Bourbon of the Year 2022

It’s the 2022 Bourbon of the Year. We had to get artistic in honor of Calumet’s big win.

I wasn’t sure I was going to pick a Bourbon of the year for 2022. I wanted to go with Knob Creek 18 year old, but because it was so hard to find, I excluded it. I cannot find the sense in awarding Bourbon of the Year to a thing that most folks won't be able to find. Now, was Knob 18 as hard to find as BTAC or Heaven Hill 17? No, of course it wasn’t, but I’m not awarding it to those either, it’s just lame in my book to award anything that most people would have to pay through the teeth to land.

My parameters are simple- Must be findable. Mustn’t be a limited release. Mustn’t cost a ton of money. Must be new for that year. Must kick serious ass.

One Bourbon checked all those boxes for me in 2022, and that was Calumet Farm 16-year-old Bourbon. I will not bore you with all the tasting and nosing notes, you’re on the internet, you can find those all by yourself. I will say this, the theme of this Bourbon is all Barton. It’s dark ripe cherries for days and nights, and it’s likely the best Barton I’ve ever had. I am an unapologetic fan of that distillery, because I like dark ripe cherries duh. If you don’t like Barton, you’ll possibly be left scratching your head that this was my Bourbon of the Year. That’s ok, come up with your own best, I’ll wait.

Barton. Deal with it.

My pal Bryan hinted at inflicting bodily harm if I hyped this bottle as it was pretty much one of those “if you know, you know” things and it was very findable since it came out. I did not speak of or post anything about this beautiful bottle for quite some time, but now that people are starting to discover it, I took the plunge and here we are.

Bourbon of the Year, 2022, Calumet Farm 16-year-old. Wonderful.

- Mickey Pinstripe