Naming the best whiskey of the year is a fool’s errand. There’s just so much whisk(e)y released every year worldwide that it’s impossible to try it all. But I’m more than happy to play the fool in this year’s endeavor. I’ve tasted over 1,500 individual whiskeys this year. I’ve judged spirits competitions. I’ve traveled the world tasting whiskey from the source, often from barrels that most will never see. Hell, I’m already tasting whiskey for 2023. And through all of that, there were a handful of whiskeys that stood above the overfilled crowd of releases out there.
Those were the number one whiskeys from each of UPROXX’s “best of 2022” lists. They were as follows:
- Yamazaki Japanese Single Malt Whisky Mizunara Cask 2022 Edition (Best International Whiskey)
- Westward American Single Malt Cask Strength (Best American Single Malt Whiskey)
- Heaven Hill Heritage Collection 17-Year-Old Barrel Proof Bourbon, First Edition (Nate Gana’s Best Whiskey Pour of 2022)
- The Last Drop Signature Blend No. 28 A Blend Of Kentucky Straight Whiskeys (Best American Whiskey)
- Rare Character Single Barrel Series Straight Rye Whiskey Finished in Amburana Casks (Best Rye Whiskey)
- Caol Ila 175th Anniversary Aged 24 Years (Best Scotch Whisky)
- Michter’s Limited Release Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey 20 Years Old 2022 Release (Best Bourbon Whiskey)
Instead of throwing a proverbial dart at the board and just picking a single whisk(e)y as UPROXX’s Best Whiskey of 2022, I’m doing a blind taste test of each of these otherworldly pours and crowning a winner. I’ve even included Nate Gana’s favorite whiskey of 2022 to test my own mettle — did I miss something by ranking it fifth instead of first, as Gana did? I need to know! The people need to know! Plus, this is Uproxx’s Best Whiskey of 2022 after all and we see Gana joining our team more and more in the year to come.
This blind test is really about finding out which bottle actually is the best. I can remember the first place I tried each of these gems. The Yamakazi, Michter’s, and the Last Drop were all tried at my home in Kentucky. Whereas, I first tried the Caol Ila in Edinburgh, the Rare Character at a whiskey bar in Louisville, the Heaven Hill at my former home in Berlin, and the Westward at the distillery in Portland. I’m taking away all the variation of atmosphere and mood and leveling the playing field at home with blind pours (well, as blind as can be since these pours are all instantly recognizable on the nose when poured next to each other).
Okay, that’s enough preamble. It’s time to get down in the dirt and figure out which whiskey really is the true “Best Whiskey of 2022.” Let’s go!
- The 100 Best Bourbon Whiskeys Of 2022, Ranked
- The 50 Best Scotch Whiskies Of 2022, Ranked
- The 50 Best Rye Whiskeys Of 2022, Ranked
- Whiskey Expert Nate Gana Reveals The ‘Best Whiskey Pours Of 2022’
- The 25 Best American Single Malt Whiskeys Of 2022, Ranked
- The 30 Best American Whiskeys Of 2022, Ranked
- The 30 Best International Whiskeys Of 2022, Ranked
Part 1: The Tasting
Taste 1
Tasting Notes:
The nose opens with a clear sense of winter spices, especially cinnamon bark, whole cloves and allspice, star anise, cardamom pods, and nutmeg with a buttercream bespeckled with dried lavender. The palate carries on that floral vibe with a hint of agarwood, sweet cinnamon, and almost sour mulled wine with a hint of molasses. The end has a bark-heavy floral note that’s part potpourri and part pine cones wrapped in dried orange and cinnamon with a whisper of holly and dark tobacco stems with a woody vibe.
Taste 2
Tasting Notes:
Chocolate cookies and honey-dipped Graham Crackers drive the nose towards toffee and almond with a creamy espresso depth. The palate digs into the dark chocolate with sesame seed and honey cracker vibe next to tart red berries and dry old cedar planks with a hint of cinnamon bark and allspice. The end is full of dark honey with a touch more of that sweet Sesame Snaps character with a sense of brown-sugar oatmeal spiked with winter spices.
