The World’s Best Bourbon—According To The 2024 ASCOT Awards

The modern whiskey boom has demonstrated time and again that world class examples of the liquid can hail from all corners of the globe. If you want exceptional single malt, for example, you no longer need to rely on Scotland. Notable offerings now flow out everywhere from Portland to Peru. Similarly, when it comes to bourbon, many exciting liquids on shelves today aren’t born in Kentucky. Although roughly 95% of the category comes from the Bluegrass State, great bourbon can and is coming out of all parts of the United States. Today we’re going to look at the latest case in point.

Smokeye Hill Barrel Proof Bourbon was recently named the “Best In Show” at the 2024 ASCOT Awards—a yearly competition, comprised of some of the industry’s top tasters. If you’ve never heard of this particular whiskey before, you can forgive yourself. Many of the judges from the ASCOTs—who evaluated entries blindly during a telecast on the Spirits Network—were shocked when their own winning pick was revealed to them. The producers of the whiskey, which is barreled, aged and bottled, in Colorado Springs, Colorado (and sourced from Lawrenceburg, Indiana), have had trouble keeping it in stock ever since.

The bourbon makes use of an heirloom variety of blue corn. Also present in that four-grain mashbill is more traditional yellow maize, rye and malted barley. The unusual distillate was rested in barrels for upwards of five years. Exact ABV varies by batch, but the winning entry clocked in at a whopping 132-proof. Nevertheless, it remains eminently approachable.

The “hottest” part of this juice is its nose, which tugs at the nostrils with ethanol—only slightly smothered by burnt caramel. After that, there’s a nectary sweetness to the sip that eventually evolves into ripened berry clusters upon repeated sip. A protracted finish reveals charred oak and tanned leather to temper the aforementioned fruit. It exits the palate with a rich oiliness. And it bested big names no less venerable than George T. Stagg to earn its “bourbon of the year” status at the ASCOT Awards.

You might ask, “What in tarnation are they putting in the water up there in Colorado Springs?” But that would be an irrelevant question here since this is a whiskey that’s unfiltered and undiluted as it exits the barrel. Maybe the elevation—6,000 feet high in the Rocky Mountains—has enhanced the relationship between oak and liquid. Maybe. What we can say for sure, though, is that this whiskey is seeing a mile-high surge in pricing on secondary markets.

Initially intended to retail at $90, it immediately sold out after its top honor and is now fetching nearly 10x that price on secondary market sites. No surprises there. And don’t be surprised when you find the next big thing in whiskey to come from a non-traditional region of production. In the modern whiskey boom, the best discoveries belong to the most adventurous of explorers.