Last week, we covered the best Ryes and American Single Malts of 2025. Our ongoing hunt for America’s most compelling new whiskeys continues with the magic of double-barrel maturation. Often called a second finish, it’s one of the most creative tools in a distiller’s arsenal—a way to remix a whiskey’s DNA by layering new flavors, softening others, and letting a few surprising notes shine. A stint in port casks, a rest in extra añejo tequila barrels—this is where craft meets alchemy.
Best Double-Barrel Whiskey Of 2025: Michter’s US*1 Toasted Barrel Finish Sour Mash
As Michter’s President Joe Magliocco shared with us a couple months ago, the team may make whiskey “using time-tested, traditional Kentucky methods,” but they’re constantly probing for new techniques that elevate flavor without abandoning heritage. Their latest experiment-turned-breakthrough? Michter’s US*1 Toasted Barrel Finish Sour Mash, a 2025 limited release that expands the brand’s celebrated “Toasted Barrel Finish” lineage.
That technique—now ubiquitous across the industry—actually started with Michter’s. Back in 2014, the team had the then-radical idea of finishing their US*1 Bourbon in a second barrel that had been toasted but not charred. No one could have predicted it would spark a whole category of American whiskey. But the logic was airtight: air-dried staves (18–24 months or more) reduce harsh tannins; a low-and-slow toasting process coaxes caramelized sugars and delicate wood compounds out; and skipping the char preserves nuance over brute force. The result wasn’t just delicious, it was transformative.
Michter’s later applied the technique to their rye in 2017. Now, after years of tinkering with proprietary toast curves, they’ve finally extended the treatment to their decorated US*1 Sour Mash—the first American whiskey ever crowned “Whisky of the Year” by The Whisky Exchange. While Michter’s doesn’t reveal the exact mash bill, we know it falls outside both bourbon and rye categories—mysterious, versatile, and ideal for a finish that amplifies complexity rather than masking it.
Master Distiller Dan McKee notes that each Toasted Barrel release gets a unique heat profile; there are, after all, “almost an infinite number” of ways to toast a barrel. For this expression, the profile highlights burnt sugar, spice, and smoky vanilla, melding seamlessly with the Sour Mash’s natural notes of caramel and marshmallow. Think of it less as a finish and more as a harmonic lift—where the second barrel doesn’t overwrite the whiskey’s identity, but deepens its emotional register. Bottled at 43% ABV (86 proof). $110 SRP —Nicolas Stecher
15 Stars Three Ports Aged 9- and 15-Years Fine Aged Bourbon
The 15 Stars distillery’s first bottling of 2025, Three Ports Fine-Aged Bourbon, is a viscous blend of 9- and 15-year-old Kentucky bourbons, finished in three types of port casks: ruby, tawny, and white. According to the brand, it’s the first whiskey ever finished with a trio of different port barrels, and the expression showcases exactly what the brand is about: complexity, balance, and exploration.
“We called it a still life of a fruit bowl,” 15 Stars co-founder Ricky Johnson tells us. “The ruby brought in that deep red fruit. The tawny added darker, aged fruit tones. And the white port contributed soft, floral fruit notes like pear and apricot. Every sip brought out something new—cherry, apple, blueberry, even peach.”
To capture the full spectrum of those flavors, father-son founders Rick and Ricky Johnson leaned heavily on proofing. It’s a critical aspect of whiskey making the duo take great care in, employing what Ricky dubs “flavor proofing.” In contrast to traditional methods that proof a whiskey down for volume and cost efficiency (what they call “account proofing”), or for marketing appeal such as “cask strength” or “bottled-in-bond” (aka “market proofing” in Johnson parlance), 15 Stars adjusts proof to optimize flavor as an integral part of the time-consuming blending process.
