The Best Spirits Bottles of the Year

This article is part of The Spill Awards 2025, covering the best in spirits, cocktails, bartenders and drinks culture. Find all of the stories here.

There were thousands of new booze expressions released in 2024. We admittedly didn’t get to try all of them, but we were able to sample a representative number of great whiskies/whiskeys, rums, gins, vodkas, ready-to-drink cocktails and more.

The criteria for the spirits bottle nominations and the winners are a little more strict than our other categories. The bottles had to be released in the 2024 calendar year, though we offered a little leeway on a few nominees (for example, if a regional spirits bottle was released in a different year but only got a national release in 2024, we could consider it). We tried not to be too exclusive about these bottles — a few of these are hard to find, but others you should be able to buy in any good local liquor store or online. With prices ranging from $25 per bottle to a few thousand, we also wanted to represent a wide spectrum of tastes and budgets. And we offered up a few honorable mentions that certainly deserve to be sampled.

Best Bourbon: Angel’s Envy Triple Oak

Known for its finished whiskeys, the Louisville distillery made an ambitious foray into unique wood maturations with Triple Oak. The finishes here (Hungarian oak, Chinkapin oak from Kentucky and French oak, with a combination of first- and second-fill barrels) create a harmonious blend with notes of cocoa, caramel apple, coffee, baking spices and cinnamon. Overall, it’s greater than the sum of its parts.

Honorable mentions: Pinhook Vertical Series Bourbon 9 Year, Russell’s Reserve 15, Barrell Bourbon Cask Finish Series: Mizunara

Best Scotch: Highland Park Cask Strength No. 5

Started in 1798, this iconic Orkney-based distillery released the fifth edition in its Cask Strength series. Coming in at a whopping 64.7% ABV and matured in both ex-Pedro Ximénez and ex-bourbon casks, No. 5 is both sweet and smoky, delivering delicious notes of red fruit, caramel, cloves, cocoa, black licorice and tobacco.

Honorable mentions: The Glenrothes 15, Nc’nean Orchard Cobbler, Port Charlotte 18 Year Old

Best Rye: Sentinel by Whiskey Del Bac

We’re big fans of Whiskey Del Bac, which specializes in mesquite-smoked American Single Malts (often produced at very young maturations, which actually benefit the smokiness). Here, the Tucson distillery tried something a bit different; it’s a blend of two- and three-year-old rye whiskeys sourced from Indiana and finished on freshly harvested Whiskey Del Bac mesquited barrel staves. The mesquite-infused rye is then filtered across a bed of mesquite charcoal using the Pima County Process (similar to the Lincoln County Process in Tennessee whiskey, made famous by Jack Daniel’s). It sounds complicated, but the result is a delicious and spicy rye with a hint of campfire smoke and a surprising sweetness and rich mouthfeel.

Honorable mentions: Leopold Bros Foeder Series 25th Anniversary Blend, Catoctin Creek’s Rabble Rouser Bottled-in-Bond Rye Whisky, Bulleit Rye 10-Year-Old

Best American Whiskey: Stranahan’s Diamond Peak Caribbean Rum Cask

The third annual Diamond Peak release from this Denver distillery — and first from new-ish Head Blender Justin Aden — uses a marriage of 6–9-year Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey finished in varietals of rum casks from the greater and lesser Antilles of the Caribbean: The Dominican Republic, Barbados and Martinique. We loved the second release last year, which utilized extra añejo tequila casks. While different, this one is also a winner, offering notes of butterscotch, green apple, molasses, cola and tropical fruits.

Honorable mentions: Jacob’s Pardon Small Batch No. 3, Wolves American Single Malt 5 Years, Brother Justus Cold Peated

Best World Whisk(e)y: Chichibu “Ichiro’s Malt” US Release 2024

According to our judge Gabe Sanchez, “Any time you see the new Chichibu release, it’s time to get excited. I’m a sucker for anything with Mickey Mouse on it as well. It is everything you want from an Ichiro release — stone fruits, nuts and brown sugar round out a sipper at 52.5%. Buy one to drink and one to save like your favorite baseball player’s rookie card.”

