Basil Hayden's Kentucky Straight Bourbon is a high-rye bourbon, made with the intention of being as smooth and welcoming to the category of bourbon as possible.

Distilled at the Barton distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky, the 1792 brand is named for the year that Kentucky joined as a state in the USA.

The 10 Year generally leans toward the ex-bourbon side of maturation, though there's usually some amount of ex-sherry maturation as well.

This year, the cask makeup was a majority of ex-bourbon barrels, 65% to be precise, while ex-sherry casks made up the other 35% of the maturation.

Bottled to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Belgian spirits importer 'The Nectar,' this Compass Box blend was a very limited release.

This barrel was picked for a local brewery, not too far from the distillery - Moontown Brewing Company.

It's quite a mixture of flavors from those casks - will all of the flavors make their way through, especially at a lower bottling strength of 40% ABV?

Finished in Marsala casks - that's the shtick here.

Instead of typical air drying, or the often seen heavy peat smoke, the barley used in this single malt was dried using a mixture of woodland botanicals.

We're Kilchoman fans and Sauternes cask maturation fans; after trying most of the distillery's core range, we find ourselves looking for more unique bottlings.

A favorite distillery of many single malt enthusiasts, it's unfortunately not the easiest malt to come by these days.

In this new wave of American single malts, there are a few distilleries that have established themselves as the leaders in quality and age, helping to push the category forward.

Based out of Massachusetts, Found North is a relatively new bottler specializing in well-aged Canadian whiskies.

There is a series of 10 year Octomore bottlings, and today, we're looking at the 4th edition of this series, which came in 2020.

Bottle at 57.4% ABV, or 114.8 proof, and with a minimum of 13 years of aging, this Russell's Reserve bourbon is shaping up to be quite a tasty pour.

It seems they made a nice transition from their ‘work in progress’ bottlings to their ‘final product.’

It's not often we get to try any 30+ year old single malt, especially from a distillery so 'in vogue' as GlenAllachie is right now.

Some research online points us in the direction of a mixture of American oak casks (probably ex-bourbon), ex-sherry casks, and the Mizunara casks.

This is one of the reasonably priced 10 year old bourbons on the market, at least if you can find it around the MSRP.

One of the earlier examples from the new wave of NAS scotch popularity.