability: Limited; available online at seelbachs.com

Need to know:
291 Colorado’s new American single malt is aged for at least four years in American white oak barrels and is bottled at 60.8% ABV.

291 All Rye Colorado Whiskey (Batch 002)
Style: Rye
Origin: Colorado
Age: Not stated
ABV: 66.3%
Price: $105
Release: November
Availability: Limited; available online at seelbachs.com

Need to know:
This expression is 291 Colorado’s rye spin on an American single malt. Founded in 2011, the distillery until now has mainly focused on bourbons, ryes, and other American whiskeys.

Whisky Advocate says:
Colorado Springs-based 291 Colorado Whiskey was founded by Michael Myers, a former fashion photographer from New York City (not to be confused with the horror film icon of the same name.) It has a fairly unorthodox approach to making whisky, adding stillage—an unwanted byproduct of distillation that's often sold as cattle feed—to its mash and finishing its expressions using toasted aspen wood. Alongside these new expressions, the distillery is also releasing batches of its four-grain Bad Guy bourbon, high rye HR bourbon, and maple barrel-finished M rye.

Bearface Wilderness Series Matsutake 01
Style: Flavored whisky
Origin: Canada
Age: Not stated
ABV: 42.5%
Price: $45
Release: December
Availability: 3,000 bottles

Need to know:
This expression is a blend of corn whiskies sourced from Canada, which are matured in French oak casks and sherry pipes. The casks are aged in a ventilated shipping container, which exposes them to Canada’s weather conditions. The whisky is also infused with matsutake mushrooms, that are left in the casks for six months.

Whisky Advocate says:
Flavored Canadian whisky has a somewhat murky reputation among whisky drinkers, but Bearface’s approach seems to separate it from the pack. Master blender Andrés Faustinelli, formerly of Bib & Tucker, touts this expression as an exploration of umami flavor in whisky—similar to October’s release of Johnnie Walker Blue Label Elusive Umami, though that one isn’t made with an infusion.

Wyoming Whiskey Barrel Strength (2023)
Style: Bourbon
Origin: Wyoming
Age: 5 year old
ABV: 61.2%
Price: $300
Release: December
Availability: Limited

Need to know:
Wyoming Whiskey has released a new batch of its Barrel Strength bourbon. The grains and water used to make it were sourced from Kirby, Wyoming.

Wyoming Whiskey Single Barrel (2023)
Style: Bourbon
Origin: Wyoming
Age: 5 year old
ABV: 48%
Price: $100
Release: December
Availability: Limited

Need to know:
Alongside Cask Strength, Wyoming Whiskey has also released a new single barrel bourbon. This one is similarly aged for 5 years.

Whisky Advocate says:
These two limited releases were launched alongside a new brand campaign from Wyoming Whiskey. Dubbed “Made of Wyoming”, the campaign aims to shine a spotlight on the state's beauty, and reinforces its potential as a hub for whiskey production. While Wyoming Whiskey is certainly the most well-known distillery in the state, it isn’t the only one. Wyoming’s craft whiskey scene also includes Pine Bluffs Distilling, the Saratoga-based Brush Creek, Cowboy Country Distilling in Pinedale, and Casper’s Backwards Distilling among others.

Milam & Greene The Castle Hill Series (Batch 3)
Style: Bourbon
Origin: Tennessee
Age: 15 year old
ABV: 57.25%
Price: $200
Release: December
Availability: 1,728 bottles; available at select retailers and milamandgreenewhiskey.com

Need to know:
Milam & Greene’s newest bourbon is the third and final bottling in The Castle Hill Series. It was distilled in Tennessee from a mashbill of 84% corn, 8% rye, and 8% malted barley. Most of its aging took place in Tennessee, before being relocated to Texas where it spent the final 5 months in Milam & Greene’s own rickhouse.

Whisky Advocate says:
The Castle Hill series’s hallmark is older age statements, which is only possible due to the split-location maturation. Texas has gained a reputation as being an extremely difficult place to age whiskey. The scorching temperatures lead to a higher-than-average angels’ share, which can tank yields from older barrels. It was particularly rough with this 15 year old bourbon, which only spent 5 months in Texas and suffered 67% loss due to angels’ share.

Chattanooga Whiskey The Vaults Series
Style: Two bourbons and a blend of straight whiskeys
Origin: Tennessee
Age: 6 year old
ABV: 62.2%, 62.3%, and 63%
Price: $47/375 ml
Release: December
Availability: Chattanooga Whiskey Experimental Distillery

Need to know:
This is the inaugural release of The Vault Series which was established to highlight some of Chattanooga’s innovative batches. The three whiskeys include Barrel 91 column distilled bourbon, Barrel 91 pot distilled bourbon, and the third is a blend of high malt and rye malt straight whiskeys.

Whisky Advocate says:
Barrel 91 is Chattanooga’s name for its Tennessee high-malt bourbon made from a mashbill of yellow corn, malted rye, caramel malted barley, and honey malted barley. The Vault Series includes one barrel that was column distilled at Chattanooga’s Riverfront Distillery and another that was pot distilled at its Experimental Distillery. The blended barrel, the result of a mistake, includes 88% Chattanooga’s high malt that was accidentally topped with 12% of its rye malt distillate before aging. Most blends are created after the whiskeys are aged.

High N’ Wicked No. 8 The Jury
Style: Bourbon
Origin: Tennessee
Age: 15 year old
ABV: 52%
Price: $130
Release: December 2023
Availability: 18,000 bottles

Need to know:
The Jury is a Tennessee bourbon, made on a column still with an 84% corn, 8% rye, and 8% malted barley mashbill. It was aged in No.-4 char American white oak barrels for 14 years, and finished for an additional year in Tigra Negra madeira casks.

Whisky Advocate says:
High N’ Wicked is an independent bottling company that’s part of the Altamar Brands portfolio. Altamar also owns Foursquare rum, which provided the rum casks for the new No.7 expression. While High N’ Wicked has a flagship rye and bourbon, it’s perhaps best known for its Single Release series. The series, which these two expressions belong to, features whiskey sourced from America and Ireland. The expressions usually have a double-digit age statement, and nearly always feature a cask finish of some kind.