I used to buy spirits for a handful of restaurants/bars and since no one has really answered your question yet I’ll suggest a few.
-Whistle Pig is great and widely available. There’s a handful of old world, single barrel, speciality bottlings that are quite nice. I didn’t much care for the Madeira one personally but others seem to really like it
-Jefferson’s ocean aged
-michters barrel strength
-heaven hill grain to glass
-very olde St Nick (I’ve only tried 8yr, summer, and harvest)
-willet family 7yr
Above $100, in my opinion, you quickly hit diminishing returns. There’s honestly little reason to think $180 bottle is better than $100. If you can find it, it’s never a bad idea to try it first at a bar or liquor store that offers that.
I used to buy spirits for a handful of restaurants/bars and since no one has really answered your question yet I’ll suggest a few.
-Whistle Pig is great and widely available. There’s a handful of old world, single barrel, speciality bottlings that are quite nice. I didn’t much care for the Madeira one personally but others seem to really like it -Jefferson’s ocean aged -michters barrel strength -heaven hill grain to glass -very olde St Nick (I’ve only tried 8yr, summer, and harvest) -willet family 7yr
Above $100, in my opinion, you quickly hit diminishing returns. There’s honestly little reason to think $180 bottle is better than $100. If you can find it, it’s never a bad idea to try it first at a bar or liquor store that offers that.