The title of this post shouldn't be a political statement.

Systemic racism is prevalent across all facets of American society, and extends across the globe. The mod team of the Reddit Whisky Network has decided to use the platform we have (over 300,000 of you are subscribed across the various subreddits) to voice our support for the protests and calls for change that the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police Officer sparked across the nation and around the world.

We've made the choice to lock this thread to emphasize the importance of listening and learning during this time.

Here are some links regarding racism and the whisky industry:

Sugarcoating a painful history

Yes, African-Americans Drink Bourbon. You’d Never Know It From the Marketing.

The role of slaves in Kentucky’s bourbon legacy

If you'd like to learn about systemic racism and how you can be a part of the solution, NY Mag has a list of reading material put together by educators and activists.

If you want to support the protests with money, SFGate published an article with organizations you can donate to.

If you've come across an interesting whisky-related article along these lines please send it to the mod team.

In response to President Trump’s tariffs against Canadian imports by the U.S., Canadian provinces are planning to stop sales of US-made alcohol in their liquor boards. Ontario and Nova Scotia have already announced they are removing bourbon from shelves, with other provinces expected to follow suit.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/bars-and-restaurants-gird-themselves-for-looming-booze-battle-1.7442736

There are some things in life that I just don't understand, and high end bourbon is getting to be one of them. A local store sent out an email announcing an allocated bourbon event. I drove down to check it out, because they had a few items on the list I would've liked to get a chance to try, and to share with my friends. Van Winkle, Staff, Elmer T Lee, a few others. Well, I got there an hour or so early, not expecting to be the first in line, but figuring I'd be able to get something on my list.

The store had about 150 total bottles to sell. There were already over 150 people in line. There were clearly people that had slept there. In the cold and the rain. For a bottle of bourbon. Look, I'll probably get some hate for this, and I know that many of them were probably taters, but what is wrong with people like that?

I love bourbon, and I hate the fact that many of my old staples are now near impossible to get, but there is no bottle on the planet that's worth a night in the cold away from my friends and family. Not one. Speaking for myself, I'll never attend another event like this. The hype has exceeded my interest level, and is really starting to harm the joy I get from a nice bottle. Bourbon should help me relax and have fun with the people I care about. Trying to get a good bottle shouldn't add stress to your life. I'm done with the high end stuff, and may be moving on from bourbon until the hype moves off, and the trend chasers find their next obsession. This kind of garbage really kills the joy for me.

Side note: I would encourage you all to refuse to buy on the secondary market. Don't support the garbage human beings selling for 10x retail. Beyond driving prices up, it just makes situations like this worse, and attracts more speculators and guys trying to make a fast buck into the market.

Edit: Thanks for the gold, kind stranger! And thanks to everyone that has joined the discussion. It helps to get the frustration off my chest, and to know I'm not the only one feeling it. It's also good to hear that some of these events are fairly social, with people bringing and sharing drinks, cigars, and stories. Unfortunately, this particular event seemed less social, but the cold and the rain probably played a part. Thanks again everyone, and may your next pour be a great one!

As I have been posting more regularly on here I found that the most common question that I have recieved is "where do you find such old rare bourbon?". As many of you may know that in the 1980's snd 1990's a large amount of bourbon was sent to Japan, because the market for high aged premium bourbon was much stronger in Japan than it was in the United States at that time. As the years have gone by that demands has greatly diminished, but one big thing hasn't changed and that is the passion that many of the bar owners have for the spirit. We do have bar owners that are just as passionate here in Kentucky, but the prices here are astronomically higher with arguably worse inventory. In this post I would like to highlight the costs of visiting Japan vs Kentucky, the best places to go in Japan, as well as the pros and cons of both places.

The most expensive part of visiting Japan is the travel cost, but if you plan accordingly a round trip flight can often be purchased for between $900-1300, but one thing that does help the travel cost is the much lower cost of Airbnbs and Hotels. On average through out the last 3 years of traveling to japan I have paid about $20-50 per night for an Airbnb and hotel.

