From rare single malts to affordable and accessible American whiskeys—and three non-whiskies—these Father’s Day picks are guaranteed crowd-pleasers
Your dad has enough ties, novelty T-shirts, coffee mugs, and socks. Upgrade your gifting game and get him something that will replace a forced smile with a wide grin: a wonderful bottle. Whether he’s a seasoned sipper or a whisky neophyte, we’ve selected 12 standout spirits ranging from special scotch single malts to cult-favorite bourbons to accessible, underrated ryes—and a few exceptional whisky-adjacent options—all guaranteed to earn you favorite-child status. Here’s hoping whatever you buy him, Dad will crack the bottle and pour a glass for you, too.
L'Encantada Tattoo Series Grape Brandy Finished in Ex Bourbon Casks
L'Encantada L'Esprit Armagnac, ABVs And SRPs Vary
If dad likes armagnac, a bottle of L’Encantada will make his year. Prices and proofs vary by vintages, though there’s something available at most price points.
L'encantada XO - Cigar Reserve
The widely available XO Cigar Blend ($123) has a super nice body and texture and pairs well with cigars, while the Tattoo Series 3 ($169) boasts a beautiful label and liquid—the brandy's been finished in Weller barrels.
It’s not hard to think these gorgeous orange-waxed bottles might soon become, cough, the Pappy of Armagnac.
Just as the unicorn is a mythical creature, the often bandied-about stuff of legends, its mesmerizing beauty frequently discussed but rarely seen, so too are many of the most famous bottles in the bourbon world today. Unlike that spiral-horned equine, however, there was a time these whiskey unicorns actually appeared “in the wild”— in other words, on store shelves — before hunters started taking them out.
L’Encantada Armagnac
While single barrels were generally disqualified from this exercise, this bottleronly releases single barrels from a variety of tiny Armagnac estates like Lous Pibous and Le Frêche (with the exception of its excellent XO Armagnac, a blend of barrels usually limited to around 2,000 bottles). If bourbon drinkers are seemingly willing to spend any amount of money on whiskey, the same is not quite true for brandy, even if it’s older, rarer, and assuredly more delicious. (Taste hardly matters for unicorn status — sad but true.) But the tide is slowly turning and two- and sometimes three-decades-aged releases from L’Encantada that used to sell for under $100 and used to linger on shelves for months, are now going for two to three times that and lasting mere weeks in some cases. It’s not hard to think these gorgeous orange-waxed bottles might soon become, cough, the Pappy of Armagnac.