Through much experimentation they’ve found a sweet spot lies usually between 100 and 110 proof. For their Three Ports Bourbon, the bulls-eye ended up at 103 proof. “Blending, proofing, flavor—these aren’t just parts of the process,” Rick adds in a sagely tone. “They are the process. We’re not trying to mold whiskey into our idea of where it should be—we’re letting it show us what it can become.” $179 SRP—Nicolas Stecher
Widow Jane The Vaults 2025 Bourbon
Sourcing the Mythical Greek Oak for Widow Jane’s latest edition of The Vaults was its own proper adventure. A trip to Crete by the Brooklyn label’s Head Blender Sienna Jevremov inspired its potential use as a finishing wood, but she had no idea how hard it would be to convert into reality. Greek oak is rarely exported for cooperage, and finding staves properly seasoned for barrel-making took patience and persistence. Finally Widow Jane secured a limited selection harvested from ancient forests in Amfilochia—just enough to run trials and evaluate how this unorthodox Greece wood would behave.
What Widow Jane’s Sienna Jevremov found was something wholly unexpected: “The most surprising result was how seamlessly it integrated: Instead of dominating, it framed the whiskey’s maturity with savory depth and a hint of honeyed brightness.” The Head Blender and Distiller discovered Greek oak didn’t overshadow the 15-year old bourbon they had pegged for special use (sourced from Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee), but elevated it. The rare wood added warmth, nuance and a subtle herbal complexity that shifted The Vaults 2025 into its own category.
“The Vaults 2025 stands apart for that balance—ancient wood meeting long-aged American bourbon, both distinct but harmonious,” Jevremov effuses. Bottled at a healthy 49.5 percent ABV, only 15,672 bottles of Widow Jane Vaults 2025 are available out in the wild. $250 SRP—Nicolas Stecher
Woodford Reserve Master’s Collection 2024, Madeira Cask Finish Bourbon
“We have our own set of ‘guard rails’ for innovation within the Master’s Collection: only change one of the five sources of flavor,” Master Distiller Elizabeth McCall explains, highlighting how Woodford Reserve first introduced the Master’s Collection in 2006 with “Four Grain,” an expression that played with mash bills. The following year, in 2007, Woodford Reserve was among the first bourbons to finish in wine casks.
“It was quite controversial at the time, but is now a common practice by other distillers. This 20th expression marks that historic milestone, with a new Madeira wine cask,” she continues. “With each release you will notice that we change only one thing: grain recipe, maturation, or finish. We will not or have not changed the other two sources of flavor: water and fermentation. This allows our consumers to taste how changing just one flavor source changes the flavor of our whiskey.”
So Woodford Reserve finished a trio of their whiskeys—bourbon, rye, and wheat—each separately in these Madeira casks, which McCall and her team tasted individually and then blended together. “After I tasting the blend of just the whiskies finished in Madeira I knew I wanted to tone down the Madeira [influence] just slightly, and the wheat was the perfect whiskey for the job… it made sense to look to our wheat whiskey for blending.”
Although not as famous as their bourbon or rye, and only sold in limited markets, Woodford Reserve’s wheat whiskey mash bill is known for being “very fruit forward with hints of cinnamon.” Drawing from her extensive knowledge of Woodford Reserve’s offerings, the talented blender knew this expression—the wheat whiskey without any Madeira second aging—would be the perfect ingredient to lessen the heavy Madeira influence. “When I taste this it reminds me of dried cherries sprinkled with baking spices, and a long lingering finish of a dried dark fruit medley and toasted walnuts.” $180 SRP—Nicolas Stecher
Gentleman’s Cut ‘Player Exclusive’ José Andrés 10-Years Finished in Spanish Pedro Ximénez Bourbon
“Steph [Curry] and I have known each other for many years. Of course I admired him on the court—as we all do—and last year we shared a stage at BottleRock Napa, drinking bourbon and making Philly cheesesteaks while being serenaded by Bradley Cooper… I think everyone should experience that at least once in their lives!” José Andrés told us a couple months ago. The world famous chef was revealing the improbable origin of his collaboration with Steph Curry, revealing a narrative so extraordinary it could only be from the life of José Andrés.
