The Original American Whiskey, a 21-Year-Old Steal, and Lagavulin at Half Price

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This week we're staying stateside with Hi Proof out of Fullerton, California — flat-rate national shipping and a deep cask-strength selection. Fitting for the Fourth, we're leading with a rye, then four Scotches — including two aged bargains, an 18-year and a 21-year, that are among the best age-statement values you'll find right now.

A single-barrel, cask-strength rye picked by Hi Proof, and a nice tie-in to this week's history piece. One honest note up front: despite Sagamore being a Baltimore outfit, this isn't true Maryland rye. A 9-year barrel predates their own distillate, so it's sourced from MGP in Indiana — the famous high-rye juice behind so many great American ryes — then matured and selected through Sagamore. Don't let the "Maryland" association mislead you; what's in the glass is classic MGP rye, all baking spice, dill, caramel, and bright stone fruit, dialed up to barrel proof.

ABV: 55% | Cask: New charred oak (MGP Indiana rye) | 750ml

Price: $59.99

Typical US Market Range: No clean comp — single-barrel store picks aren't sold nationally, but Sagamore's standard cask-strength rye runs ~$70–90 and their 10-year Reserve is $80.

Savings: At $60 this undercuts Sagamore's own standard cask-strength pricing — strong value for a 9-year barrel-proof single barrel.

Who's this for: Rye drinkers who want MGP's spicy, fruity profile at full proof — and a fitting pour for Independence Day.

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A bottle I recommend often, and now at a price that makes stocking up tempting. This is Lagavulin stripped down to its raw, young, smoky core — 12 years in first-fill ex-bourbon and refill casks, bottled at a full 57.4% with no chill filtration. Where the 16 is polished and integrated, the 12 is the distillery character turned up: bonfire smoke, sea salt, lemon, and a surprising wave of sweet vanilla and tropical fruit underneath.

ABV: 57.4% | Cask: First-fill ex-bourbon + refill | 700ml

Price: $82.99

Typical US Market Range: ~$175–180 (SRP was $180)

Savings: ~$95 off, roughly half price. This is last year's release being cleared out, which is why it's this cheap — genuine "buy more than one" territory.

Who's this for: Peat lovers, and anyone who wants undiluted Lagavulin character at a price that rarely comes around.

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The value play of the week. Want a 21-year-old single malt? Try finding a better price than this. An annual cask-strength single batch from Orkney, matured in first-fill American oak and bottled at 52.9%, non-chill-filtered. Scapa's whole appeal is its lush, almost dessert-like profile — apricot, peach, mango, vanilla cream, and warm baking spice — and at full strength with two decades behind it, it punches absurdly above this price.

ABV: 52.9% (105.8 proof) | Cask: First-fill American oak | 700ml

Price: $134.99

Typical US Market Range: ~$170 in the US market

Savings: Roughly $35.

Who's this for: Anyone who wants a genuinely aged 21-year single malt without four-figure money. The best bang-for-buck bottle on this list.

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Cask-strength Longrow — pricey, but worth it, and not easy to find. This is Springbank's heavily peated, double-distilled Campbeltown make at a commanding 57%, matured in refill bourbon and refill Pinot Noir casks, non-chill-filtered and natural color. The Pinot Noir threads red fruit through the smoke, setting it apart from Islay peat: medicinal smoke, redcurrant, lemon, sea salt, and an oily, briny depth that's pure Campbeltown.

ABV: 57% (114 proof) | Cask: Refill bourbon + refill Pinot Noir | 700ml

Price: $99.99

Typical US Market Range: ~$135

Savings: ~$35, around 25% off — solid for a hard-to-find cask-strength Longrow.

Who's this for: Campbeltown devotees and peat heads who want cask-strength Longrow — grab it when you see it, because it doesn't sit around.

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Longmorn is one of those distilleries blenders have quietly treasured for decades, and this is its flagship US release — 18 years in American oak barrels and hogsheads, bottled at a full 57.6% with no chill filtration or coloring. It's the lush, fruit-forward side of Speyside turned up: toffee apple, apricot, mango, and pineapple over honeyed caramel, vanilla, and milk chocolate, with enough baking spice to keep it lively. For a cask-strength 18-year, it drinks remarkably composed.

ABV: 57.6% (115.2 proof) | Cask: American oak ex-bourbon barrels + hogsheads | 700ml

Price: $114.99

Typical US Market Range: ~$250–269 (RRP is $269)

Savings: Roughly $150, well over half off — an 18-year-old cask-strength single malt for the price of a decent NAS bottle. Outstanding.

Who's this for: Speyside fruit lovers, and anyone who wants a genuinely aged, full-proof single malt without the usual 18-year price tag.

