2025 In Bourbon

Nov 30, 2025 · 8 minute read

It’s been something of a difficult year for the bourbon industry. In addition to tariffs reducing access to European and other markets and an even more turbocharged reduction in sales due to a very effective boycott in Canada, the big problem is the looming demographic divide, with Gen Z and younger foregoing alcohol consumption with disastrous results for an industry that has ramped up production during the last decade’s massive boom. This year we’ve seen massive companies like Dickel actually stopping distilling from September this year until June 2026, and the price of barrels on the NDP is falling through the floor (Would you like a barrel of surplus 4yr Wild Turkey for…$750?Apparently, you can get it from the brokers right now).

Some of the craft distilleries that have sprung up in the last 15 years will not be with us for much longer. This year we lost two high profile names: Kentucky Owl and Uncle Nearest. I’m not too sad to see either go; Owl sent the market into premium overdrive, and Nearest’s well-packaged story of the former slave that invented Jack Daniel’s was a good cover for selling sourced Tennessee whiskey whilst talking up a media storm about his “secret recipe”, with some interesting property purchases on the side¹

The next few years will probably include the larger distilleries, such as Heaven Hill, Buffalo Trace, Beam, etc, trimming their expansion plans and pulling back on production. Now, some will celebrate this, expecting that there will be downward pressure on prices and increased age statements to keep people interested. And there’s some truth in this, and you can even see it happening this year, but we’ll still not going back to the start of the century where you could pick up Pappy 23 for under $100 from any half-decent liquor store in the country. It does mean that you can now go into such a place these days and you might see some bottles of Blanton’s on the shelves, and those special editions can now take a few weeks to sell out.

With all that said, let’s get onto the gift guide for 2025! Five bottles that are reasonably obtainable that any bourbon drinker would be pleased to receive on Christmas Day, and a choice for people with insane amounts of money.

Wild Turkey 101 8 Year

The GOAT is back (okay, technically that’s 12yr 101, but humour me a little). Yes, for the first time in over 30 years, age-stated Wild Turkey in the US is once again available nationwide. Well, mostly, anyhow. It’s an annual release rather than a perennial, but there’s quite a few bottles out there in 2025, so you should be able to track one down for $50-60 without much trouble.

To be clear, there’s no magic contained within, no great revelation. This is eight-year-old Wild Turkey. Bolder, a little more oak-forward, but otherwise, just 101, but a little more. Do not pay more than $65 for it (at very most), but a solid choice for a Christmas bottle that’s a little special than the everyday.

New Riff 8 Year Bourbon/Rye

Nothing is certain, but New Riff is one of the craft distillers that I’m reasonably sure will survive the upcoming contraction (them and Bardstown are probably safe, though the latter may have more exposure to other distilleries not paying their contract distilling fees). They finally have enough barrels laid down and aging that they expanded their core rye and bourbon lineup this year, releasing eight year variants of both. Twice as good as their standard four-year releases? Well, maybe not, but those extra four years definitely make the bourbon and the rye more complex and worthy of a spot on any bar.

(Now, the real prize from New Riff this year were the 10 year bourbon/rye High Line releases — you can’t find them for anything less than silly money right now, so I can’t recommend you get hold of them, but they point the way to some wonderful further additions to their core as 2028 comes into view)

Remus Repeal IX

I remember, many years ago, perhaps 2007 or so, coming across a website that talked about the scandal that so many bourbon and rye companies in the USA all contained whiskey that could be traced back to one distillery in Indiana. While some of the outrage was justifiably aimed at the companies doing their level best to hide the ‘Distilled In Indiana’² label that was legally required, there was definitely an air of “these people are ripping you off by selling generic, lesser quality bourbon”. These days, that era of MGP bourbon will probably set you back at least $300-400 a bottle on the secondary market. Turns out, MGP makes fantastic bourbon and always has done.

