Blanton’s is a very good bourbon. That part has never really been brought into question. The problem is getting a bottle without paying over the odds for it. In most brick-and-mortar stores, as well as online, Blanton’s Original Single Barrel is priced much higher than the $60-$80 that it should cost. Plenty of people have simply given up and gone looking for something else.
Despite this, it is easy to understand why Blanton’s has such universal appeal. The bottle is one of the most recognizable in bourbon, with its rounded shape and the collectible horse-and-jockey stoppers that spell out the name when you line them up. It is a single-barrel bourbon, the first ever commercially marketed, and is consistently rated highly by reviewers. Add the cult status and historical context on top of all that, and demand easily outweighs supply.
So, if you are looking for a Blanton’s alternative, the seven bottles below each deliver on one part of what makes Blanton’s worth wanting, or suggests a different aspect to enjoy, and you can buy every one of them without breaking the bank.
Four Roses Single Barrel, 50% ABV, $43+
Of everything on this list, Four Roses Single Barrel comes closest to Blanton’s for me. You can find it at Total Wine, ReserveBar, and Drizly without any hunting, and it sits on the shelf at a fair price all year round.
Four Roses makes ten different recipes, and the standard single barrel bourbon in the lineup uses the OBSV recipe. It uses a high-rye mash bill of 60% corn, 35% rye, and 5% malted barley, paired with a yeast strain known for delicate fruit and a creamy texture. The resulting bourbon is bright apple, honey, and a herbal sweetness that runs right alongside the rye spice, which is the same balance that draws people to Blanton’s in the first place.
There is more rye here than in Blanton’s, and at 100 proof it carries a bit more weight, so you get a fuller burst of peaches, brown sugar, spice, and Four Roses’ iconic buttery texture across the palate. The bottle helps too. It is heavy and nicely cut, with a wooden stopper that looks the part on a shelf or as a gift.
At around $50, this is fantastic value for money in my opinion. It is one of the bottles I will always replace in my house.
Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel, 55% ABV, $52+
Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel is the work of Jimmy and Eddie Russell, the father-and-son team at Wild Turkey with more than a century of distilling between them.
The mash bill is 75% corn, 13% rye, and 12% malted barley, which puts it in much the same grain territory as Blanton’s. The whiskey goes into the barrel at a low proof, so less water is added before bottling, and the spirit comes out dense and full of flavor. Expect rich caramel, plenty of oak, and a digestive biscuit sweetness running underneath.
It is bottled at 110 proof and non-chill filtered, so it drinks warmer and heavier than Blanton’s 93 proof. Skipping the chill filtration keeps the oils in the whiskey, which gives it a thick, almost oily feel in the mouth and a long finish of dark fruit, tobacco, and fading spice.
I am a huge fan of Russell’s Reserve, and this single barrel offering demonstrates just how much distilling excellence there is in the Wild Turkey family which, I am sad to say, is often overlooked. This one is for the drinker who likes the idea of Blanton’s but wishes the bourbon in the glass had more body and a bit more punch to it.
Woodford Reserve Double Oaked, 45.2% ABV, $49+
Part of the demand for Blanton’s also comes down to the look and feel of the bottle. Not only is it good bourbon, but it also looks great on the shelf. I think the same can be said for Woodford Reserve Double Oaked. It has real presence, with a wide, heavy base that feels solid in the hand and stands out on a home bar.
To make it, Woodford takes fully matured bourbon and puts it into a second new barrel for close to a year. That second barrel is deeply toasted and then given a light char, with the toasting breaking down the wood sugars that interact with the whiskey. The bourbon is sweet and rich, with toasted marshmallow, vanilla, dark chocolate, and burnt caramel.
At 90.4 proof it stays close to the easy-drinking nature of Blanton’s, so it works just as well for a guest or a newcomer as it does for someone who has been drinking bourbon for years.
This is the one to reach for when you want a sweet, dessert-like pour or a bottle that gives well, and you would rather not spend loads to get there.
Angel’s Envy Port Finish, 43.3% ABV, $35+
Another one of my personal favorites, Angel’s Envy was the first bourbon brand to be built entirely on the idea of cask finishing. The standard expression is finished for six months in port casks after aging for about four to six years.