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Welcome back to Empty Bottle Reviews. Same idea as last week: these aren't notes from a single pour or a sample swap — they're my takeaways on bottles I drank all the way down, where living with one from first pour to last tells you things a single dram never will. This week picks up where we left off with four more finished bottles, and as always, scores follow the Dramface system (scale shown below) so you know exactly where these numbers come from.

ABV: 57.1% | Cask: Re-charred oloroso sherry | 700ml

This was the sherry-cask Kilkerran everyone raved about back in 2019 — the first 8-year Cask Strength pulled fully from re-charred oloroso instead of bourbon — and I only just finished my bottle, nearly seven years on. I always liked it, but it grew on me the more I came back to it. It's a great showcase of how a sherry cask shapes the Glengyle spirit: rich, chewy, chocolatey, with that dirty Campbeltown funk running underneath. Excellent stuff. It drank like a solid 7 most days and crept up to an 8 on the right night — for now, I'll land it at a 7.

Score: 7/10

ABV: 46% | Cask: ~65% sherry, 30% bourbon, 5% rum | 700ml

The Kilkerran 16 has always been my favorite release from Glengyle. The extra age brings a layer of maturation complexity, and paired with that Campbeltown salinity and funk, it lands a little gentler than the 12 and the 8. What I love about this one is that even though it's sherry-led on paper, the sherry never takes over. The base spirit still shines right through it, and that balance is exactly what makes it work. Still excellent, and a perfect illustration of the beauty of Kilkerran and the Glengyle distillery.

Score: 8/10

ABV: 59.6% | Cask: First-fill ex-bourbon hogshead | 700ml

A really well-made Ben Nevis from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. If you've ever wanted to try Ben Nevis in a natural, single-cask presentation, this is a great way in. It's creamy and rounded, with delicate fruit sitting in the background, and despite pushing 60% it never drinks hot or aggressive. Really enjoyed my time with this one.

Score: 7/10

ABV: 47% (94 proof) | New charred oak — Rickhouse L, Floor 5 | 750ml

Full honesty here: I can't give this one a fair assessment neat, because the entire bottle went into Old Fashioneds and whiskey sours — where it performed wonderfully. It's a great mixing bourbon. I tend to reach for bourbons at 50% ABV or higher when I'm sipping, so at 94 proof this was always going to live in cocktails for me rather than as a neat pour. Nothing bad to say about it at all — it did exactly what I asked of it.

Score: 5/10

A distillery-exclusive single cask released for Ardnamurchan's first Open Day — 55.4%, finished a year in Mizunara (Japanese water oak). Dougie found Ardnamurchan's oily, coastal, herbaceous spirit lifted into something gloriously floral and surprisingly vegetal by the Mizunara, and tagged it "Something Special."

Score: 8/10
Full review

My take: Ardnamurchan keeps proving it's one of the best things to happen to young Highland whisky in years. Mizunara on that briny, oily spirit is exactly the kind of pairing worth chasing if you can get to a hand-fill.

The cask-strength Ardbeg 10 fans have begged for over 20 years — ex-bourbon, non-chill-filtered, 61.7%. Rob's first-pour verdict: absolutely stunning, everything you want Ardbeg to be. What struck him most is how it doesn't drink anywhere near 61.7% — maybe a few points above the standard 10 — with the real payoff in the viscosity, creaminess, and lemon-cream richness.

Full review

My take: After a run of gimmicky, pricey Committee releases, a no-frills cask-strength 10 is exactly what people actually wanted. If you can find it anywhere near RRP, grab it — this is the one that should've existed all along.

For "Revisit Wednesday," Jeremy returned to Talisker 18 (45.8%) seven years after first reviewing it. He calls it a near-perfect entry into peat for anyone who finds Islay too intense — medium, approachable smoke in a "smoked pear" register, with vanilla, salty-sweet balance, and smoked lemon on a refined, layered palate. His score held exactly: 89/100 then, 89/100 now.

Score: 89/100
Full review

My take: Talisker 18 has long been one of the best "approachable peat" malts going — the catch is availability (still no official Canadian listing) and a price that's climbed hard since. If you spot it near its old number, it earns the buy; if not, the 10 covers the style for far less.

With the Fourth of July here, it's worth remembering that the most genuinely American whiskey in your glass probably isn't bourbon — it's rye. Long before Kentucky became synonymous with American whiskey, rye was the spirit of the young republic, and the heart of it was right here in the Mid-Atlantic.

