Chapter 3: The 5 Building Blocks of a Great Home Bar

There are so many different bourbon brands and distilleries to sort through, it can be pretty damn hard to choose which bottles to keep in your home bar. The good news is that you don’t have to spend much more than 30 bucks on something worth drinking. 

In this section, we’ll cover five bottles you should always have on hand. The big Kentucky distilleries make some of the most affordable and dependable bourbon you can find. These five bottles represent classic bourbon flavor profiles, with some on the higher ABV end of the spectrum and a few at a mellow 80 proof. These bourbons are made from traditional corn/rye/barley mash bills, although a few up the percentage of rye for a spicier palate.

Wild Turkey
Turkey is known for a powerful "punch" of flavor. It's widely understood that its full-bore flavor stems from its proprietary yeast, which it uses across its entire bourbon lineup. This Kentucky distillery has been making bourbon under the watchful eyes of master distiller Jimmy Russell for decades, along with his son Eddie, who got that coveted title as well in 2015.

A great place to start is the distillery’s core Wild Turkey 101 is a high-proof bourbon that is full of flavor and will amplify any cocktail you make.

Heaven Hill
Heaven Hill's strength is versatility. Cheap (and good) ryes, cult-favorite corn whiskey, celebrated collector's items, single barrel bourbon and even a wheat whiskey; there is no whiskey Heaven Hill can't make well.

The budget-priced Evan Williams Black Label is a tasty bourbon, but if you can find the bottled-in-bond White Label version, pick that up instead as its higher proof means a bit more flavor.

Four Roses
The uniqueness of its mash bill and yeast combinations has made Kentucky-based distillery Four Roses a favorite with collectors, who strive to find a bottle of every combination of mash and yeast (ten total). All of these are blended together for the flagship bourbon, once known as Yellow Label, though the color has now changed to more of a beige.

Try the Small Batch, which is a blend of just four of the recipes, for something a bit more refined.

Jim Beam
Jim Beam recently made waves by bringing age statements — clear numbers printed on a bottle's label indicating how long the liquid matured in barrels — back from the dead on its Knob Creek line.

While the White Label bourbon will do in a pinch, for about $10-$15 more you can get a bottle of Knob Creek. This bourbon is part of the distillery’s Small Batch Collection, and at nine years old is a steal for the price.

Old Forester 
Old Forester is famous — or infamous, depending on who you ask — for a very specific backnote on its bourbon: bubblegum. Whether it's the yeast, aging techniques, proof points or some combination of the three, under the classic bourbon profiles lies a whiff of Big League Chew.

This distiller makes high-quality affordable bourbon that you can find bottled at different ABVs. The 86-proof version is a decent pick, but spend a few more bucks on the 100-proof bottle for something even better.

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You can pick up a few (or maybe all) of these bottles for less than 100 bucks, so try running through them all to see how they compare. Maybe the heat of Wild Turkey is your zone, or perhaps it’s that Jim Beam corn note that speaks to you. 

In our next chapter, we’ll take a look at how craft bourbon distilleries are competing with the old guard.