As far as the cost of visiting bars and trying different bottlings there is absolutely no comparison. Japan not only recieves almost every single new bottling that we get in the United States (besides Buffalo Trace products), but they are poured at a much lower cost. Japan truly shines when it comes to vintage bottlings. Where else can you go and try a 1990s bottling of Eagle Rare 15 year for $50 an ounce and then side by side it with a bottle of 1970s Eagle Rare 10 year for only $30? If I was to try these pours at a vintage bar in the United States they would AT LEAST be $200 for the Eagle Rare 15 year and $100 for the 10 year. Heck one time while I was getting pours at a bar the owner grabbed a private barrel bottling of Pappy Van Winkle called Twisted Spoke and he poured it for free, thats a $20,000 bottle! Many of these bar owners have been traveling to the United States for 30, 40, and even 50 years just to share their passion for Bourbon.

One of the biggest differences between visiting Japan and Kentucky is the obvious language barrier, but if you download google translate that does greatly help with the barrier. Another thing that you will not get in Japan that you will be able to do in the Kentucky is visit all of the distilleries and do tours.

Another big cost difference is food, and honestly theres a big quality difference there as well. As of right now the US dollar is very strong in comparison to the Yen which makes getting food so much cheaper there. I have also noticed that the food is much higher quality than what we have here, and you can definitely tell a difference in the pride that the Japanese people take in doing their job. If I go to get fast food here in the US I sadly expect my food to be messed up about 25% or the time, but in the 3 years I have been going to Japan I have never had an order messed up, even at McDonalds.

As far as bourbon hunting goes the selection in the United States is definitely larger, but the pricing definitely is not better. I cannot count the amount of times that I have walked into a BIC Camera in Japan and seen a Wild Turkey Master's Keep sitting on the shelf for 30% less than retail is in the United States, and I have even seen Makers Mark Cellar Aged as low as $110. Up until recently I was able to pick up Evan Williams 12 year in almost every liquor store for just $30.

If you are planning on doing a bourbon trip I wouldn't make Japan your first trip in your bourbon journey, but if you have already been to Kentucky 2 or 3 times I definitely would advocate for going. Vintage stock in Japan has been drying up for a decade now, many of the bar owners are aging, and with the yen currently being so low this is definitely a fleeting opportunity.

Here is also a list of what I think are the best bourbon bars in Japan:

Ken's Bar (Tokyo)

Milwaukee's Club (Saitama, close to Tokyo)

Shot Bar (Yokohama, close to Tokyo)

Gemor (Outside of Nagoya)

ANKI (Nagoya)

Brown Bar (Nagoya)

H du Pont (Kyoto)

Bar Tonen (Osaka)

My Personal Favorite: Rogins Tavern (Osaka)

Hello, r/Bourbon!

I’ve been undertaking a secret project for the past five months. The official Reddit Whisky Network Archive, linked on the sidebar of all the whisky subreddits, contains data of over 40,000 reviews of over 13,000 different whiskies, compiled over nearly a decade. When I volunteered to help u/throwboats manage it, it was in desperate need of standardization.

The bigger problem from r/Bourbon’s perspective, however, is that… nobody uses it anymore. None of the regular uploaders to the Archive are primarily bourbon reviewers, so almost all of the reviews of American whiskies in the archive date from many years ago.

So, I set about on my secret project – I’ve logged every single review posted on r/Bourbon for the past 5 months. That’s 1,905 reviews. u/NightRainb0w's post with some of the preliminary data proved quite popular, so here's the long-awaited follow-up with the complete dataset.

Here’s what I found:

Over the past 5 months on r/Bourbon:

1,905 reviews were posted between December 1st 2021 and April 30th 2022.

These consisted of 1,106 different whiskies, which were reviewed by 320 different users.

The average whisky scored 6.68/10.

81.3% of users scored their whiskies.

58% of users reported a price in their reviews.

Here's the breakdown by style:

Here's a histogram of the scores (all converted to the 10-point u/t8ke scale):

https://imgur.com/a/0pWODFZ

That’s a pretty nice-looking normal distribution, though skewed slightly towards higher scores. This is expected, as even though a 5/10 is defined as an “average whiskey”, people tend to drink and review whiskies they like, so their average score tends to be higher.

