Thanksgiving is one of the biggest holidays on the calendar, and it provides the perfect opportunity for bourbon pairings as you prepare to enjoy a full meal. Plus, let’s face it, you might need a drink (or two) just to get through the day.
Whether you’re celebrating the traditional way, enjoying it with friends for a more modern “Friendsgiving,” or keeping things simple with a “Turkey Day” dinner — whiskey helps. With that in mind, we put together this list so that you can maximize the festivities by pairing a different bourbon with every stage of your evening.
To break down the “stages,” we’re going to set you up with an initial pour, the “welcome to the party” pour, which will help you settle in on a light note. Next up, you’ve got the all-important “dinner pour,” which is something that will pair well with the bold, savory flavors of your meal. After dinner, you’ll need an “intermission pour” to help reset your palate and bridge the gap between all those heavy flavors from dinner and the lighter, sweet notes of dessert. Once dessert is done, we’ll help you find the ideal pairing for a “game time pour,” which is the best bottle to enjoy while football is on, a movie is playing, or the at-home games get going. Finally, we’ll close out with a “farewell pour,” which will be the best bourbon of the evening so you can end the festivities on a high note.
Are you ready to find your perfect Thanksgiving bourbon pairings? Keep reading to see our full list!
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The “Welcome to the Party” Pour — Michter’s US*1 Bourbon
ABV: 45.7%
Average Price: $42
The Whiskey:
While this expression doesn’t feature an age statement, consumers would be well advised to know that they use 8-year-old bourbon for these small-batch blends, which include up to 20 barrels in each batch. After undergoing the brand’s proprietary filtration process, the bourbon is brought to bottling proof with Kentucky limestone water.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Michter’s US*1 Bourbon has a dense aroma bouquet that immediately appears well-refined. Notes like honeysuckle, brown sugar, raisins, and youthful oak fill the air, with each well-developed layer greeting the olfactory senses warmly.
Palate: On the palate, what’s immediately remarkable about this bourbon is the texture, as it gently coats your tongue with moderate warmth, and before you know it, the taste of brown sugar, raisins, and walnuts is suddenly everywhere on your tongue. That deceptively viscous texture works well here and is a credit to Michter’s proprietary filtration process and their atypical proof-point.
Finish: The finish here is brief, with brown sugar and cinnamon coexisting harmoniously alongside new oak and clove, making for a gentle send-off after every sip.
Why Is This The Perfect Pairing?
The first pour of the evening should be a greeting, a sign of things to come, and a satisfying sipper that your guests will want to enjoy all night if need be. It should also be something that eases you into the evening, which means an approachable ABV coupled with corresponding flavors. There’s no better option for all of the above than Michter’s US*1 Bourbon.
Michter’s US*1 Bourbon brings a ton of flavor to the table, but it doesn’t overpower your palate, and it surely won’t detract from any hors d’oeuvres you may be serving or small talk that’ll break the ice. On the contrary, this bourbon will elevate everything about the early stages of your Thanksgiving meal, making it the ideal choice as a welcome-to-the-party pour.
The “Dinner” Pour — Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Batch B524
ABV: 65.3%
Average Price: $85
The Whiskey:
Elijah Craig Barrel Proof is often heralded as the single best value in all of bourbon. Why? Because it’s a consistent product, released three times a year, that clocks in at full barrel strength and aged for at least 11 years. This year’s “B” Batch, B524, was aged for 11 years and two months.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: My initial nosing notes say, “This is just dope.” I hope that begins to explain what’s going on here. The aroma of buttery croissants and cinnamon reaches the nose, along with some hazelnut spread, sticky toffee, and honey brioche buns.
Palate: The palate finds earthy toasted almond notes coming together with decadent dark chocolate and more buttery, flaky, croissant flavors. Excuse my French, but pain au chocolat ain’t got shit on this. The texture is well-fused and oily, which causes it to stick to your teeth despite the high-octane proof point, which makes this one dangerous pour.