Taste 3
Tasting Notes:
This is classic bourbon with a serious age to it thanks to old boot leather, musty cellar beams, tannic oak staves with a worn char, and this cherry-cinnamon syrup drizzled over buttercream-encrusted waffles. The palate has a toffee sweetness that leads to woody winter spices soaked in red mulled with cut with cherry cola and a whisper of old pipe tobacco. The end flourishes with notes of cherry cobbler, egg nog, roasted hazelnut, more toffee, and cherry bark tobacco packed into old cedar boxes with a hint of wild sage and worn leather lurking underneath.
Taste 4
Tasting Notes:
There’s a clear sense of an old rickhouse — black mold, dirt floors, red stone — next to green grass, saddle leather, and very old oak barrels of whiskey with a deep woody spice that leans toward dried ancho chilis and sharp cinnamon bark with an underbelly of pine resin and used up vanilla pods. The taste is warm with a nice sense of burnt orange and marzipan next to salted caramel, cacao, Kiwi boot cream, cream soda, and pecan waffles. The end is full of wood old spice barks and dried orange peels wrapped up in old bailing twine and rolled with piney tobacco and fir needles.
Taste 5
Tasting Notes:
The nose is nutty and almost feels like a chai latte with a sense of macadamia and Brazil nuts next to woody old spices, dry ginger, and vanilla cut with marzipan and dark orange chocolate. The palate has a deep spiciness that’s more woody than hot next to tart red berries, more dark orange and chocolate, a waxy sense of incense-heavy candles, and old hand-woven carpets that have been in a shisha bar for too long. The end is full of spicy cinnamon bark and star anise with a hint of cream soda and old straw next to stewed stone fruit and berry syrup cut with chocolate and orange.
Taste 6
Tasting Notes:
There’s a sense of a cold and dark beach with a campfire spitting through the rain with rum raisin, creamy nougat, sour and sweet mulled wine, clove-studded oranges, and dark and sharp spice barks. The palate leans into that mulled wine and sea-side campfire feel with a sense of stewed old dried fruit — prunes, dates, figs — next to salted toffee and a soft vanilla cake frosted with deep chocolate kissed with salt and old rank wood resin. The end lures you through the taste with red-wine-soaked cinnamon bark next to apple cider-soaked cloves with salted caramel tobacco rolled with seawater-soaked cedar bark and a thin line of briny campfire smoke.
Taste 7
Tasting Notes:
The nose opens with a sense of dark cherry with deep rummy molasses, dried rose petals, old almond shells, and cedar bark with a fresh pipe tobacco leaf just kissed with apple and pear essence with a hint of vanilla oils and old wintry wine spices. The taste leans into smoldering vanilla pods with a sense of old oak staves from a dusty old cellar next to sweet cinnamon and cherry over dried sage and sharp spearmint with a clove syrup base and a dash of singed marshmallow sweetness. The end is full of dark cherry and woody spice with moist marzipan, burnt orange oils, and chewy fresh tobacco wrapped up in old leather and cedar bark with a hint more of that old cellar sneaking in.
Part 2: The Ranking (#’s 7-2)
7. Westward American Single Malt Cask Strength — Taste 2
ABV: 62.5%
Average Price: $92
The Whiskey:
Westward Whiskey — out in Portland, Oregon — is really starting to come into its own, especially as its whiskey gets older. This expression is a prime example of Westward’s prowess that’s made in-house from top to bottom and mellowed in new American oak until it’s just right for cask-strength bottling as-is.
Bottom Line:
This is delicious whiskey that has transcended “craft” taste and vibes on the profile. It’s deeply hewn with a truly complex and inviting flavor profile that just keeps going in all the best ways. Still, this felt like the best craft whiskey on the list, not the best overall whiskey in the world.
6. Rare Character Single Barrel Series Straight Rye Whiskey Finished in Amburana Casks — Taste 5
ABV: 52.5%
Average Price: $129
The Whiskey:
This is a niche whiskey company started by whiskey legend Andrew Shapira (if you know, you know) with partners Peter Nevenglosky and Pablo Moix. The whiskey is a single barrel of whiskey that was hidden away as an “experimental” cask until Shapira’s team rescued it and gave it to the world. The experiment in this case was aging classic rye in Brazilian Amburana casks to see how a non-oak wood finish would work with rye whiskey.
Bottom Line:
This is funky and fresh with a deep age to it that just works. In the end, it felt like a whiskey I can’t wait to pour for people in 2023 more than a whiskey for the ages in 2022.