Here are the top reviewers from the past 5 months:

Unbelievably, u/Prepreludesh and u/eagle_bonanza01 are exactly tied at the top with 55 reviews apiece, though u/eagle_bonanza01 only gave scores on 6 of their reviews. Rounding out the top 5 are u/Prettayyprettaygood, u/SpiritSurveyor, and u/FrunkLeftFoot.

The average reviewer published 4.84 reviews over the past 6 months, and gave an average score of 6.89/10.

This means that the honor of being the most average r/bourbon reviewer goes to… u/wellerfoolproof (5 reviews, 6.88/10 avg).

The reviewer with the highest average score with at least 10 reviews was u/folly136, with an average of 7.93. The lowest average score was given by u/cbrad1713, with an average of only 4.58 (though admittedly most of that is from a single post listing scores for numerous horrible whiskies).

99 users published their first review. Welcome to the club!

Here are the most-reviewed whiskies:

*Simplified – batches, yearly releases, and store picks grouped together. If batches were counted as separate whiskies, then Henry McKenna 10 Single Barrel takes the top spot with 15 reviews, but when batches are combined, Elijah Craig Barrel Proof easily sweeps with 40 reviews.

And finally, here are the top-scoring whiskies (minimum 4 reviews) from the past 5 months, with batches, picks, and yearly releases separated out again:

Who’d have thunk that a Jack Daniel’s bottling would take this one?? Coy Hill fried palates and won hearts, taking first place with an average score of 8.53/10 on 7 reviews. Following right behind were a couple of Stagg Jr.’s, Barrell’s venerable Grey Label 24, and apparent subreddit favourite Remus Repeal Reserve Batch V.

When batches and yearly releases are combined like in the most-reviewed table, then Thomas H. Handy marches to the top of the board with an incredible average score of 8.98/10 on 6 reviews.

What about the all-important price data?

Here’s a scatter plot of average score vs. average reported price, for whiskies with at least 3 reviews. Some outliers are labeled.

https://imgur.com/a/VICZDye

If this kind of thing interests you, u/NightRainb0w is working on a follow-up post with much more statistical goodness, so stay tuned for that.

u/t8ke vs. The World

There are so many liquor stores that I didn't have a big enough sample to determine which store does the best cask picks, but I can definitely say that u/t8ke and the r/Bourbon crew's picks consistently score higher than cask picks from everywhere else. Well done gents!

Random Interesting Stuff

The worst-reviewed whiskey in the dataset with at least 4 reviews was none other than Mellow F**king Corn, with an average score of just 3.8/10 (5 reviews). With at least 3 reviews, the worst is Basil Hayden’s (3.57).

r/Bourbon’s favorite Elijah Craig Barrel Proof batch (min. 4 reviews) was A122, with an average score of 7.92/10 (6 reviews).

r/Bourbon’s favorite Four Roses Single Barrel recipe (min. 4 reviews) was OBSF with an average score of 7.75/10 (4 reviews).

The only whiskey given multiple 10/10 scores in the dataset was Barrell Seagrass 16 Grey Label, with two 10s.

In conclusion…

What does this data mean? I can’t tell you. What I can tell you is that there are loads of people drinking bourbon then talking about it on the internet.

A couple data disclaimers –

There are so many different bottlings being reviewed that this is still a pretty small dataset. I also just don’t actually know all that much about bourbon, I’m just a scotch guy that likes messing with data and gets sick pleasure from data entry. If I’ve made a dumb mistake, please just let me know.

Is this kind of post interesting? What other kinds of data things would you like to see? Again, u/NightRainb0w and I are working on a follow-up post with much more crunchy stats goodness relating to value for money, so we're definitely looking for suggestions.

Until then, cheers and stay thirsty.

