Old Grand-Dad, Stranahan's, Barrell, Templeton & The Hearach [New Releases]

Whiskeys of great age are in evidence once again this week, with Old Grand-Dad releasing its first-ever 16 year old bourbon, Stranahan’s dropping one of the oldest American single malt ever in its new 12 year old Mountain Angel, and Barrell Craft Spirits releasing a far older version of its New Year Blend than last year's expression. Whatever the reason for all this aging up, it’s certainly good news for whiskey lovers, as older whiskeys are usually, though not always, a better sip.

Elsewhere, J. Mattingly and Jeptha Creed once again honor our veterans—Mattingly with the fifth release of its 1845 Combat Infantry Badge Bourbon, and Jeptha with the third batch of its Red White and Blue bourbon, with a portion of sales for both going to military-related non-profits. Finally, The Hearach, the single malt scotch made on the remote island of Lewis and Harris in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides and founded in 2015, has added a new oloroso cask-finished expression to its permanent range. It complements The Hearach's inaugural U.S. release last year which was finished in a mix of bourbon, oloroso, and fino sherry casks.

Old Grand-Dad 16 year old Bourbon

ABV: 50%
SRP: $195
Availability: Limited

James B. Beam Distilling’s Old Grand-Dad, a high-rye Kentucky bourbon, has debuted a one-off, ultra-aged whiskey. Coming in at 16 years old, the new bourbon represents the oldest Old Grand-Dad released in modern times. Its price is also quite a departure from previous Old Grand-Dad whiskey releases—we’ve often cited this bourbon as a great value proposition, with the flagship Old Grand-Dad retailing at just $17, Old Grand-Dad Bonded clocking in at $20, and the brand’s highest-proof bourbon, the barrel proof Old Grand-Dad 114, offered at just $35.

Old Grand-Dad dates back to 1882, when Raymond B. Hayden created the bourbon in honor of his grandfather, Meredith Basil Hayden Sr., who was a distiller in his day (and has a name you’ll likely recognize from another Beam brand). Drinking this brand today is like drinking a bit of whiskey history, as when it was acquired by Beam back in 1987, its long-standing high-rye recipe was left unchanged.

Stranahan’s Mountain Angel 12 year old American Single Malt

ABV: 47.3%
SRP: $100
Availability: Limited

When Stranahan’s debuted Mountain Angel in 2020, it was billed as the first-ever 10 year old American single malt. Now, the Colorado distillery is upping the ante by upping the age of its elder statesman, giving Mountain Angel a 12 year old age statement and thus making it among the oldest American single malts ever seen.

Made from 100% malted barley, this Mountain Angel is first aged for 12 years in charred oak barrels, then finished for a short stint in port casks. Only a handful of barrels were chosen for this batch, and several experienced angel’s share loss upward of 80%, a result of both the barrel type and Denver’s high altitude (the Mile High city sits 5,280 feet above sea level).

American single malts have yet to receive official guidelines from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), but the style continues to gain momentum, and many of its biggest names are seeing a greater share of the spotlight. Seattle-based Westland, for instance, landed at No. 3 on our Top 20 list last year with the eighth edition of its garryana oak-influenced single malt; the distillery also had a whiskey aged just one day shy of 10 years release through independent bottler Lost Lantern last month, in a sign that older single malts are starting to come to the fore.

Barrell New Year Blend of Bourbons (2025 Release)

ABV: 56.05%
SRP: $90
Availability: Limited

This is the eighth edition of Barrell’s annual New Year whiskey, which is a celebratory blend of bourbons that toasts the New Year, and with it, new beginnings. There are 18 components in the 2025 blend, and they are as follows:

• 5, 6, and 9 year old Kentucky bourbon
• 5, 6, 7, 11, and 12 year old Indiana bourbon
• 8, 9, and 15 year old Tennessee bourbon
• 9 and 12 year old Wyoming bourbon
• 5 year old New York bourbon
• 5 year old Texas bourbon
• 5 year old Ohio bourbon
• 6 and 7 year old Maryland bourbon

This whiskey pulls from the same set of states that it tapped last year, though 2025 sees some much older whiskeys. The bourbon’s derived mashbill is 75% corn, 20% rye, 4% malted barley, and 1% wheat. Given that there are older whiskeys included in the blend, there’s less of it to go around, with just 12,000 bottles available (compared to 23,000 last year).

