I had the pleasure of spending a lovely Saturday evening late last March at the annual Whiskies of the World event in San Francisco, drinking rare and uncommon whiskeys.  Coincidentally, in the same city, during the same weekend, a panel of experts were doing a blind tasting to determine the best whiskey in the world.

The Results made headlines the next day and had me scratching my head, because the winning whiskey was neither rare nor uncommon (at least not yet).

In fact, it was a whiskey that is so ubiquitously present on the lower middle shelf of spirits retailers that you’d almost take its existence there as much for granted as Jack Daniels or Makers Mark.

The winner of the best whiskey in the world was…Henry McKenna 10-year-old bourbon!(??)

I was stunned.

I then read that McKenna 10 had been highly rated in this competition before, winning best bourbon previously.

I was floored.

I vaguely recall trying McKenna 10 at some point in the past, but I had no distinct recollection of it. It was literally that forgettable. Any specific taste or aromatic aspects I may have mentally noted were lost in the vast sea of whiskeys I’ve tasted and decided not to add to my embarrassing large harem of bottles.

But to be fair, there may have been some price-based selection bias at work. McKenna 10 is a $30 whiskey, so there is a chance that I EXPECTED it to taste like a lower tier bourbon. That prejudice may have affected my judgment.

The experts at the blind tasting would have had no such bias since they had nothing to judge other than the whiskey itself. Considering it’s newly earned accolades, McKenna deserved another chance to win me over.

The problem was that I couldn’t find the damned thing anymore!

My plan was to head over to my local retailer a couple of days after I’d read about the competition results, snag a bottle and blog about my thoughts. But I was too late. Apparently, the moment after the results were published, the same trend-chasing whiskey lemmings who blindly drive up the price of any special release though over-buying, had already descended on McKenna 10 like booze soaked locusts.

The aftermarket price of McKenna 10 had skyrocketed to over $100!! There was no freakin’ way I was paying that much for a whiskey that was lingering on the shelf begging to be taken home like an abandoned puppy at the pound just a week earlier.

I performed an exhaustive online search for a retailer honest (or indifferent) enough to sell me a bottle at retail.  I finally found someone willing to do so, but he had a 4-month backorder! (which is why this post had to wait until June.

The long wait built up anticipation.  By the time I got the 2 bottles I ordered, I was really looking forward to seeing what I’d missed before.  So I tasted it again, specifically looking for the elements that caused the experts to give it such a notable ranking. I sniffed, I sipped. I sniffed and sipped again. My conclusion:

THERE IS NO FUCKING WAY THIS IS THE BEST WHISKEY IN THE WORLD!!

Hell, McKenna 10 isn’t even the best bourbon in its price range! Don’t get me wrong. It’s a perfectly fine whiskey. On the nose, you get the classic bourbon notes of maple, candy corn, a little caramel, and pine resin. Taste-wise, you get burnt sugar, some cinnamon oil (from the rye in the mash bill), and caramel corn. Overall, it’s a bit on the sweet side. There’s a decent but not terribly lingering aftertaste of dates and walnuts, and that’s about it. A solid bourbon, and well worth the $30 retail price. But the best in the world? Not a chance.

It’s not better than similarly priced bourbons and doesn’t hold a candle to the higher priced premium bourbons. And let’s not even talk about all the great Scotch, Irish, and Japanese whiskeys out there (remember, this won best WHISKEY in the world, not just best bourbon).

So how did the experts get it so wrong? Was it palate fatigue from tasting so many whiskeys? Was it a reverse of my selection bias mentioned above (they thought all the whiskeys were high-end so they convinced their senses of high-quality characteristics that weren’t really there)?

These are all guesses. I have no clue what they were thinking. I just know there is no reasonable way you can call McKenna 10 the best. Solid and worth the sticker price? Yes. but that’s it.  There are many more worthy bourbons out there

Of course, this is all just my opinion. You might think differently. If you disagree with my assessment, I still have that second bottle I’d be willing to sell you…at 50% above retail.

Cheers