“It's so Good When it Hits Your Lips!”

New Riff Bottled-in-Bond Kentucky Straight Bourbon, ounce for ounce, one of my best purchases in years, combining my love of good bourbon with my love of a good bargain.

Just a little over a decade old, New Riff Distilling won the award for World's Best Bourbon at the 2026 World Whiskies Awards in early 2026, quite an accomplishment for a newer distiller and even more incredible for a bottle available for about $40 at your local retailer.

I’m a tried and tested bourbon consumer (not a connoisseur), so don’t expect to get feedback from me on “notes of this” or “hints of that”, but I can recognize a great tasting bourbon and I unequivocally know a good deal when I see it. New Riff gets high marks from me on both.

Mrs. Questionable is not my “Whiskey Girl” (in the words of Toby Keith), so while she enjoys my mixed Paper Planes, she abstains from bourbon ratings overall, so just four stars, but New Riff can comfortably anchor the end of your home bar and is a great budget-friendly bottle.