Finish: The finish is pretty lengthy and introduces a bit of walnut meat, hazelnut, and a few shakes of clove and nutmeg to the palate. All in all, it’s a really satisfying send-off.
Why Is This The Perfect Pairing?
Once it’s time for dinner, you know you’ll be in for a world of flavors unlike any meal all year. With so many sumptuous dishes floating around, you’ll want a stout bourbon capable of standing up to all of those rich flavors and countering them with some rich flavors of its own. Enter Elijah Craig Barrel Proof.
Elijah Craig Barrel Proof comes in three batches yearly, with each batch offering something slightly different despite generally hueing toward a similar profile. For 2024, the best of the bunch is Batch B524, which delivers the sort of luxurious, full-bodied experience that perfectly complements the decadent flavors in your dinner dishes.
The “Intermission” Pour — Widow Jane 10-Year Bourbon
ABV: 45.5%
Average Price: $73
The Whiskey:
For their flagship 10-Year Bourbon, Widow Jane blends whiskey distillate from three different states in bespoke 5-barrel batches before proofing it down with mineral water from their Rosendale Mines in New York. The barrels from each blend hail from distilleries in Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Widow Jane has a captivating nose of fresh cherries, orange oil, mature oak, and milk chocolate paired with more unique notes like waxy plums, coconuts, and pears.
Palate: Immediately, you’ll notice that this is a really rich whiskey that punches way above its modest proof point. That exceptional mouthfeel brings a complex web of all the notes above, with the red cherries, chocolate milk, and coconut aspects featuring most prominently across the palate while maple candy and cinnamon creep in more subtly.
Finish: Again defying its modest proof point is the finish, which lingers for quite a while, leaving mature oak and milk chocolate with a touch of plum on the palate, priming you for your next sip.
Why Is This The Perfect Pairing?
With the main event out of the way, you’ll need a really high-quality bourbon to serve as a bridge between dinner and dessert. The ideal choice would be something to reset your palate, stand in as a conversation piece (since all the small talk and discussions about your personal life should be winding down by now), and offer a more mellow flavor profile as you transition to the end of the night.
Your go-to here will be Widow Jane’s 10-Year Bourbon.
Because Widow Jane hails from New York, utilizing sourced bourbon from three different states in super small batches, there’s a lot to unpack just with the back story. Once you pop the top, however, this bottle’s delicate yet delicious flavors will do all the talking, allowing you to prime your palate for one last round of eating.
The “Dessert” Pour — Four Roses Small Batch Select Bourbon
ABV: 52%
Average Price:
The Whiskey:
Four Roses Small Batch Select Bourbon is one of the brand’s more recent innovations, springing directly from the mind and blending prowess of Master Distiller Brent Elliott. For this expression, Elliott blends six (OBSV, OBSK, OBSF, OESV, OESK, and OESF) of Four Roses’ ten signature recipes to create an end product aged for six to seven years that showcases his preferred flavor profile.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: On the nose, Four Roses Small Batch Select offers cola nut, bright red cherries, black pepper, nutmeg, and clove with some oak and caramel tones following behind those initial top notes. It’s robust and inviting, with a lovely baking spice presence that displays a ton of balance.
Palate: Four Roses Small Batch Select hits the palate with a full-bodied richness that coats your tongue and sends you mining your taste buds to discover the flavor of jammy cherries, nutmeg, black pepper, and honeyed black tea. The texture would count as its defining quality if it weren’t for the impressive balance of the flavors ever-so-slightly outperforming the viscous mouthfeel.
Finish: The lingering finish is where you’ll find vanilla extract, raspberries, brown sugar, and a light mint note — which reminds you that this is a robust Four Roses bourbon.
Why Is This The Perfect Pairing?
With all of the sweet notes found in your dessert dishes, now is the perfect time to plug in a bourbon with a slightly higher rye content. That higher rye bourbon will offer some lovely baking spice notes to cut through the sweetness of the dessert, but the beauty of selecting Four Roses Small Batch Select is that it also brings some sweetness of its own. The fruit-forward flavors in this bourbon will pair well with literally any dessert you set in front of guests, but the balanced spice notes will help to counterbalance that sweetness and elevate the dishes.
