For almost two decades, the bourbon topping everyone’s unicorn list has been Pappy. Never mind that “Pappy” is shorthand for a bunch of whiskies. Some are called Old Rip Van Winkle, some are called Pappy Van Winkle—and they came from multiple sources over the years and, thus, taste rather different depending on what bottle you’re actually drinking. Still. The Pappy mystique, hyped early on by luminaries like Anthony Bourdain and David Chang and fed by the mad machine that is 21st-century fan culture, maintains a death grip on bourbon’s collective audience that no other bottles can touch.

It’s easy to understand why people love Pappy. It has a sterling reputation for quality, one rightfully earned. Most of the early bottlings came from Stitzel-Weller, a legendary distillery. It’s hard to get—and scarcity often makes something taste better, right? Its lineup is chock-full of extra-mature age statements, starting at 10 years and reaching all the way up to a quarter-century. And, of course, it’s worth a heck of a lot. Even if you intend to drink your Pappy, knowing that you could sell it and make a mortgage payment—as I write this, bottles of the 15-year version are going for an average of $2,600 on WineSearcher—probably enhances that enjoyment.

What to buy instead? In case you haven’t noticed, many other really great whiskies are both delicious and ripe for collecting. Many of them are just as old as Pappy—or even older. They may not come from Buffalo Trace—Pappy’s current home—but that also means they’re easier to find and, relatively speaking, more affordable.

Few of these are bargains, but for the bourbon lover building up a collection for either drinking or selling—or both—these bottles are solid bets. My recommendations include fairly obvious labels that should still be attainable at better retail outlets, as well as more surprising picks, including some non-bourbon whiskies, whose value I expect will grow.

A word of caution: I’m listing the distillers’ suggested retail prices for these bottles. Carefully consider any plans to spend much above them. These whiskies are great buys at their suggested prices, but returns can quickly diminish if you shell out for an overly-marked-up bottle. Overpaying also feeds into the frenzy that put Pappy out of reach in the first place, and makes the bourbon community a less fun place.  

But never fear. While this article has a few $300-and-above recommendations, there’s also plenty to find well under that threshold. And everything offers just as much quality and flavor as the Van Winkle lineup. If you’re wise with your buys, a few years from now, you’ll be sitting on a solid pile of bragging rights.

“Attainable” Age Statement Bourbons

Attainable is in quotes, because it’s a relative term, of course. But these extra-mature whiskies, all aged for at least 10 years, are in less-short supply than Pappy—sometimes far less—and can still be found at suggested retail price or just a little above it.

Knob Creek 12-, 15- and 18-Year-Old

Regular Knob Creek was always 9 years old— until 2016, when it dropped the age statement amid surging bourbon demand. In 2019, however, the 9 reappeared, and 12-, 15- and 18-year-old expressions soon followed. The 18 hit shelves at just $170 and still isn’t all that rare, even if retailers are hiking the price up to the low-to-mid $200s. The 15-year-old was originally priced at $100, and now goes for closer to $150, which is still a pretty great deal—and I contend it’s a better whiskey, balancing the woodiness of age with sweet spirit, edging around bitterness without getting bogged down in it. But for my money, Knob Creek 12 (suggested retail price: $60, and pretty close to that IRL) is the best bargain of all. Great quality, easier to find, and an absolute steal for bourbon of this age.

Hardin’s Creek Age Statements

In another life, these might have been bottled as the Knob Creeks above, considering both are made by the James B. Beam Distilling Co. Instead, they’re part of the limited-edition Hardin’s Creek lineup. Not everything in this series is super aged or worth buying. But if you’re after bourbon that’s old enough to drive, you could do much worse than the 2023 trio of 17-year-olds called Boston, Clermont, and Frankfort. (They’re named for the warehouse sites where they matured.) Lacking name recognition, they’re sitting on many shelves, often just above the suggested retail price of $170.

Barrell Gray Label and Gold Label

The high-end extension of craft blending house Barrell’s regular lineup, Gray Label and its older sibling Gold Label typically sport a hefty age statement and, like the rest of the company’s offerings, undiluted proof. These bottles aren’t cheap, but they are pretty easy to find, probably because, like with Hardin’s Creek, the Barrell name isn’t as widely known as others.

Michter’s 10

Michter’s is the rare brand that sets prices pretty close to what the secondary market will bear—though it seems the higher those prices go, the more folks are willing to pay. It starts to make sense when you get to taste some of the brand’s 10-year-old bourbon and rye (to say nothing of its 20- and 25-year-old bottles, which aren't recommended here given their rarity and extremely high prices). This is some of the best aged American whiskey you will find today: quality and flavor that echoes the legendary bottles of the “glut era” of the 1990s and early 2000s, when super-aged bourbon from the 70s and 80s was readily available because almost no one wanted it. These will likely be the toughest bottles to find at retail, and they’ll cost you several hundred bucks when you do, but they’re also the most sound investment on the list.

