Mount Gay XO Peat Expression rum
Mount Gay only released about 6,000 bottles of this super-unique XO rum, aged 8 to 15 years before finishing for six months in barrels previously reserved for peaty Scotch whisky. This combination might not sound amazing on paper, but it’s superb stuff, with a rich sweetness trailing into a long tail of smoke. Worth the cost (about $250) and effort if you can track it down.
Suntory Roku gin
If Japan was able to reverse-engineer (and some might argue improve) Scotch whisky, there’s no reason to think distillers there couldn’t do it with gin. And they did. This bright, tasty gin adds six (roku means “six” in Japanese) traditional botanicals—yuzu, sansho pepper, two kinds of green tea, cherry blossom, and cherry tree leaf—to a classic base of juniper, lemon peel, and coriander. Useful in a wide variety of applications, this just might give London dry gins a run for their money.
Compass Box “The Story of the Spaniard” whisky
Inspired by a one-off made for New York pub the Spaniard, this whisky is the industry-shaking producer’s first permanent release in four years. The blend is a hybrid of Scotch aged both in sherry casks and Spanish red wine casks. With lots of berries, citrus, baking spice, and slight tannins from the wine casks, I almost want to call it Christmas-y.
Del Maguey Wild Jabalí mezcal
This bottle has been racking up awards all year—and for good reason: Made from 100 percent Jabalí agave, which is notorious for being difficult to distill, this mezcal is wildly complex with rich fruit on the nose and woody herbal notes on the palate. I wouldn’t do anything else with this other than pour it in a glass and drink it.
Nonspirit “Spirit” Honorable Mention
Seedlip Grove 42