Honorable mentions: Stauning HØST, Kanosuke Hioki Pot Still, Bushmills 2010 Double Moscatel

Best Tequila: Mijenta Maestra Selection No. 1

Besides crafting some of the best additive-free tequilas on the market and somehow changing my mind on Cristalinos, Mijenta recently introduced an annual series of unique agave releases (our review of release No. 2 is coming shortly!). The inaugural edition is a tequila crafted from 8-year-old single estate agaves de semilla (essentially, agave plants grown from seed, a rarity in the tequila world). The end result is rich, tropical and far more complex than the average blanco.

Honorable mentions: El Tesoro Reposado Mundial Basil Hayden, Tequila Ocho Plata, Fortaleza Winter Blend 2024

Best Gin: The Botanist Cask Rested Gin

It was only a matter of time before The Botanist tapped its whisky-making expertise to cask-rest a gin, and the result is one of the most sophisticated spirits we’ve had all year. The Islay distillery barrel-aged its classic expression for six months, which adds a touch of oak smoothness to its already easy-to-drink spirit. Perfect for mixing into an Old Fashioned or even a Paloma, this is a must-try for lovers of all kinds of aged spirits.

Honorable mention: Sipsmith Origin 1639 Gin, Monkey 47 Distiller’s Cut, Blue Gin Reisetbauer

Why Michter’s Keeps Getting Better

Even for an already sought-after whiskey, 2024 was a banner year

Best Rum: Ten to One Five Origin Select

Bottled at 92 proof, Five Origin Select — a blend sourced from five Caribbean countries (Trinidad, Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Guyana) — this exceptional sipper offers notes of crème brûlée, vanilla, cocoa, baking spices and orange zest with a somewhat dry finish. New notes open up on each sip (I got more apple as I went along), but I wouldn’t discount it in cocktails.

Honorable mentions: Santa Teresa Arabica Coffee Cask Finish, Black Tot Master Blender’s Reserve – 2024 Edition, Brugal Maestro Reserve

Best Liqueur: Chinola Mango

There are few brands that have more fun than Chinola. Their passion fruit expression is beloved by bartenders for its balanced, fruity flavor, and now their new tropical darling has entered the chat. Chinola Mango is a blend of three types of Dominican-grown mango with a touch of passion fruit for balance. It’s absolutely gorgeous on its own and a perfect addition to classics like the Margarita and Daiquiri.

Honorable mentions: Chattanooga Whiskey Experimental Batch 038: Peach Infused Gin Liqueur, Alma Finca, Maison Giffard’s Café Du Honduras

Best Vodka: Weber Ranch 1902 Vodka

Can a vodka have flavor? This new spirits brand certainly takes inspiration from both Mexico and Texas, crafting a vodka distilled from 100% Blue Weber Agave. It really does represent the best of two worlds — it can elevate a Martini and also provide a new and delicious perspective on traditional agave spirits cocktails, such as a Paloma.

Honorable mentions: Meili Vodka, Oka Vodka, Aspen Vodka

Best Ready-to-Drink: Tip Top Mai Tai

Full-strength cocktails in tiny steel cans? Besides the convenience factor, Tip Top also does a really nice job of approximating classic cocktails but adding little unique twists (see: an alpine liqueur in their Naked & Famous). Their Mai Tai, however, maintains the rum, curacao, orgeat and lime mix of the Trader Vic classic — it’s at once refreshing, sweet, balanced, tropical and nutty.

Honorable mentions: Jubilee Tamarind Margarita, Hoste Mezcal Negroni, New York Cocktail Company Negroni

Best Value Bottle: Green River Kentucky Straight Rye

The 10th oldest licensed distillery in Kentucky — reintroduced two years ago and now overseen by Bardstown Distilling Co. — can be pretty much be counted on for turning out modestly-priced bottles with exceptional liquid (of note: Wheel Horse, also crafted at Green River, is also a bargain choice). This rye features a standard mash bill (95% rye, 5% malted barley) and is a blend of four-to-six-year-old barrels that are all distilled, aged and bottled at the distillery’s Owensboro, KY location. Coming in at 95 proof and just $35, it’s full of baking spices, eucalyptus, vanilla and herbal tea.

Honorable mentions: Isolation Proof Ramp Gin, Jaywalk Rye, A.Overholt