The Best New Spirits and Liqueurs of 2017

With buyers becoming increasingly discerning of what’s in their glass, so have makers upped the ante on innovating what’s in the bottle. This year, we tried dozens of new spirits and liqueurs, taking notes and nursing hangovers along the way. From barrel-aged cachaça to sherry-cask-aged Taiwanese whiskey and one funky sotol, here are our favorite spirits and liqueurs of 2017.

Sip it solo as an aperitif or top it off with sparkling wine. $40 Matt Taylor-Gross Check Price Big age statements certainly carry a wow factor, but sometimes, the stuff in the bottle doesn’t justify the splurge. In this, their tenth release, 40 different malt and grain whiskies, all distilled in 1971, come together in a “triple-matured” product—it was aged for 12 years before its initial blend, then the remainder was rested in ex-oloroso sherry butts for nine years, then partially re-blended and transferred to oak barrels for 24 years.

Their traditional flagship brandy, American Craft, is an all-time great , and this new 100-proof apple brandy, which came to NYC early this year, brings the same depth and character to a new medium. Blending copper pot-distilled apple brandy aged in two separate environments—Kentucky bourbon barrels and 250-liter oloroso sherry casks—the bottling offers heavy hits of baking spices to accompany forecast layers of molasses and caramel. $42.99 Alexandra Tringali Check Price American brandy may be having a moment , but there’s enough room in this country for the French stuff too.

On the sipping end of the spectrum, the Pierre Ferrand Reserve (or XO) replacement takes cognac aged in oak barrels for 7-10 years, then blends it with 20-year-old cognac and ages all that together in former Banyuls wine casks (Banyuls is a delicious French fortified wine). As suggested in the name, that double cask quality is the primary draw here, with whiffs of caramel and vanilla giving way to baking spices nuttiness, and a dessert-like finish. $69.99 Matt Taylor-Gross Check Price Taiwan’s first whisky distillery, King Car , has been making waves in whisky since 2015 when it took home the title for best single malt at the World Whiskies Awards. It’s a little higher in ABV at 55.6%, and makes for ideal sipping neat or on ice. $570.05-$999.99 Matt Taylor-Gross Check Price With Irish whiskey seeing consecutive double-digit advance year-on-year, it was high time bartenders got a product as versatile as this new release from Brown-Forman, which is the firm’s first in the style.

There’s some fun history behind the bottle: it’s produced near the village of Slane (population 1,400), located in the Boyne River Valley and considered to be Ireland’s cradle of civilization as well as a long time hub of Irish whiskey production. Its robust, spicy palate makes for nice sipping, but its quotation point in addition makes it lovely for cocktails, both spirits-forward. Shaken. $35 High West Distillery Check Price The mythical jackrabbit graces the label of this bottle and it’s close to as hard to find.

A limited release from the highly-awarded Utah distillery , the bottle features a very unusual blend of straight Bourbon. Straight rye (hence the name)—both aged between 10 and 14 years—that truly captures the best of both worlds: a nose of apple and spice; a palate of nuttiness, berry, and vanilla; and even more spice on the long finish. Definitely worth a try. $64.99 Matt Taylor-Gross Check Price For their latest, a limited release, New York Distilling Company takes their signature rye—a blend of three, four, and five-year-old whiskies—and ages it for five months in barrels once used for applejack by fellow New York producer Black Dirt Distillery. It brings together two of America’s oldest spirits—there is an entire category of cocktails that split their base between rye and applejack, which have an affinity for each other—and makes for a fun pour that adds some bright apple to existing notes of cherry and vanilla.

It’s good alone but in addition makes a mean Manhattan. $45.99 Matt Taylor-Gross Check Price Launched earlier this month, this ruby-red bottle from Australian producer Four Pillars Gin is certainly one of the most fun gins available right now: produced using a French technique “saignée” (or bleeding), it uses shiraz grapes that are steeped in gin for eight weeks. But of the things I tried in 2017, I thought Dalgarno’s high-ABV Classic Cut—matured in oloroso sherry-seasoned oak casks and offering notes of fruit, spice, and caramel—presented the best bang for your buck, especially when compared to the rest of their portfolio.

For its drinkability and affordability, I’d recommend this bottle. $89 Matt Taylor-Gross Check Price Kentucky’s Bardstown Bourbon Company is hopping on the trend of second-finishing whiskey here with their two Collabor&tion bottles, produced with their neighbors Copper & Kings. It’s a bit of a risky move, I’m sure, for the whiskey cognoscenti, but nonetheless a great product if you can forgo preconceptions about style. $124.99 Matt Taylor-Gross Check Price Come for the sustainable production and stay for an excellent cachaça. A special release for 2017, the Colibri has been aged in both repurposed American oak and legally-sourced amburana oak casks.

It’s perfect for mixing or just knocking back chilled. $25 Matt Taylor-Gross Check Price Giffard is a mainstay of fruit liqueurs that actually taste like the fruit they’re supposed to taste like (I die for their banana version).