Whisky Focus - Whisky Bible 2017 Names Booker's Rye Best Whisky

American Booker's Rye Whiskey takes the top honour in Jim Murrays Whisky Bible 2017.

It is that time of year again, Jim Murrays Whisky Bible 2017 is about to hit the shelves of the book shops and as usual just before it hits those shelves the list of whiskies picking up the top honours in Jim's latest edition of the Whisky Bible has been made available.

The headline grabbing No. 1 whisky this year, better known as the Whisky Bible World Whisky of the Year 2017 is Booker's Rye Whiskey the first-ever rye whiskey released by the premium Booker’s Bourbon brand.

After being tasted alongside 1,240 other new whiskies in this year’s Whisky Bible, Booker’s Rye is described by Jim Murray as "simply a staggering example of a magnificent rye showing exactly what genius in terms of whiskey actually means."

Booker’s Rye features a never-before-released rye mash bill, it is aged for just over 13 years and bottled uncut and unfiltered, true to Booker’s Bourbon standards. Released in extremely limited quantities earlier this year, it is made from some of the last rye barrels laid down by Booker Noe and marks one of his greatest and final experiments to date.

I was personally pleased to see Jim name the new Glen Grant 18 year old as his runner up this year, one of three new Scotch single malts added to the Glen Grant whisky range earlier this year, it is sure to draw attention to the excellent new Glen Grant whisky range of which my personal favourite is the Glen Grant 12 Year Old Non Chill-Filtered travel retail exclusive but for your money they are all worth a try.

Taking the third spot this year was another American whiskey, William Larue Weller Bourbon (Bot.2017), the wheated expression in Buffalo Trace's very highly rated annual Antique Collection bottlings.

Joining the Beam Suntory owned Booker’s Rye with a best-in-class ranking this year is Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2016 – a follow-up to the 2013 edition that won Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible’s World Whisky of the Year 2015. In the 2017 Whisky Bible, Yamazaki Sherry Cask 2016 swept both Japanese Whisky categories, earning "Japanese Whisky of the Year" and "Single Malt of the Year (Multiple Barrels)".

A notable Scotch blended whisky in the 13 to 18 years category is the outstanding travel retail exclusive Chivas Regal 18 Year Old Ultimate Cask Collection First Fill American Oak which I reviewed 2 years ago and named as my best new blended whisky of 2015, it appears to have taken Jim some time to notice it.

It was also good to see Gordon & MacPhail take the awards for Best Scotch Single Malt 41 years & over for their Glen Grant 1952 and Glen Grant 1950 65 Year Old, the folks at G & M seem to have a knack for turning out some outstanding mature Glen Grant bottlings, if these are as good as the outstanding first fill sherry cask matured Rare Vintage Glen Grant 1954 I had the pleasure of last year they will be well worth trying to get hold of.

Not all the whiskies picking up Jim's top awards are limited edition or hard to get, picking up the top Irish Whiskey of the Year is the brilliant Irish Single Pot Still Redbreast core range whiskey Redbreast 21 Year Old, a must try for Irish pot still whiskey drinkers, a deliciously juicy mature Irish single pot still whiskey.

To find out what else Jim thinks is good, his Whisky Bible 2017 is now available to order from Amazon with FREE delivery.

You will also find all of the Whisky Bible 2017 award winning whiskies which are still available to buy over at Master of Malt website, meanwhile here is the full list of the Whisky Bible 2017 category winners:
 

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