Apparently he met the all-time NBA great and wife Ayesha when the Curry’s nonprofit, Eat.Learn.Play., worked with Andrés’ beloved World Central Kitchen—dedicated to helping those in crisis zones—when they fed Oakland’s needy during the pandemic. The bottle in question is none other than the latest Player Exclusive chapter from Curry’s own Gentleman’s Cut whiskey label, clumsily dubbed José Andrés 10-Years Finished in Spanish Pedro Ximénez. The juice is a 10-year-old bourbon whose high corn mash bill offers a heavy vanilla and butterscotch foundation, with its finish in the Pedro Ximénez sherry casks only adding to the sweetness with fig jam, raisins and honey.
Previous Player Exclusives bottles of Gentleman’s Cut were more personal for Curry, reflecting important chapters his life. For this latest edition, it is the first time Curry’s whiskey label partnered with another celebrity. Only 800 bottles of Gentleman’s Cut Player Exclusive: José Andrés 10-Years Finished in Spanish Pedro Ximénez will be brought to market, at 107 proof. $375 SRP—Nicolas Stecher
Garrison Brothers Laguna Madre 2025
There’s plenty of whiskey to love from Garrison Brothers, especially its innovative takes on sweet mash bills that develop and shift over time in the oft-brutal Texas heat. And while its 94-proof flagship is a mighty fine Texas whiskey sipper in its own right, the 2025 release of Laguna Madre is a wonder to behold, pushing the boundaries for the nearly twenty-year-old distillery in terms of time spent in the barrel and relative rarity.
It spends four years in white American oak in that notorious Texas heat, then gets a bold double-barrel finish for four years in rare Limousin oak casks sourced from France. The wood within those casks delivers high vanilla content for delectable sweetness that manages to not overpower the classic Garrison Brothers profile, and it’s worth the wait: Limousin oak can only be harvested when the trees themselves are older than 120 years, adding to the rarity of what was an initial fall 2025 run of about 3,000 bottles.
There’s a creaminess to this exclusive release, and even notes of chocolate and hazelnut—plus an engaging and simply beautiful mahogany color when poured into a glass. The pinnacle of aged whiskey for a distillery that works with, not against, its surroundings in Texas hill country. $349.99 SRP —Beau Hayhoe
Bhakta 2011 Bourbon
To say no one makes whiskey quite like Raj Peter Bhakta, the spirits iconoclast and the man who put WhistlePig’s rye whiskey on the map, is perhaps an understatement. From a serene Vermont campus (an actual former university campus) complete with a library stuffed with rare barrels of spirit, Bhakta’s latest venture brings American bourbon into the world of French armagnac… among other mad scientist-esque experiments.
Bhakta 2011 Bourbon starts with a 12-year-old Tennessee whiskey and finishes it in Armagnac barrels dating back to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon era, a curious and inviting prospect in its own right. To be more specific, those barrels hail from 1973, 1975 and 1984, lending plenty of complexity and richness to the ‘original whiskey within.
In fact, only 11 barrels worth of Bhakta 2011 Bourbon hit the market, and at a highly agreeable price all things considered. Bhakta’s gorgeous Art Deco-inspired bottles are collectible in their own right, delivering a sense of luxury for your bar cart—never a bad quality to have when considering some of the best double-barrel whiskies on the market. It might not be for everyone, but for those who prize whiskey done differently and with some attitude, Bhakta 2011 Bourbon is certainly splurge-worthy. $149 SRP —Beau Hayhoe
Jacob’s Pardon “Cask Collective” 16-Year-Old Oloroso Sherry Cask-Finished Whiskey
Jacob’s Pardon continues to push the boundaries of American whiskey with the latest volley from their “Cask Collective” series: a 16-year-old Light Whiskey finished in historic Oloroso sherry casks from Williams & Humbert.. An esteemed sherry house founded in 1877 in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, these W&H casks add an alchemy of time, craft, and innovation to an often dismissed whiskey category.
