With the explosion in popularity we’ve seen in the whiskey and bourbon space over the past decade, it’s become almost impossible to keep up with all of the exciting new bottles hitting shelves on a weekly basis. From anticipated annual releases from beloved labels to limited-edition experimental blends to brand-new labels trying to gain a foothold in the market, there’s almost always a worthwhile new whiskey to talk about.
Lucky for you, we’re keeping track of all of it. Whether you’re into American staples like bourbon, rye or American single malt, or you have a more international palate for Scotch, Japanese whisky or Irish whiskey, you’ll find the best new bottles here in this guide. Be sure to bookmark it and check back frequently — we’ll continue to update it regularly throughout 2024.
February
Total Wine
Dewar’s Double Double 21 Year Old Mizunara Oak Cask Finish
It may be expensive for Dewar’s, but for a 21-year-old Scotch finished in rare Japanese Mizunara casks? It’s a straight-up bargain. The whisky undergoes the same four-stage aging process as the standard Double Double 21 while Mizunara’s soft coconut flavors add a unique twist.
The ever-growing American single malt whiskey movement got another major player when Bulleit joined the fray in 2024. The Frontier Whiskey brand’s ASM entrant clocks in a 90 proof and goes down a bit easier than the brand’s classic bourbon and rye.
Woodford Reserve’s unique annual Batch Proof series batches together bourbon from over 100 different barrels and then bottles them together uncut. The 2024 edition clocks in at a whopping 121.2 proof and is loaded with sweet aromatic tasting notes.
Heaven’s Door Exploration Series I – Calvados Finish
The first entry in Heaven’s Door Exploration Series is finished in casks that once held calvados, a French apple brandy. A natural pairing for American whiskey, the calvados lends apple cider and apple pie flavors to the bourbon.
Heaven Hill Heritage Collection 18-Year-Old Kentucky Straight Bourbon
The 2024 entry in Heaven Hill’s ultra-premium, extra-aged Heritage Collection is a Kentucky Straight Bourbon that’s old enough to vote. It’s non-chill-filtered and bottled at 120 proof, with a label providing tons of transparency about exactly when and even where in the rickhouse the liquid in the bottle came from.
The first bonded whiskey from Utah’s High West Distillery is aged for four years and features a 100 percent rye mashbill, with 20 percent of that being malted rye. But rather than purely being a spice bomb, it’s full of dessert-adjacent notes like sugar cookie, coconut caramel and honey (with plenty of spice, too).
Of the three bottles available at the launch of New York Distilling Co’s Jaywalk Rye brand, Heirloom is the most interesting to our eye. Like all Jaywalk Rye, it’s distilled from Horton rye, a 17th-century varietal native to New York, but unlike the others, it’s a limited to an annual release containing cask-strength liquid from “scrupulously selected single barrels”
Great Jones × Wölffer Estate Cask Finished Bourbon
Manhattan-based distillery Great Jones got out of the city and out to the Hamptons for this collab with Wölffer Estate Vineyard. The bourbon is finished in Caya Cabernet Franc barrels from the vineyard and then cut with Catskills water from upstate, creating a whiskey that showcases the full terroir of New York state.
Crafted by master distiller Arlon “AJ” Casey Jones to mark just the second solar eclipse to fall over Kentucky since the 1800s, this affordable 100-proof bourbon is made from a diverse yet balanced mashbill consisting of 75 percent corn, 10 percent wheat, 10 perecent rye and 5 percent malted barley.
After Westward mistakenly received a delivery of Vienna malted barley instead of the usual two-row pale it uses to make its American single malt, the brand decided to make lemonade with its Vienna lemons. The result is a richer and sweeter whiskey.
Made entirely with casks laid down on Islay following the distillery’s 2001 rebirth, the 18-year-old single malt from Bruichladdich is the perfect showcase for the brand’s style and ethos, with nearly every aspect of the bottle traceable.
A unique experiment in cask aging, The Glenlivet’s distillers broke down spent bourbon and rum barrels, reconstructed hybrid barrels using pieces of each, and then aged single malt Scotch inside them for a whisky unlike any other.
Jack Daniel’s 12-Year-Old Tennessee Whiskey Batch 2
The second installment of Jack Daniel’s oldest age-statement bottle ever, the 12-year expression shows what happens to the classic charcoal-filtered recipe after extended aging.
The blended grain Scotch whisky that started it all for Compass Box back in 2000 has been reborn for 2024, and it’s just as creamy and decadent as ever. Believe it or not, the original release was also the first whisky to ever feature an image of a woman on the bottle.
A collab between country star Chris Stapleton and Buffalo Trace master distiller Harlen Wheatley, Traveller is an easy-drinking blended whiskey that leans heavily into well-loved BT bourbon territory.
The 2024 release (2023 bottling) of this Woodford Reserve annual favorite is created by finishing the distillery’s Double Oaked bourbon for another year in a heavily toasted and lightly charred new oak barrel.
Experimental is an understatement — this bourbon is infused with herbs like star anise, ginseng, bilberry and sarsaparilla, creating a German-inspired bourbon liqueur that may function best as a digestif.
When it comes to The Macallan, no whisky is too extreme, and no price is too high. Case in point: This $89,000 bottle — crafted from Lalique crystal — contains liquid distilled in 1949 and bottled in 2022. It was created to honor the distillery’s 200th anniversary as a tribute to its founder, Alexander Reid. Interested parties can email ClientServices@TheMacallan.com to purchase.
The third iteration of Old Elk master distiller’s Greg Metze’sInfinity Blend series combines some of the previous year’s bottle with a mix of the distillery’s Straight Bourbon Whiskey and Straight Wheat Whiskey, with a total of four whiskeys varying in age from 7 – 10 years ending up in the bottle.
While only 10 years old, this bourbon’s inspiration goes back tenfold, as it recalls the time during prohibition when the distillery was one of just six in the nation granted a medicinal whiskey license that allowed it to continue operating. The whiskey debuts a new mashbill for Old Forester consisting of 79 percent corn; 11 percent rye and 10 percent malted barley.
This trio of bourbons are meant to be compared and contrasted with one another, as each was crafted with a different fortified wine finish: One in Oloroso sherry casks, one in Madeira casks and one in Tawny port casks.
An Irish whiskey for bourbon lovers, this fiery import features a mashbill consisting of a whopping 80 percent corn and 20 percent malted barley and was aged in ex-bourbon barrels.
You’ve heard of Jack Daniel’s, you’ve heard of Uncle Nearest, but there was a third man who worked alongside those two in creating the Tennessee whiskey style as we know it. That man was Reverend Daniel Call, and now his legacy is honored with a maple charcoal-filtered whiskey aged over four years in new charred oak and first-fill bourbon casks.