Of course, you want the best sippin’ whiskey under $100. You’re a whiskey drinker from way back and now you have a new vision of yourself. There you are in your mind’s eye kicking back in a rocking chair on a wide wooden porch with a dog and a long day behind you and not much else. Just you and the crickets and a bottle of the best sippin’ whiskey under $100 except, crap, your vision is shattered because you don’t know which whiskey that is.
You know which ones are the smoothest
Which isn’t far off. Knowing the smoothest whiskies is part of knowing which whiskeys are best for sippin’. But sippin’ is an individual game, like archery or golf. You’re working your own course. Maybe smooth isn’t what you’re looking for. Maybe you want a bourbon with that intangible weirdness on its tongue you can’t exactly describe. Perhaps you’re looking for a fiery pepper forward explosion in every sip. It’s your mouth. You know what it wants.
Which means the best sippin’ whiskey under $100 could be anything
But, ok, let’s just slow down a little here. Peanut butter whiskey and (vomit) Cinnamon whiskey are fine for when you’re at a bar-b-que or your favorite dive bar gettin’ your juke on. But sippin’ implies a spatial luxury. It implies time by yourself. Maybe you’re not entirely alone—there is the dog, after all. Your best friend in the known universe, Ginger, is in the rocking chair right next to you. But you guys aren’t talking. Not from any drama, but because you both know the value of silence. That this shared solitude is one of life’s greatest gifts, one of its most treasured luxuries. It deserves a whiskey that measures up.
But look, valuable friend: the best sippin’ whiskey under $100 may not be the ones you know
This luxurious moment definitely deserves fine whiskey, but it also deserves the accomplishment of discovering a new spirit. The world of American whiskey is getting bigger every day and many of the new players are producing delicious bourbons, whiskies, and ryes. They’re as smooth as Buffalo Trace and as explosive as Wild Turkey any day of the week. You’ve just never heard of them because they put all their time and money into their bourbon and they don’t have much leftover for marketing. But we have heard of them and we want you to be happy. Therefore:
Behold, our list of the best sippin’ whiskey under $100
BARREL PROOF STRAIGHT BOURBON WHISKEY
A good sippin’ whiskey si smooth. Maverick’s Barrel Proof Straight Bourbon Whiskey made it onto our “smoothest whiskies” post because it is velvety and smooth. But that doesn’t mean it’s light on flavor. Maverick’s Kevin Graham does some kind of Texas voodoo when he makes this bourbon because, for an easy-drinking whiskey, it smells and tastes like a cake factory that’s on fire.
RØKNAR MINNESOTA RYE
Rye used to be the rougher whiskey you’d drink when you couldn’t get bourbon. But rye has undergone a transformation recently to kind of lean into the space Bourbon has held for so long. Far North produces this exemplary rye whiskey that has more flavor notes than Guy Fieri’s beard. I’m not sure I would call it smooth. But for those with an advanced palette, it is an absolute nuclear bomb of all the best flavors one can pull from a good whiskey.
JOHN E. FITZGERALD SMALL BATCH BOURBON
We probably talk too much about Larceny on this site but that’s only because we are deeply and completely in love with their liquor. I have previously proclaimed them the only powerful peril to Pappy’s pernicious perch on the precious precipice of perfect potables.
OLD MAYSVILLE CLUB RYE WHISKEY
Bottled-in-bond malted rye from a family who’s been making whiskey since before prohibition. Old Pogue has been in Kentucky since forever, originating in Maysville which was part of Old Bourbon County, VA before Kentucky was knee-high to a cooper’s hoop. Old Maysville Club is a sippin’ whiskey for its flavor but also for its history. A completely unique whiskey you will probably think about at three in the morning, wondering if it’s ok to get up and grab a snoot. It is.
LINKUMPINCH BOURBON
Whistle Pig is one of the most creative distilleries in America. Their expressions are wingnut and madcap (aging whiskey in barrels on the road?) and we love them. Homestock is a take on their Farmstock Rye. However, this one was blended by the magic of crowdsourcing to come up with this smooth sippin’ rye pre-approved by hundreds of home blenders. It’s nuts, but it’s good.
STRAIGHT RYE WHISKEY FINISHED IN PORT WINE CASKS
Allow me to disabuse you of any journalistic objectivity whenever I write about Milam & Greene because there ain’t none. I am a flat-out hands-in-the-air shoutin’ fan of Milam & Greene and Texas whiskey in general. There’s something about it maturing in a steaming hot Texas rickhouse that brings out flavors other whiskies just can’t get to. Buy this whiskey while you can afford it because it will soon soar into the Pappy-sphere once people catch on.
