All-Star Bourbons of the Year 2026

Suits: All-Star Week pours and gifting the baseball fan who also collects

Salted caramel, cinnamon, baked apple, and clove on the nose, then a creamy palate of cocoa, nutmeg, and dark cherry into a moderate oak-spice finish of vanilla and butterscotch. The details are the fun part: 109 proof for Gehrig's 109-RBI 1926 season, four mash bills for jersey No. 4, and 9,665 bottles for his career plate appearances, with a QR code that tells you what he did in that at-bat and proceeds going to the Live Like Lou ALS Foundation. The catch is the math. At 9,665 bottles it is a genuine limited release, so retail runs thin, and the blend leans sweet rather than bold if you chase barrel proof.

Suits: A novelty pour and display bottle for movie-and-baseball fans

Butterscotch, milk chocolate, caramel, roasted peanuts, dried cherry, and pecan pie filling, closing long on brown sugar, toasted meringue, and soft leather. It is bottled at 54% ABV to honor the 54 home runs of the 2025 record-breaker, and the run is capped at 23,615 bottles, one for every player in MLB history through 2025, each tied to a player's debut through a lookup tool. Be honest with yourself about why you are buying it: only about 2,000 bottles reached the public online through Seelbach's, and this is a collectible first and a benchmark pour second.

Suits: Everyday sipping and a value-tier flagship a purist can actually recommend

Rye-forward baking spice, dried orange peel, warm honeyed corn, and a soft undercurrent of new charred oak, closing long on the pot-still oiliness New Riff is known for. Non-chill-filtered at 100 proof means the pour holds its weight in the glass and stands up to a rock without collapsing. This is the bottle that took home 2026 London Spirits Competition's World's Best Bourbon at a $40 street price, so it also does the honest thing a blend can't: it is real Kentucky straight bourbon in the value tier.

Suits: Barrel-proof sipping neat, for drinkers who take it hot

Caramel, baking spices, lemon and citrus, cinnamon, and wood spice with a thread of milk chocolate, named for the malted chocolate milkshake and bourbon combo Booker Noe used to make. At 124.4 proof it wants a splash of water or a rested palate, and like every Booker's batch it swings, so do not assume this one drinks like the last one you liked.

Suits: High-rye barrel-proof sipping neat, for drinkers who want teeth

Cinnamon, black pepper, dried orange peel, and honeyed corn cut with the tannic bite of new charred oak, warm and long on the finish. New Riff runs a 100% pot-still program, a high-rye mash, and non-chill-filtered bottling that leaves every barrel with its own fingerprint, so the pour in your glass is not the pour in anyone else's. Single-barrel means variance is baked in and at 116 proof the heat is real, but this is a legitimate straight-bourbon power hitter from a distillery whose Bottled-in-Bond sibling won 2026 London Spirits Competition's World's Best Bourbon this year.

Suits: Single-barrel hunters and value-minded collectors

Rich caramel, vanilla, and toasted oak over a spicy rye backbone, warm and lingering, classic Heaven Hill single-barrel character pushed up in proof. Single barrel means what it says, so barrel-to-barrel variation is part of the deal, and 117.76 proof is a real mouthful for the price. That price is also the point, a barrel-strength single barrel that does not ask allocated-tier money.

Suits: High-rye fans and a 250th-anniversary display bottle

Praline cookies, candied orange peel, dried cherry, and pipe tobacco on the nose, then brown sugar, candied nuts, cracked black pepper, and stone fruit, into a long finish of herbal white tea, ripe peach, and clove. It arrived June 29 to July 1, 2026, in a collector bottle with hand-applied navy-and-white star accents and 22K gold ink labels. Read the label carefully: the packaging is the anniversary edition, but the liquid is Blue Run's existing 111-proof high rye, and it went to only 13 states at $89.99.

Suits: Easy porch pours and baseball-themed gifting

Light caramel, vanilla, and grain sweetness with a touch of oak and a clean, easy finish. At 88 proof it is built for accessibility over depth, which is the honest read here: it is a theme-and-gift bottle first and a serious sipper second. For a Hall-of-Fame-town pour to hand a fan, that is exactly the job.