5. Heaven Hill Heritage Collection 17-Year-Old Barrel Proof Bourbon, First Edition — Taste 3
ABV: 59.1%
Average Price: $3,200
The Whiskey:
The base of the spirit is Heaven Hill’s classic bourbon mash of 78% corn, 12% malted barley, and a mere 10% rye. This particular whiskey is built from several barrels from four warehouse campuses in the Bardstown area. In this case, three different ages were pulled with 17 years being the youngest. The whiskey is made from 28% 20-year-old barrels, 44% 19-year-old barrels, and 28% 17-year-old barrels. Once those barrels are vatted, the bourbon goes into the bottle as-is, without any cutting or fussing.
Bottom Line:
This is a big whiskey and bourbon that has deep age and flavor. It’s just not quite as nuanced and convivial as the next bourbon on this list. It feels more like something you drink from a balloon glass next to a fire with a cigar and copy of the 1850 London Times in your lap.
4. Yamazaki Japanese Single Malt Whisky Mizunara Cask 2022 Edition — Taste 1
ABV: 48%
Average Price: $6,999
The Whisky:
This is one of the most sought-after whiskies from Yamazaki. The juice spends over 12 years maturing in Mizunara casks only — this isn’t some whisky that’s “finished” in old Mizurana casks for a few months. After over a decade of mellowing, the casks are hand-picked for their excellence, vatted, and just proofed before bottling.
Bottom Line:
This is the whiskey I’d pour for someone who wanted to know what exactly is so special about a Mizunara cask. It’s the height of why that cask is so revered and sought-after.
3. The Last Drop Signature Blend No. 28 A Blend Of Kentucky Straight Whiskeys — Taste 4
ABV: 60.7%
Average Price: $3,999
The Whiskey:
This blend is from Buffalo Trace’s Master Blender Drew Mayville, who’s been at the distillery since 2004. Mayville created this blend by sampling bourbons and ryes from the rarest and sometimes oldest barrels of whiskey in Buffalo Trace’s vast and numerous warehouses. While the exact details of the final blend are unknown, we do that the whiskeys in this blend are some of the rarest that the distillery had on its ricks. And since it is a blend of bourbon and rye whiskey, this is technically a “blended straight whiskey.”
Bottom Line:
This didn’t stand up quite as high as I thought it would when tasted blind against some absolute killer whiskeys. That said, it’s unquestionably delicious.
2. Michter’s Limited Release Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey 20 Years Old 2022 Release — Taste 7
ABV: 57.1%
Average Price: $4,989
The Whiskey:
Master Distiller Dan McKee personally selects these (at least) 20-year-old barrels from the Michter’s rickhouses based on… I guess just “pure excellence” would be the right phrase. The bourbon is bottled as-is — no cutting with water.
Bottom Line:
This is just delicious while offering that little bit more of the flavor profile that draws your further and further into the beauty of the sip. But alas, there was one other that just went that little bit deeper this year…
Part 3: UPROXX’s Whiskey of the Year 2022
1. Caol Ila 175th Anniversary Aged 24 Years — Taste 6
ABV: 52.1%
Average Price: $799
The Whisky:
This whisky was bottled to celebrate the 175 years Caol Ila has been operating on Islay. 3,000 bottles were rendered from barrels of at least 24-year-old whisky, each of which highlighted the sophisticated brand’s nuanced peatiness and fruitiness, and released in early 2022 in anticipation of the distillery re-opening for tourism in the summer of 2022.
Tasting Notes (Reprise):
There’s a sense of a cold and dark beach with a campfire spitting through the rain with rum raisin, creamy nougat, sour and sweet mulled wine, clove-studded oranges, and dark and sharp spice barks. The palate leans into that mulled wine and sea-side campfire feel with a sense of stewed old dried fruit — prunes, dates, figs — next to salted toffee and a soft vanilla cake frosted with deep chocolate kissed with salt and old rank wood resin. The end lures you through the taste with red-wine-soaked cinnamon bark next to apple cider-soaked cloves with salted caramel tobacco rolled with seawater-soaked cedar bark and a thin line of briny campfire smoke.
Bottom Line:
This truly takes you on a journey that reaches deep into your soul and calms and excites you with a sense of wonderment and comfort.
This whiskey truly is perfect and I feel 100% confident picking it as Uproxx’s Whiskey of the Year. Time to pop some champagne to celebrate!