Barrell 200ml Sample Gift Box

ABV: Varies
SRP: $60
Availability: Limited

In tandem with the New Year release, Barrell has released a sampler gift box ahead of the holidays that includes 200ml bottles of its Seagrass, Vantage, and Batch 036 whiskeys. Batch 036 bourbon blends whiskeys from Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee, and is bottled at 57.22% ABV; Seagrass is a 60.1% ABV blend of American and Canadian rye whiskeys, which each finished separately in Martinique rhum, madeira, and apricot brandy barrels; and Vantage is a blend of straight bourbons distilled in Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee, finished in mizunara, French, and toasted American oak barrels, and bottled at 57.13% ABV.

These whiskeys represent some of the best Barrell has to offer—Vantage landed at No. 3 on our Top 20 list of 2022 with a score of 95 points while Batch 036 fared well in our Fall 2024 issue, scoring 92 points, and we’ve recommended Seagrass as a top-notch cask-finished option in the past. The gift box supply is limited, with just 10,000 created.

Templeton Straight Rye

ABV: 45%
SRP: $30
Availability: Nationwide

Templeton Distillery has unveiled a new sourced rye which will be the brand’s flagship expression going forward. It has a 95% rye and 5% malted barley mashbill, and was aged for a minimum of 4 years before being bottled at the distillery in Templeton, Iowa.

Templeton Distillery was founded in 2006 as an independent bottling company. In the early days, it sourced rye whiskey from MGP, which it blended with a proprietary flavoring agent and bottled. Templeton opened its own distillery in 2018, and since then has focused on expanding its production capacity. Most of the current offerings still use sourced liquid, but its Fortitude bourbon, which rolled out in April, is made from Templeton’s own distillate.

J. Mattingly 1845 Combat Infantry Badge Bourbon (2025 Release)

ABV: $155
SRP: 63.5%
Availability: Limited

Ahead of Veteran’s Day, J. Mattingly 1845 Distillery has released the fifth edition of its Combat Infantry Badge (CIB) bourbon, a whiskey whose proceeds partially go toward a military-related nonprofit. This year’s release benefits Blue Skies for the Good Guys and Gals Warrior Foundation, which honors veterans, wounded warriors, and families of fallen heroes. Onto the whiskey: it was aged for 5 years and, like all Mattingly bourbons, subject to the distillery’s signature double staving process, which sees charred barrel staves introduced to the whiskey during maturation.

When combined with charitable donations to other nonprofits, those from this release will put J. Mattingly’s total charitable contributions for 2024 over $100,000. Military nonprofits are often at the top of the distillery’s donation list, as both the Mattingly family and the distillery itself have several members who are either current or former military staff.

Jeptha Creed Red, White & Blue Bourbon Batch Three

ABV: 50%
SRP: $75
Availability: Limited

Kentucky distillery Jeptha Creed, owned by mother-daughter duo Joyce and Autumn Nethery, has launched the third batch of Red, White & Blue Kentucky straight bourbon, a whiskey that sees a portion of its proceeds go toward a military-focused nonprofit. This year’s release will be donated in part to CreatiVets, an organization that uses various forms of art as therapy to help disabled veterans cope with their service-related trauma.

The bourbon in question is made from a mashbill of 25% bloody butcher corn, 25% heirloom white corn, 25% Bruce’s blue corn (a cross of blue Claridge and blue poppy corn varietals developed by Bruce Nethery, who is Joyce’s husband and Autumn’s father), 20% malted rye, and 5% malted barley. It’s bottled at 50% abv. While the whiskey is a limited edition release, it'll be available in 40 states across the U.S., as well as at Jeptha Creed Distillery in Shelbyville, Kentucky.

The Hearach First Fill Oloroso Cask Matured Scotch Single Malt

ABV: 46%
SRP: $100
Availability: Widely; imported by MISA imports

The Isle of Harris Distillery has released its second permanent core single malt expression, following its 92-point inaugural release of The Hearach in 2023. Lightly peated at 12–15 parts per phenol million was fully matured in first-fill oloroso sherry butts from Bodega José y Miguel Martín in Andalusia, Spain. There are four batches in the initial release, with more to follow in 2025.

On an island of fewer than 2,000 inhabitants, the Isle of Harris distillery’s purpose, beyond making great spirits, is to provide career opportunities to the local community, which has halved in size over the last 50 years as young people move to the mainland to study and find work. Since the distillery opened in 2015 with 10 people, it now has 45 permanent full-time employees.