Anyway, eventually, somebody at MGP asked: “hang on, lads, maybe we should sell some of this ourselves?", and since 2015, they’ve created multiple product lines selling their own distillate at mid-level all the way up to super-premium ($200 and above levels). But for me, I think the way to sample the best of current³ MGP bourbon is through the Remus Repeal series. It’s an annual release; a blend of various bourbons to celebrate Repeal Day (5th December). The majority of this year’s blend is 10-11 year old bourbon, with 7% being provided by a very robust 19 year addition. Absolutely fabulous, and can be yours for $80-90 without having to spend a lot of time tracking it down.

Some weird MGP That’s Aged in Florida (Copper & Cask)

The other thing that’s great about MGP that ends up in NDP hands? They do weird things with it. Sometimes obvious things like sticking it in sherry barrels or some more obscure spirit, adding Brazilian wood, or even barrels laced with honey. Other times, NDPs take the barrels from Indiana and continue aging them somewhere else…and this is where Copper & Cask come in. They a relatively new outfit, running since 2021, and what they do is take MGP barrels and age them elsewhere. But what you’re looking for here are the 7-9 year old single barrel selections that they age in Florida. I’ll confess that I can only make wave my hands in the air muttering something about “humidity”, but these bottles have the colour and complexity of bourbon 5-6 years older; deep amber and with a long-lasting finish.

These selections are a little harder to find, given that they’re not a big outfit, even by craft standards, but if you do find a shop that sells them…they tend to hang around, perhaps because of the idea that “Florida” bourbon is sacrilege. As of posting, The Party Source across the river has six different barrels available, in the region of $60-$75 each. All great, and to be honest, I’m eyeing up their Cigar Blend as I type.

Old Grand-Dad 7 Years Old Bottled In Bond

Many, many years ago, there was a distillery with the somewhat unimaginative name of National Distillers. They fell on bad times in the 1980s during the height of the bourbon bust, and their brands were sold to Jim Beam (now part of the Suntory empire). One of those brands was Old Grand-Dad (OGD). Now, if you ever have the chance of having a pour of a 1970s/80s ND OGD, then please, please do so. CVG airport used to have a bar where you could get vintage drinks, and I’ll confess that I once dialled into a work meeting there whilst drinking this transcendent, almost liquid gingerbread bourbon.

Something odd happened after the sale to Beam. They insist that they’re still using yeast that can be traced back to the ND era, and it’s true that yeast flavour profiles can change as time goes on, but the Old Grand-Dad of today does not taste like the bottles of yesteryear. Which is great if you’re flogging them on the secondary market. For the rest of us, OGD has been a good pour in its Bottled-in-bond (4 year) or 114 (non-age stated) variants. Like Wild Turkey, this year, they’ve added a new annual release with an age statement: Old Grand-Dad 7ys Bottled-In-Bond. And it’s great. Is it the ND version restored? No, but chock-full of cinnamon spice and a little bit of a punch (unlike the 114, which will put you on the floor if you’re not careful). This has a MSRP of around $45, but I’ve seen it in Costco for $38, and would make any bourbon fan happy this Christmas.

Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Beacon

Do you have more money than sense? This bottle has a retail price of $300, but you’ll be lucky to find a bottle for under $500 at this point in the year. It’s the last of Wild Turkey’s Master’s Keep line, a blend of 16 and 10 year old bourbons, bottled at an ABV of 59% (maybe the highest Wild Turkey bottling ever?), and from all accounts is a staggeringly good drink. I would not know, and I am kicking myself a little for not buying that one bottle of it in Costco I saw for the low, low price of $259. But there’s always more useful things to spend the money on⁴. I can’t really recommend spending this much money on a single bottle of bourbon unless your disposable income is “first against the wall when the revolution comes”, but by all the reviews I’ve seen, if you must gift a 2025 release that will make jaws drop, this is it. For the rest of us, perhaps a pour in a decent bar at some point?

Their recent filing complaining about competitors going after their secrets is laughable - “pricing, distributor relationships, production planning, supply chain, and other trade secrets” - the stuff that all other craft distilleries already know lots about, thank you ↩︎
Only about 15 miles from where I live! ↩︎
I have an a bottle of OKI 12 that’ll you’ll have to fight me for ↩︎
Mainly, Bluey toys ↩︎