Best Whiskies that Will Make Your Tailgating Party, Viewing Parties and Cookouts Exceptional
Best whiskies to elevate your football season or other sporting events.
Samuel Maverick Private Reserve Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Tailgate with history, class, and good taste in-hand. Award-winning Samuel Maverick Private Reserve Straight Bourbon Whiskey ($75 per 750ml bottle) is a grain-to-glass whiskey made by Maverick Distilling (115 Broadway, San Antonio, Texas 78205) using select Texas-grown corn, rye, and barley and aged on-site in the vaults below the distillery located in the historic Lockwood National Bank building steps from the Alamo. This premium hand-crafted straight bourbon is the first by Maverick Whiskey Distillery to be fully produced in-house, and just seven barrels of the four-year-old reserve bourbon were bottled for this small-batch limited release.
Glowing rich amber in color, Samuel Maverick Private Reserve Straight Bourbon Whiskey boasts deep aromas of clover-scented honey, Lockhart barbecue, and roasted Hill Country pecans. It’s a full-bodied bourbon with velvety texture and front-forward warm vanilla and subdued caramel flavors from Texas sweet corn and Edwards Aquifer water which grab the palate with each sip. Maverick Malthouse Rye brings out a balanced bitter-sweet chocolate flavors that melt into subtle clove and nutmeg of North Texas malted barley. Samuel Maverick Private Reserve is a straight bourbon to be savored with a rich honey and pepper finish which lingers with a wisp of smoke from the barrels, or maybe from the spirits of the Alamo.
Garnering a Double Gold medal from the 2022 John Barleycorn Awards as well as Platinum and Double Platinum from the 2023 ASCOT Awards, you can rest assured you are indulging in a high-quality whiskey when sipping Samuel Maverick Private Reserve Straight Bourbon Whiskey. Use Maverick Distilling’s store locator to find a retailer near you, or order online for direct shipping to consumers in 41 states (https://maverickwhiskey.com/spirits/) to enjoy this top-notch spirit at your tailgating event.
Triple Dog Irish Whiskey
Enjoy a delicious taste of Europe and tailgate with a modern take on Irish Whiskey with Triple Dog. Triple Dog Irish Whiskey — an easy-to-drink and outrageously-smooth true Irish whiskey without too much bite — is a great option to have on-hand when hosting a tailgate gathering as it has won a number of awards, including a Double Gold at the 2023 SIP Awards, Silver at the 2023 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, Gold at the 2022 John Barleycorn Awards, and more. It was also rated 94 points by Russ Kempton, CSS, the Official Judge of Whiskies of the World. At 40% ABV and 80 proof, Triple Dog is easy-to-sip solo and perfect for mixing into cocktails, and it comes in a fun, edgy bottle that’s sure to start up lively conversation at parties.
Triple Dog Irish Whiskey, created by Irish American Dan O’Shevlin of Dallas, Texas using his Irish grandfather’s recipe from 1916 which he perfected, is a bold Irish whiskey born of and celebrating daring individuality. Featuring a modern taste profile beautifully aged for a minimum of four years in French Oak casks, Triple Dog Irish Whiskey is different from all the stodgy, establishment whiskeys. Distilled in Northern Ireland in the town of Dundalk, County Louth, Triple Dog Irish Whiskey is a sublimely approachable whiskey with a sweet aroma and an amazing crème brulee finish. Triple Dog Irish Whiskey makes for a great party toast, as well as a gift for those who like to imbibe and would appreciate something different in the form of an unexpected delight.
Shoppers can find Triple Dog Irish Whiskey ($44.99 per 750ml bottle) in-store as it is currently widely available on-shelves at spirit retailers in California, Colorado, and Texas. The whiskey is also available for online purchase via https://www.tripledogwhiskey.com/buy-online/ and direct shipping to customers in 34 states across the nation (temporarily excluding Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah).
Milam & Greene Very Small Batch
Another excellent and special option to kick off a tailgate party is Milam & Greene‘s Very Small Batch Bourbon Whiskey. Very Small Batch Bourbon Whiskey: Batch 1 VSB is the first core product added to the spirits portfolio for Milam & Greene since 2019. This new Milam & Greene bourbon was released to retailers in Summer 2023. Get your hands on a bottle to toast to your favorite teams this football season. Find a retailer near you via: https://milamandgreenewhiskey.com/
Milam & Greene Master blender Heather Greene harvested 75 bourbon barrels to create the inaugural batch of Very Small Batch Bourbon. These barrels are a combination of bourbon distilled by master distiller Marlene Holmes in Kentucky using the proprietary Milam & Greene mash bill and barrels of Tennessee bourbon. The barrel recipe for Batch 1 is 20% of the precious Kentucky barrels and 80% Tennessee barrels. The barrels are divided into smaller batches to marry in 1,000-gallon vatting tanks before finishing. The Kentucky whiskey base is distilled by the Milam & Greene team using their signature mash bill of 70% corn, 22% malted rye, and 8% malted barley. The use of malted rye provides a rich texture and nuttiness that makes it approachable at a young age. For Batch 1, the barrels are aged in Kentucky and then Texas for just shy of 4 years. The Tennessee bourbon was distilled with a mash bill of 80% corn, 10% rye, and 10% malted barley. This batch is a reflection of the climate on whiskey from three different states: Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas.
Using very small batches as the heart of our new whiskey allows for greater control over the final product. It takes much more attention to detail to produce an elegant whiskey that showcases the esters that are produced during fermentation to bring out refined fruit, floral, and herbaceous notes. To perfect the precise wood flavor without overpowering these refined ester notes, Very Small Batch Bourbon is finished with French oak staves. French oak casks that once held both tawny port wine and then Milam & Greene’s award-winning rye whiskey are broken down, then “cooked” in the 100-degree Texan summer sun, and finally house-charred to a crisp on the outside only. These crispy-on-the-outside, rye-kissed on-the-inside staves are tied in bundles and then steeped in Very Small Batch Bourbon for about two weeks in the vatting tanks.