Simply put, there are few bourbons that work better as a dessert pour than Four Roses Small Batch Select.
The “Gametime” Pour — Russell’s Reserve 10-Year Bourbon
ABV: 45%
Average Price: $45
The Whiskey:
Russell’s Reserve’s 10-Year Bourbon was initially released in 2001 as an age-stated, 101-proof expression. In 2005, much to the chagrin of Wild Turkey fans, the ABV was brought down to its current level, making this a 90-proof expression.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose on Russell’s Reserve 10-Year-Old Bourbon contains varying vanillas, from ice cream to vanilla extract. There are also pastry notes and the aroma of brioche buns, along with a touch of salted caramel, warm oak, and fresh nutmeg.
Palate: The palate on Russell’s Reserve 10-Year Bourbon is distinctly earthy at first, with toasted walnuts, apple leather, and mature oak leading the charge. As you chew the bourbon, you’ll notice that those notes grow in prominence with the oak and walnut flavors outpacing the restrained fruitiness and baking spices like clove and cinnamon become more pronounced. The mouthfeel is middle of the road, which serves well to carry all of those earthy flavors without being overly slick and distracting from them.
Finish: The finish is marked by more vanilla tones, think vanilla pod more so than vanilla extract, and there’s more hazelnut flavor to be discovered alongside oak and red apple skin. It’s a medium-length finish that works well because it fades before that mature oak begins to dry out the back of your palate.
Why Is This The Perfect Pairing?
This isn’t meant to be a pejorative term, but Russell’s Reserve 10-Year Bourbon is the perfect “background whiskey.” It’s damn good on its own, and it will certainly earn some double-takes for its deliciousness in between downs if you’re watching the football games, but it’s also mellow enough to simply be enjoyed without any comment.
As a game-time pour, that duality makes Russell’s Reserve 10-Year Bourbon such a delightful pairing as the night winds down. This is a whiskey that strikes a perfect balance.
The “Farewell” Pour — Russell’s Reserve Single Rickhouse Camp Nelson B
ABV: 60.1%
Average Price: $305
The Whiskey:
Always the product of barrels from a single rickhouse, thus the name — 2024’s Russell’s Reserve Single Rickhouse focuses on the brand’s Camp Nelson B rickhouse. Also of note: this is the highest proof offering to ever come from the Russell’s Reserve lineup at 120.2 (landing just shy of Wild Turkey Generations’ 120.8 for the highest proof from a Wild Turkey offering).
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nosing notes open with a ton of cinnamon, nutmeg, dates, and some savory bacon. With a second whiff, you pick up the aroma of Tahitian vanilla with candied ginger and a touch of milk chocolate.
Palate: Wow, a ton of ginger candy and apple galette notes spring onto the palate, with cinnamon and brown butter in spades. The liquid itself is really active on the palate, especially on the roof of the mouth, with spice and nougat notes thrumming throughout.
Finish: The finish seemingly lingers forever, with the vanilla and cinnamon tones blending with cardamom and nougat for a satisfying send-off.
Why Is This The Perfect Pairing?
You need to end the night off on a high note, and that means it’s time to pull out the best bourbon you’ve got. Also, it’s Thanksgiving, so it doesn’t hurt to put one more Turkey on the table, right? For this selection, you’ll ideally want to go with something from Wild Turkey, but while the brand has a lot of excellent options, this year’s Single Rickhouse Camp Nelson B expression is your best bet.
This is one of the best bourbons to come out all year, so how’s that for ending on a high note? Furthermore, offering a pricier bottle to guests before they go on their merry way is a great way to show appreciation for their company. Some folks may be tapped out by this stage (which keeps more of this delicious bourbon in your home bar), but for those who have been enjoying every other pour, this bottle, above all others, will serve as the perfect cherry on top.