The story starts with who settled the region. Scots-Irish and German immigrants — the Pennsylvania Dutch among them — poured into Pennsylvania and Maryland in the 1700s, bringing distilling traditions from home. Rye was hardy, widely grown, and well suited to the region's farms. More to the point, distilling was practical: farmers out past the Alleghenies had no cheap way to move bulky grain to market before the canals and railroads of the 1830s, but they could turn surplus grain into whiskey, barrel it, and move it through river and overland trade routes. Surplus rye became liquid currency, and rye whiskey became the Mid-Atlantic's signature.

Two regional styles defined it. Monongahela rye, from southwestern Pennsylvania along the Monongahela River, was the bold one: usually corn-free, intensely rye-forward, and built for spice rather than softness. Recipes shifted across distillers and decades — earlier versions could lean on malted and unmalted rye, later ones on high rye backed by malted barley — but the no-corn backbone held, and it became one of the earliest American whiskeys tied to a specific place. Maryland rye generally ran softer and sweeter than its Pennsylvania cousin. Some producers used more corn in the mash, while others relied on different grain recipes and production choices to make a rounder spirit; the style was often triple-distilled, and by the late 1800s parts of the Maryland trade leaned heavily on rectification and flavoring. Even the founders were in: George Washington's Mount Vernon distillery ran a rye-led mash of 60% rye, 35% corn, and 5% malted barley, and by 1799 it was among the largest whiskey producers in the country.

The flip side of that prominence was the Whiskey Rebellion. When the new federal government taxed distilled spirits in 1791 to help pay down Revolutionary War debt, western Pennsylvania distillers revolted, and by 1794 Washington was helping lead federal troops to put it down. Rye was central enough to American life to spark the first armed test of federal authority.

So how did bourbon end up with the crown? Largely geography. As distillers pushed west, Kentucky's farms produced corn in abundance, and corn whiskey offered a sweeter, broader-appeal alternative. Limestone-filtered water became part of bourbon's identity later on, but corn was the real engine of its rise. The word "bourbon" was appearing in print by the 1820s, and across the 1800s the sweeter style steadily won the wider market. Then came the knockout blows for rye: the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act undercut the rectified Maryland trade, Prohibition devastated the category, and post-Repeal consolidation, changing tastes, and bourbon's growing national dominance left Pennsylvania and Maryland rye badly diminished. The original American whiskey nearly disappeared.

The good news is that it came roaring back. The rye revival of the last two decades has been dramatic — volumes jumped well over 500% between 2009 and 2014 — and much of it has deliberately reached back to these roots. Pennsylvania producers like Dad's Hat, made in Bristol right here in Bucks County, and Wigle in Pittsburgh have helped revive interest in Pennsylvania rye and its old regional traditions, and Maryland named rye its official state spirit in 2023. Here's my take: if you want the most historically American thing in your glass this Independence Day, skip the obvious and reach for a rye — ideally from Pennsylvania or Maryland. The Manhattan was born a rye drink, and rye gives the Old Fashioned and whiskey sour a backbone that softer bourbon often trades for sweetness. For this holiday, that's a trade I wouldn't make.

Vermont independent bottler Lost Lantern just pulled off something that sounds like a marketing stunt but isn't: the United States of Bourbon, the first-ever blend of straight bourbon from all 50 states. One distillery represents each state, and every one is named on the back label. Co-founder Adam Polonski spent five years crisscrossing the country, personally visiting and vetting every distillery, before head blender Nora Ganley-Roper assembled the final blend. It comes in three expressions: a 100-proof ($80), a cask-strength version at 122.9 proof ($100), and the showpiece, the 1776 Edition — a one-time, cask-strength blend of bourbon from just the first 13 states, limited to 1,776 hand-numbered bottles at $200, timed to America's 250th anniversary. One caveat worth knowing: both 50-state releases carry a two-year age statement (components run two to ten years), while the 1776 Edition is four years old (components four to eight).

My take: The premise reads like a gimmick, but the execution is a genuine feat. In a couple of states — North Dakota and Hawaii among them — it came down to a single qualifying distillery, so one "no" could have sunk the whole project. More than the novelty, it's a real snapshot of how far bourbon has spread beyond Kentucky — and I love that Lost Lantern lists every component distillery, no mystery sourcing. Two things to keep clear-eyed about: at $80–100 for a blend with a two-year age statement, you're not buying it for age alone; and whether a 50-way blend actually beats a great single-state bourbon on flavor is a fair question I'd want to answer with a glass in hand. But as a July 4 pour with a real story behind it, this is hard to top.

Handcrafted layered wooden map with distillery markers. 20% off with code WHISKY20 (min $150 order). Shop here.

15% off through our reader link. Get it here.

Use code TWI50 for $50 off your order. Shop Lyons Crafted here.

First US release from this tiny single estate Speyside distillery. 15% off with code Estate15. Grab it here.

That's it for this week.

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— Tim