Master Blender F. Paul Pacult, known for his unparalleled palate and decades of tasting thousands of spirits, guided this project with meticulous care. The journey began with roughly 2,500 barrels of American whiskey, including bourbon, Tennessee, and Light Whiskey, laid down in 2018 by Jacob’s Pardon founders Marc and Jake Taub. For this Cask Collective offering, forty-eight select barrels of 99-percent corn Light Whiskey, aged for 16 years, were handpicked for their depth, sweetness, and elegance.
“The Oloroso sherry casks acted almost like a mentor for the whiskey,” Pacult told us in July. “Just a few weeks of contact were enough to infuse the spirit with raisin-like richness, highlighting the corn’s innate sweetness and enhancing the nuances developed over sixteen years.” The resulting whiskey marries subtle power with finesse, unveiling notes of bakery treats, vanilla, clove, cinnamon, orchard fruits, and honey—a remarkable transformation of a historically underappreciated category. Originally conceived in 1968 as a mid-point between bourbon and clear spirits, Light Whiskey has often been misunderstood. Here, however, extended aging turns volatility into sophistication, producing a liquid both refined and expressive. $125 SRP—Nicolas Stecher
2XO The Vinyl Blend Bourbon
At the heart of 2XO—short for “Two Times Oak”—lies renowned blender Dixon Dedman’s signature process of giving every whiskey a second encounter with new oak. That extra time in wood coaxes out deeper sweetness and a richer equilibrium between the caramelized sugars and the spice-forward personality of his rye-driven mash bills, and makes his perennial placement in this category nearly automatic.
For the sixth and latest release in 2XO’s ‘Collectibles Series’—formerly known as the Icon Series—The Vinyl Blend, Dedman engineers a dynamic composition from two proprietary mash bills: a high-rye (35 percent) and a moderate-rye (18 percent) bourbon. Forty percent of the blend comes from the high-rye bourbon that’s been double-barreled in #4 char oak for 9–12 months, adding structure and boldness. The remaining 60 percent layers in equal parts of both original bourbons.
Like all of Dedman’s Collectibles Series, The Vinyl Blend is a nod to an important element in his life—such as The Sneakerhead Blend, or The Kiawah Blend, a South Carolina barrier island where his family would vacation. This record plays notes of honeysuckle and vanilla crème brûlée, with riffs of what Dedman terms “grilled pineapple,” along with a long, viscous, peppery finish that lingers like a Thom Yorke falsetto. $100 SRP—Nicolas Stecher
Uncle Nearest Cognac Cask Copper Label Batch 005
Born in 2017 to honor Nathan “Nearest” Green—the first documented African-American master distiller, and foundational figure in Tennessee whiskey by running the stills for Jack Daniel’s—Uncle Nearest has become one of American whiskey’s most meaningful modern success stories. Green’s expertise helped shape the charcoal mellowing method later known as the Lincoln County Process, and today his legacy lives on thanks largely to his descendant’s eponymous label.
Uncle Nearest Cognac Cask Copper Label Batch 005, part of the brand’s aptly named Lost Chapter series, leads that legacy in an elegant new direction. This limited-edition, single-barrel Tennessee whiskey begins its life at the Nearest Green Distillery in Shelbyville before finishing in 10- to 20-year-old XO Cognac barrels sourced from historic French houses. The result is a rare cross-continental conversation—Southern whiskey tradition meeting the quiet refinement of French oak.
Master Blender Victoria Eady Butler, Nearest Green’s great-great-granddaughter, guides the process with precision, ensuring the Cognac influence enhances rather than overwhelms the whiskey’s core character. The influence of those Cognac casks is immediate: aromas of dried apricot, cherry, and stone fruit rise from the glass, joined by soft tobacco leaf and seasoned oak. On the palate, fig preserves, spiced caramel, and toasted almond unfold in layers, while the charcoal-mellowed Tennessee whiskey backbone keeps everything grounded. A beautiful whiskey, bottled at a formidable 120.5 proof. $189 SRP
Follow Deputy Editor Nicolas Stecher on Instagram at @nickstecher and @boozeoftheday, and Contributor Beau Hayhoe at @beauhayhoe.