The finishing time layers berry jam, plum, and a sweet syrup note over the usual vanilla and oak, and it all comes together into something soft and fruit-forward. At 86.6 proof it goes down easy and works well neat. The lower proof does make for a lighter body, but the port finish gives you plenty to explore on the palate. A reliable, fruity, fun sipper.
This is another bottle that has a premium look and feel. It is tall and sweeping, with angel wings etched into the glass, and it carries the same sense of occasion that a bottle of Blanton’s does.
This is the bottle for the drinker who wants the special-occasion feel of Blanton’s but prefers ripe fruit and a smooth, gentle pour over rye spice.
Maker’s Mark 46, 47% ABV, $39+
Maker’s Mark 46 is a different kind of pick. Blanton’s is a high-rye bourbon, while Maker’s Mark is wheated, with no rye in the mash bill at all. So this is not a flavor match, but I think that it works great for the drinker who likes how easy and sweet Blanton’s is to drink and is happy to trade the rye spice for the soft, round character that wheat brings.
You can find it almost everywhere, from Total Wine to ReserveBar to most grocery stores that sell spirits.
To make the 46, Maker’s takes its standard bourbon and finishes it with ten seared French oak staves placed inside the barrel. The French oak adds cinnamon, dark cherry, and a deeper charred-oak note on top of the usual caramel and vanilla. It has won awards for years, and at this price, it is one of the easiest recommendations to make. Another house bottle that you can’t really go wrong with if you like wheated bourbons.
Evan Williams Single Barrel, 43.3% ABV, $30+
Evan Williams Single Barrel proves you do not need to spend much to get a real single-barrel bourbon. Hailing from Heaven Hill Distillery, it is the only vintage-dated single barrel on the market, which means each bottle is marked with the year the whiskey went into the barrel along with the bottling date and the barrel number.
The mash bill is 78% corn, 10% rye, and 12% malted barley, and it is aged for about seven to eight years. The flavor is classic Kentucky bourbon, with caramel and vanilla up front, a slightly nutty note underneath, with oak and spice.
At such an unbelievably low price for a single barrel bourbon, it is hard to turn your nose up at Evan Williams. If the single barrel nature of Blanton’s is what appeals to you, Evan Williams makes a great alternative for a fraction of the price.
John J. Bowman Single Barrel, 50% ABV, $66+
This is a bit of a wild card, but stay with me. Some people want Blanton’s for one simple reason: it is a Buffalo Trace product. John J. Bowman Single Barrel is the bottle that scratches that exact itch. It is made at the A. Smith Bowman Distillery in Virginia, which is owned by Sazerac, the same company behind Buffalo Trace.
The connection runs deeper than shared ownership. According to Master Distiller Brian Prewitt, speaking to Bourbon Pursuit in 2020, Buffalo Trace ferments and runs the first distillation on a mash bill made specifically for Bowman, then sends the high wines to Virginia, where Bowman takes over and finishes the job.
Once it arrives, Bowman runs it through another distillation in their copper pot stills and then ages it for around nine to ten years in Virginia’s swinging climate. What you get is rich and full, with baking chocolate, green apple, and vanilla on the nose, and a creamy palate of malted chocolate, oak, and corn syrup. At 100 proof it has more backbone than Blanton’s 93.
One thing to keep in mind. Bowman is not always easy to find. It is strong in Virginia and around Washington, D.C., but spottier elsewhere, and it does not sit on every shelf the way Four Roses or Woodford does. It is still far easier to track down than Blanton’s in most places.
If You Only Buy One: Four Roses Single Barrel
Every bottle here solves a different part of the Blanton’s problem. If you want the one bottle that covers the most ground, though, for me it is Four Roses Single Barrel.
It gives you a true single barrel, so every bottle is a little different, the same as Blanton’s. The high-rye OBSV recipe lands close to the sweet fruit, caramel, and rye spice that makes Blanton’s what it is, with a bit more weight at 100 proof. The bottle looks good enough to give as a gift. Most of all, it is never caught up in the allocation mess, so you can find it on a normal shelf for around $50.
None of this means you have to chase a unicorn bourbon. The bottle everyone is fighting over is not the only good bourbon out there, and in a lot of cases, it is not even the best one on the shelf. Pick up one of these instead, take it home, open it, and tell us what you think.
Read the full article at 7 Bourbons to Buy Instead of Blanton’s
