The 7 Best American Single Malt Whiskeys Under $100

American single malt is no longer a novelty category. It has producers in Iowa, Virginia, Texas, New Mexico and the Pacific Northwest all making compelling cases that malted barley whiskey doesn’t have to come from Scotland to be worth your attention. The seven bottles below were ranked using The Daily Pour Critics’ Score, our proprietary metric that aggregates house ratings with scores from the most trusted critics across the internet. All seven clock in under $100, and several are well under that ceiling. Where scores tied, we used price, accessibility and editorial judgment to set the order.

7. Santa Fe Whiskey Original Mesquite

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At around $50 and 46% ABV, the Santa Fe Whiskey Original Mesquite from Santa Fe Spirits is the most approachable entry point on this list, and it earns its spot on merit rather than just price. Made from 100% malted barley with 30% mesquite-smoked malt standing in for the traditional peat of a Scotch, and aged in used bourbon barrels at 7,000 feet above sea level in New Mexico, this is a whiskey shaped as much by geography as by recipe. High-altitude aging accelerates interaction with the wood in ways that low-country distilleries simply can’t replicate, and the result is a spirit with a regional identity that feels earned. No tasting notes were available for this batch, but the concept alone makes it one of the more intellectually interesting bottles on the shelf at this price.

6. Andalusia Whiskey Co. Stryker Smoked Single Malt Whiskey

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Andalusia Whiskey Co. Stryker Smoked comes out of Blanco, Texas, at $51.99, making it one of the better-value bottles in this roundup. Double distilled in a copper pot still from 100% malted barley, smoked with a combination of oak, mesquite and apple woods, then aged at least two years in charred oak, the Stryker Smoked is a serious piece of craft for the price. The triple-wood smoke approach is the real story here: oak gives backbone, mesquite adds that distinctly Texan low-and-slow character, and apple wood keeps things from going full bonfire. Bottled at 50% ABV, it has enough weight to hold up in a glass without water, though adding a few drops wouldn’t hurt. At this price, it matched the Critics’ Score of several bottles that cost nearly twice as much.

5. Westland Wine Cask Finish American Single Malt Whiskey

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Westland has been one of the most methodical producers in American single malt since the beginning, and the Westland Wine Cask Finish American Single Malt Whiskey, priced at $74.99, is a showcase of what happens when a distillery takes grain selection as seriously as cask selection. Built on a five-malt mashbill of Washington Select Pale Malt, Munich Malt, Extra Special Malt, Brown Malt and Pale Chocolate Malt, aged a minimum of five years and finished across no fewer than five wine casks including Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Washington Red Blend and Petit Verdot, this is a whiskey that was clearly engineered rather than assembled. At 46% ABV, it sits at a gentler proof than several of its peers on this list, which makes it the most dinner-table-friendly option of the bunch. No tasting notes were available for this batch, but the cask program alone justifies the price of admission.

4. Whiskey Del Bac Ode To Islay American Single Malt

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Tucson, Arizona is not the first place that comes to mind when you think of Islay-inspired whiskey, but Whiskey Del Bac Ode to Islay makes a compelling argument that mesquite smoke and Scottish peat are more kindred spirits than you’d expect. Priced at around $90 and bottled at a robust 55% ABV, the December 2024 batch is aged in New American White Oak and finished across rye, Sauternes and Pineau de Charentes casks, which is a finishing program that would make plenty of Scottish distilleries jealous. The NAS designation is no obstacle here; what Del Bac is doing with smoke, oak and a trio of finishing casks produces a whiskey with considerably more complexity than many age-stated bottles. The Sauternes and Pineau de Charentes finishes in particular suggest something rich and honeyed waiting underneath the smoke.

3. Cedar Ridge The QuintEssential Pete & Sherri Married 1st Anniversary (2023)

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Iowa is not a state that typically shows up in conversations about world-class single malt, but Cedar Ridge Distillery keeps insisting on being part of that conversation, and the Cedar Ridge The QuintEssential Pete & Sherri Married 1st Anniversary is its most persuasive argument yet. This limited release marries 6-year-old single malt finished in a first-fill amontillado sherry butt with 6-year-old peated malt from an ex-bourbon barrel, bottled at cask strength (59.05% ABV), non-chill filtered, without added color. On the nose, there’s no peat to speak of; instead you get a malty, buttery, butterscotch-laced profile with a massive amontillado character that announces itself immediately. The palate is where things get more interesting: rich and viscous, with dry tannin, charred peaches, singed orange peel, cinnamon and white pepper, while the peat arrives late and rubbery rather than smoky, more of a structural element than a flavor. The finish is long, gritty and ashy, the dry sherry influence pulling things back to earth before that nutty, butterscotchy quality from the nose makes a quiet return. The amontillado influence is heavy throughout, and it works spectacularly.

2. Virginia Distillery First Cut Cigar Blend

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Seven years of aging across a cask program that includes Spanish oak, sherry, port, STR, Château Palmer Cabernet, Armagnac, Cognac, fino and Islay casks is either the most ambitious thing a Virginia distillery has ever attempted or the most reckless. Virginia Distillery Co. First Cut Cigar Blend, bottled at 54% ABV, proves that it’s the former. The nose alone is a full afternoon’s work: sea salt, shortbread, leather, tobacco, plum, chestnut, cinnamon, gingerbread, cotton candy and red grapes, with the Islay casks delivering briny peat character alongside nutty fino and a darker, stickier cognac quality. The palate delivers on that promise with big tobacco, raisins, browned butter, banana bread, honey, black pepper, rosemary, clove, seaweed and peat smoke, all moving in the same direction despite the sheer number of moving parts. The finish closes with cherry cola, clove, cinnamon, peppercorns, thyme, mint and tobacco. It is, by some margin, the most cohesive pour Virginia Distillery Co. has ever produced, and one of the best cigar-paired whiskeys made anywhere.

1. Copper Fox Peachwood American Single Malt

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The top score on this list goes to a bottle that does something no one else on the list does: it uses peachwood at every stage of production. Copper Fox Peachwood American Single Malt, made in Northern Neck, Virginia, incorporates peachwood as a smoking medium during kiln drying and then again as a maturing element inside the barrels themselves. That kind of ingredient coherence is rare in any spirits category, and Copper Fox has built its entire identity around it. At 96 proof (48% ABV), non-chill filtered and priced in the $30 to $60 range, this is also the strongest value proposition on the list, earning a 94 from our critics while costing less than half of what some competitors charge. The peachwood-through-and-through approach gives this whiskey a singular character that no amount of exotic cask finishing can replicate, because it’s baked in from the very beginning. That’s what puts it at number one.

American single malt is producing some of the most original whiskey in the world right now, and these seven bottles prove that originality doesn’t require a four-figure price tag. Whether you start at the bottom of this list or go straight for the Copper Fox, you’re getting whiskey that’s making a genuine argument for why this category deserves a permanent place in your rotation.