The Best Bourbons Under $50

Blended from the distillery's lettered recipes - OBSK and OESO are both named on the page - and put out at 90 proof, aged 6 to 7 years. That age range is the tell: enough barrel in it to taste like something, enough restraint that it never turns into a woodpile. Four Roses Small Batch, 90 proof, is the most complete neat pour here, and the clearest demonstration of what blending does to a bourbon.

Aged between 6-8 years and bottled at 101 proof, in American white oak barrels the brand describes as coated in the deepest alligator char. Neat, it is the most bourbon-tasting bourbon on the list: caramel left too close to a fire, then a long dry finish. It is also excellent in a cocktail, which is a bonus rather than the reason Wild Turkey 101 sits this high.

Bottled at 100 proof, a number the brand ties to founder George Garvin Brown, who put his signature on every bottle. Sweet, hot, banana and clove, and it refuses to collapse over ice. Take Old Forester Signature 100 Proof over the 86 rather than the other way round - the extra proof is doing real work, and a neat pour is where you notice it most.

Named for the preacher the brand credits with charring oak barrels, and its page says every Elijah Craig bourbon still goes into Level 3 charred new oak, which releases caramelized sugars, vanillin, wood smoke and spice. You can taste the argument. Elijah Craig Small Batch, 94 proof, is the sweet spot: enough sugar to be friendly, enough smoke to stop it being dull.

Nine years in white oak, bottled at 100 proof, both stated on the distillery's own page. That is a real age statement rather than a vague gesture at smallness, and it drinks like one: thick, dark, faintly leathery, oak sitting right on top. Knob Creek 9 Year, 100 proof, is the heaviest neat pour on the list and the slowest one to finish.

Jimmy and Eddie Russell are named on the page as the pair who craft this one, aged in No. 4 alligator char barrels and bottled at 90 proof. Ten years at that strength is an unfashionable combination and it works: soft, dusty, orange peel, no burn to speak of. Russell's Reserve 10 Year, 90 proof, is the quiet one here and the bottle that empties fastest.

Made from the distillery's Mash Bill #1 and bottled at 90 proof, 45%, with its own page pitching it as the flagship Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey carrying over 200 years of heritage. Sweet corn, brown sugar, a finish that ends politely. Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon is placed on how it drinks and nothing else - neat, it is the least complicated pour here, which cuts both ways.

Wheat carries this one, and the maker's page calls it their signature Wheated Bourbon, balancing toffee against buttery caramel and honey. It is 92 proof, 46% alcohol, distilled and bottled by Old Fitzgerald Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky. Larceny Small Batch, 92 proof, is rounder and far less peppery than anything above it, and that softness is exactly why it stops short of the top half.

Sweet mash instead of sour mash is the point of this distillery, and its page describes the launch as the first bottled-in-bond wheated sweet mash bourbon released since Prohibition, then calls this bottle its flagship whiskey. The spec block on that page carries no figures, so no proof is quoted here. Wilderness Trail Kentucky Straight Wheated Bourbon drinks bready and unhurried, and it lands mid-table because it goes quiet before the bottles above it do.

Soft red winter wheat stands in for rye, which the distillery states plainly on its page, and the bottle goes out at 90 proof, 45% alcohol. That grain is why it drinks like sweet bread rather than pepper. Maker's Mark, 90 proof, in the red wax, is smooth to a fault: nothing in it is wrong, and nothing in it makes you stop mid-sip either.

The brand's page ties the name to Evan Williams, who opened a Kentucky distillery on the banks of the Ohio River in 1783; the bottle itself is 86 proof, 43% alcohol. Medium amber, vanilla and mint on the nose, oak and brown sugar to taste - those are the page's notes, not mine, and they are accurate. Evan Williams Bourbon, 86 proof, is lighter than everything above it and never unpleasant.

Distilling on the site dates to 1812 and the property is a National Historic Landmark, both from the whiskey's own page, which also lists 90.4 proof and 45.2% alcohol. This is the polished one: clean, floral, correct. Woodford Reserve Bourbon Whiskey, 90.4 proof, sits low because that polish reads as thin next to the 100-proof bottles above it, not because anything in it is broken.

High rye is the entire personality, and the brand's page says so: an exceptionally high rye content in a blend of rye, corn and barley malt, bottled at 45% alcohol. Dry, peppery, a mint note at the end. Bulleit Bourbon Frontier Whiskey makes the best Manhattan on this list and still lands last, because what is ranked here is the neat pour, and neat is where that dryness hollows out.