Insane Flavor and Sane Prices

Price doesn’t always correlate with quality, but these picks do a good job of matching up both. On top of that, they’re solid bets for collecting, likely to appreciate quickly and hold their value for a long time.

Maker’s Mark Cellar Aged

My pick for the best bourbon of 2023, and a bold step for Maker’s Mark, as it’s much older than past releases. This combines 11- and 12-year-old bourbons and launched at around $150—by far the most expensive Maker’s yet. It’s not nearly as rare as Pappy, but the analog of mashbill and deep flavor—both are wheated bourbons—is unmistakable. The inaugural batch has mostly sold out, and it looks like retailers have jacked up the prices on the remaining bottles. But if you can pick up future releases for close to the list price, you're really in for a treat.

Woodford Reserve Batch Proof

To many a bourbon nerd, Woodford is profoundly unsexy, so this semi-annual cask-strength release is chronically overlooked. Use that to your advantage and snag a bottle when you see it: the whiskey within is fantastic, easily the equal of more exciting names while undercutting their prices at $150. Even if you snub the brand’s regular lineup, Batch Proof stands as an unflinching reminder that this distillery turns out consistently high-quality stuff, regardless of how hip it is (or isn’t).

Heaven Hill Heritage Collection

This relatively new series—it debuted in 2022—showcases extra-mature whiskies from the deep inventory of America’s largest family-owned distillery. The official price—$300—isn’t cheap, but matches the age and quality of the liquid. And if you’re able to find it at its suggested price, it will appreciate more or less immediately. The 2024 Heritage Collection release is an 18-year-old bourbon, but my money is on last year’s 20-year-old corn whiskey as the dark horse most likely to achieve cult status.

One-Off Whiskies

(You'll Wish You'd Bought More of in 10 Years)

I predict these bottles will be worth much more down the road than what you’ll pay for them now. And if they aren’t, you’ll be more than satisfied just drinking them, especially since they won’t come around again.

Bardstown Bourbon Company Collaborative Series

Putting mature whiskey into a secondary cask to layer on additional flavor, known as barrel finishing, is a long-established practice for many distillers. But Bardstown Bourbon’s Collaborative Series emphasizes the specific sources of its finishing casks, touting partnerships with wineries like Phifer Pavitt, cognac houses, breweries, and more, and the bottlings are almost uniformly superb (although the orange curaçao finish yielded divided opinions). They’re also one-offs, so they’re attractive to scarcity seekers—which means they’ll only become more valuable as Bardstown uses up its stock of sourced aged whiskey and shifts to house-made spirit.

Westland Outpost Range

While American single malt has netted many fans among whiskey lovers, it’s still virtually unknown to most people. But I bet that, within a generation, the category will have cemented its place in the U.S. whiskey canon, and whoever picked up bottles early on will be sitting on a very desirable collection. It’s already too late to find Westland’s early batches of Garryana, its whiskey matured in native Pacific Northwest oak, which debuted in 2016. But you can still get in on the annual release, as well as its siblings, Solum—made with local peat—and Colere, distilled from local barley. All three are limited, tasty, and utterly unique.

Frey Ranch Single Barrels

Some collectors are already onto this Nevada farm distillery, and little wonder: while the core bottled-in-bond bourbon and rye are good, many single barrels, at cask strength, are extremely good. Revelatory, even. Currently, Frey Ranch is only distributed in a handful of states, and finding some can take some doing; the distillery confirms that single barrel picks are available in four to six states at any given time, and they sell out fast. When you happen onto a single barrel bottling you particularly like, consider buying a couple: one to drink, one to keep.

Limited-Edition Old Overholt

America’s oldest extant whiskey brand is also one of its least celebrated. That’s been changing as its parent company, Beam Suntory, has launched new expressions in recent years, like the very good and very good-value Bottled-in-Bond. But Overholt’s limited editions, often only available in Pennsylvania, where you'll have to buy them at state-controlled stores, are the real prize: they include cask-strength bottlings, age statements, and A. Overholt, a “Monongahela-style” rye that pays tribute to the brand’s roots. Antique Overholt from the pre-Prohibition days is one of the most sought-after whiskies among modern collectors. While the contemporary stuff isn’t comparable—it’s a completely different whiskey, after all—laying down a few limited-edition bottles at these highly reasonable prices is still a sound investment for the future.