Yellowstone 6 Year Old, Garrison Bros. Lady Bird, Chattanooga, Kavalan, and More [New Releases]

This week, Texas distiller Garrison Bros. announced the arrival of its Lady Bird limited annual release, which uses the same recipe as previous expressions—4 year old cask-strength Garrison Bros. Honeydew bourbon with a long cognac cask finish. Yellowstone, meanwhile, is out with a 6 year old that’s the first age-stated whiskey ever for the label.

Elsewhere, Chattanooga has a new pre-Prohibition-style bourbon, while Virginia Distillery Co. adds yet another stout cask-finished whiskey to its lineup. In scotch, Tobermory has unveiled the final release in its five-part Hebridean Series, this one a 27 year old oloroso cask-finished expression. Among world whiskies, Taiwan distiller Kavalan has two 2009 vintage whiskies—ultra-aged in Taiwan’s sub-tropical climate, which is no easy feat.

Yellowstone 6 year old Small Batch 107 Proof Bourbon

ABV: 53.5%
SRP: $45
Availability: Nationwide

Yellowstone, the whiskey brand made by Limestone Branch Distillery in Lebanon, Kentucky, has added a new expression to its core lineup, and it’s the first Yellowstone bourbon to carry a formal age statement. It was bottled at 53.5% ABV (107 proof), making it one of the highest-strength releases in the lineup just behind Yellowstone’s 108 proof American single malt.

According to master distiller Stephen Beam, the decision to bottle the whiskey at 6 years old and 107 proof was made primarily to accentuate flavors of dark fruit, vanilla, and honey. But the age and proof were also specifically chosen to harken back to an earlier point in the brand’s history. “Yellowstone was the top selling whiskey in Kentucky in the 1960s, and at the time, it was bottled at 6 years old," noted Beam.

Garrison Bros. Lady Bird Bourbon (2025 Edition)

ABV: 57%
SRP: $180
Availability: 7,110 bottles

For the third year running, Texas distiller Garrison Bros. is releasing Lady Bird, a whiskey inspired by the legacy of its namesake—Lady Bird Johnson—and her commitment to the environment and Texas’ native wildflowers. The “formula” of Lady Bird remains unchanged, taking the cask strength Garrison Bros. HoneyDew (its 4 year old Small Batch bourbon that’s infused with Burleson’s Texas wildflower honey for 8-9 months first by way of barrel, and then using a technique called "Fiber Infusion Technology") and finishing it in cognac XO casks for an additional 3 years.

While there are a total of 7,110 Lady Bird bottles available this year, 1,000 of them are available on a first come, first served basis at the distillery, starting at 8 a.m. on Saturday, April 5. The remainder will be available nationwide and online by May. With every Lady Bird purchase, Garrison Bros. donates $5 to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, a botanical garden and arboretum located in Austin, Texas. Thus far, the distillery has donated over $67,000 to the Center.

Chattanooga Whiskey Experimental Batch 043: Pre-Prohibition Style Bourbon

ABV: 55%
SRP: $70
Availability: Limited; Chattanooga’s Experimental Distillery and seelbachs.com

Chattanooga Whiskey’s 43rd Experimental Batch whiskey celebrates a decade of production at its Experimental Distillery—the first legal production distillery in Chattanooga since Prohibition.

The new whiskey is an ode to pre-Prohibition distilling, designed to replicate the flavors of that era. Like all Chattanooga bourbons, this starts with a high-malt mashbill, but it’s made with a harder variety of yellow corn—mimicking those grown during pre-Prohibition times—as well as multiple slow-toasted barleys, spelt, and rye. A portion of the recipe was fermented in a two-part process that’s designed to highlight fruitiness in the distillate; it involves an overnight sour mash and a multi-strain fermentation using both bourbon and malt whiskey yeasts which together yield similarly less-controlled, multi-strain yeast cultures used by the distilleries of yore.

The whiskey was then pot distilled and aged for 4 years in various custom-toasted and charred barrels (so chosen for their variance, as cooperages in the late 19th and early 20th centuries provided barrels with diverse char levels). The proof reflects one of the highest proofs available in whiskey prior to the Alcohol Administration Act of 1935.