~ u/the_muskox

Do you know how annoying it is to read a recommendation post about a 21 yr old who just got out of school, and comes into the sub trying to find something different than his usual Fireball. Then the amount of people who flock in and give the most low effort " you should try WT rarebreed, OF 1920, ECBP". Do you know how annoying that has to be, when most people look at BP bourbon and just think holy shit how am I supposed to drink this??? or when they do they call it super spicy/they cant get past the alcohol.

People should really start to recommend other options that are lower in proof first before sending an individual into the gauntlet of BP bourbon. Tell them to explore the distilleries, try to stay under the 50% for people who haven't specifically stated they drink BP bourbon. Tell them to avoid small/local distilleries because 9/10 they are trash( I will die on this hill), that isn't bourbon that's swill.

I've hosted tastings for friends and family. They usually tend to like things under the 50% mark because they aren't used to drinking the 6th tier 63% OBSK 4R. While sometimes they can enjoy the flavor they always remark about the heat.

Yes this morning I woke up and chose violence.

Edit: I already see that my post is working! Cheers! im pouring myself some Parkers Heritage Heavy Char to celebrate!

Doubt this will change anything. At least they are highlighting these illegal practices.

/r/Scotch 83,100

/r/Bourbon 83,123

We did it y'all.

Last year I shared the early stages of a big project: creating a complete database of reviews going back to the beginning of this sub. My focus was on non-flavored whiskey bottled in the U.S., with the goal of making it easy to look up a bottle or explore trends over time.

Today I'm excited to share both a desktop version for deep dives and a mobile version for quick lookups. But first, let's dive into the data!

The Highlights

• 46,060 reviews (November 2011 - February 2026)

• 40,475 scored reviews (Average Score: 6.8)

• 1,289 brands

• 3,782 reviewers

The Whiskey

Top 10 Most-Reviewed Brands

A lot of familiar names here. The only surprise is High West, though reviews have tailed off with just 431 in the 2020s. These 10 brands alone make up 33% of all reviews.

Reviews by Whiskey Type

Bourbon dominates with over 70% of reviews but Rye comes in with a slightly higher average score, didn't expect that.

The Top Shelf

Highest-Rated Whiskeys (min 30 reviews)

Russell's 15 takes the top spot, with George T. Stagg and Elijah Craig Barrel Proof impressing with 3 releases each in the top 10. Dropping the threshold to 20 reviews, Found North Peregrine 1st Flight scores an astounding 9.7 across 24 reviews. They sure know how to blend!

The Reviewers

Most Reviews

Congrats to u/Prepreludesh on an incredible 1,027 reviews, always love the research you put into them! u/Bailzay is coming fast for the crown with 885 reviews since their first in August 2023.

A Deep Dive on Proof

u/BourbonPursuit asked on a recent roundtable, "What's the perfect proof?" While there's no right answer, I can share some interesting numbers from the sub.

Stats by Proof Range

The highest percentage of reviews fall in the 100-109 range, but average scores steadily increase as proof goes up. 'Hazmat' has taken off in the 2020s, with 224 of the 320 reviews in that span.

A Consistent Rise in Proof

Average Proof by Review Year: https://imgur.com/8JQjfD1

The chart speaks for itself, average proof has been on a steady climb over the years. After a small pullback in 2025, it's back on the rise this year.

Fun Stats

• Brands beginning with 'Old': 67

• Oldest Whiskey Reviewed: Final Reserve 45 Year Bourbon by u/Zonkin. This one takes 'over-oaked' to a new level.

• Highest Proof Whiskey Reviewed: Obtanium Single Barrel Canadian Whisky at 163 proof by u/AlucardRises, who gave it an 8.

• Reviewers with 1 Review: 1,347. Guess reviewing wasn't for them.

• Year with the Most Reviews: 2020 wins by a mile, the only year with 5,000+ reviews. Wonder what caused that?

Try It Out

If you want to dig into the data yourself, check it out here:

American Whiskey Review Database (Desktop/Deep Dives)

Whiskey Review Finder (Mobile/Quick Lookups)

I'll be logging March reviews soon, and I'm sure I'll find more details to add down the road. Would love to hear any feedback or ideas!