Cedar Ridge Port Cask Finished Bourbon

ABV: 47%
SRP: $50
Availability: Limited; Iowa and online at cedarridgedistillery.com

The annual release of the distillery’s flagship bourbon—made from 74% Iowa corn, 14% malted rye, and 12% malted barley—and finishes it in port casks. The new whiskey ekes out a slightly higher ABV than its blueprint, which is bottled at 43%.

Cedar Ridge Port Cask Finished Straight Rye

ABV: 52.5%
SRP: $60
Availability: Limited

Another annual release, Cedar Ridge Port Cask Finished straight rye is made from a mashbill of 85% rye, 12% corn, 3% malted barley and finished in freshly emptied estate port barrels.

Virginia Distillery Co. Brewer’s Coalition: Boulevard Brewing Co. Proper Pour Stout Cask Finished American Single Malt

ABV: 50%
SRP: $55
Availability: Limited

Last month, just in time for Valentine’s Day, Virginia Distillery Co. released the third expression in its stout cask finishing-centric Brewer’s Coalition series. This week, the distillery has unveiled yet another one. The newcomer is finished in barrels that previously held Proper Pour—a double-barreled imperial stout from Boulevard Brewing Co. in Missouri, which is initially aged in bourbon barrels for 20 months before spending an additional 5 months in French oak cabernet barrels. The stout casks are said to contribute flavors of blackberry cobbler, cherries, plum, and cocoa.

Tobermory The Hebridean Series: 27 year old Islands Scotch Single Malt

ABV: 53.1%
SRP: $511
Availability: Limited, at specialty retailers

Tobermory, the Isle of Mull’s only distillery, has unveiled the fifth and final whisky in its Hebridean Series. Each expression in the collection takes inspiration from certain landmarks around the Isle of Mull, and the newcomer was inspired by Duart Castle—a historic landmark that was built in the 13th century and serves as the ancestral seat of Clan Maclean. This expression starts as Tobermory 15 year old that was finished for 12 years in González Byass oloroso casks. Just 2,857 bottles were released globally.

Kavalan 15^th Anniversary Taiwanese Single Malts

Kavalan 15^th Anniversary Vintage 2009 Oloroso Sherry Cask

ABV: 56.3%
SRP: $1,000

Kavalan 15^th Anniversary Vintage 2009 Bourbon Cask

ABV: 50%
SRP: $1,000

Availability: Limited; CA, IL, LA, MD, NY, TX, and D.C; imported by Hotaling & Co.

Kavalan, Taiwan’s most prominent distiller, is releasing two of its oldest whiskies to celebrate the 15^th Anniversary of its Solist Series of single cask expressions. This collectible duo was released in Taiwan in July 2024, but now the 15^th Anniversary bottlings are being rolled out to select U.S. markets. The Kavalan team selected barrels of whisky, distilled in 2009, aged in bourbon barrels and oloroso casks, ranging in strength from 50%-59.9%. While each bottle is a single cask release, the number of single casks used for the 15^th Anniversary bottlings is more than two, but the exact number has not been disclosed.

What’s the big deal about a 15 year old whisky from Taiwan? Two words: angels’ share. A pioneer in world whisky, the King Car Group opened Kavalan Distillery in Yilan County on the eastern side of the island in 2005. The area enjoys a subtropical climate, with hot summers and high humidity. That makes whisky mature much quicker than a country with a damp, maritime climate like Scotland. Kavalan Distillery includes smart engineering adaptations to mitigate the heat, such as using cooling jackets wrapped around its stainless steel washbacks. These optimize the internal environment enabling the yeast to produce the fruity esters that contribute to Kavalan’s signature style. The hot conditions also help Kavalan’s whisky reach peak maturation within a few years, so an age statement of 15 years is quite remarkable. The turnover of casks due to the heat is so high that Kavalan managed all their stock with just two large warehouses until 2024, when they completed work on a third warehouse. The angels’ share at Kavalan can exceed 10% per year, as the temperature on the highest floors can top 100°F during the humid summers, putting the contents of older casks at risk of significant evaporation. This is why it’s best not to compare an age statement on a world whisky made in a warm climate to a scotch of an equivalent age.