Every year the spirits world throws a big fancy party in San Francisco where the real heavy hitters show up — master distillers, buyers, writers, and a few hundred folks who just love a good drink. They blind-taste thousands of bottles, argue late into the night, and finally hand out the awards that actually matter. This year, when they got to the “Best New Bourbon” category, a little-known bottle from a Dallas brand nobody had heard of twelve months ago walked away with the crown.
The winner is Lasso Motel “Darts” Cigarette Blend Bourbon. And it only costs seventy-five bucks.
Image credit: Total Wine
For a lot of guys who’ve been around the bourbon game a while, that sentence probably sounds wrong. The bottles that usually win these things carry price tags that make your wallet sweat — three digits on the left side of the comma, limited releases, waiting lists, the whole circus. Yet here’s a bourbon made for drinking next to an ashtray that just beat them all, and you can actually buy it without selling a kidney.
Devin Odell started Lasso Motel in 2024 out of Dallas, Texas. He already had a reputation for turning out serious whiskey — his 18-year-old straight whiskey took Best in Show at the Ascot Awards this year and the New York World Spirits Competition last year — but Darts is something different. Odell looked around and noticed every new release was screaming “cigar blend” from the rooftops. He figured somebody ought to make one for the guys who still smoke cigarettes.
“With so many cigar blends out there, I felt like it was time for a cigarette blend — something more true to the Lasso Motel brand,” Odell said. “Cigarettes have their own kind of edge — timeless, gritty, unapologetic. Darts lives in that world. It’s made for the ones who feel at home in a dive bar.”
The whiskey itself comes out of Green River Distilling in Kentucky. Mash bill is 70% corn, 21% rye, and 9% malted barley — solid high-rye recipe that gives it some backbone. What makes it stand apart is the finishing: after the normal new-charred oak, they move it into old Armagnac, sherry, and Cognac barrels. That trio pulls in layers of leather, toffee, dried apricot, light vanilla, and a smoky tobacco note that doesn’t taste like someone dumped an ashtray in the barrel — it just feels like the memory of one.
Open a bottle and the first thing that hits is that leather and dried fruit. Pour it in a glass, let it sit a minute, and the tobacco comes forward without ever getting harsh. There’s a sweetness that reminds you of toffee or caramel corn, but the rye spice keeps everything in check. Add one ice cube if you want; it opens up even more. Or drink it neat while you’re on the back porch with a smoke — that’s what it was built for.
And at $62.00 - $74.99 on Total Wine, you’re not scared to pour a heavy one.
The Top Shelf Awards aren’t some little regional contest. They take the Best of Class and Best in Show winners from both the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and the San Francisco Ready-to-Drink Competition, fly everyone in, and throw a weekend-long event. Over four hundred people — distillers, bartenders, importers, writers — taste everything blind one more time and vote. When they handed the Best New Bourbon trophy to a cigarette-themed bottle from a one-year-old brand, more than a few eyebrows went up. Then they tasted it. Eyebrows went back down.
Odell says this one is personal. “It’s a bourbon that sticks with you — and it’s going to be my go-to for a long time,” he said. “Late nights, bourbon, and cigarettes — that’s Darts.”
There were plenty of other big names on the night. Rosebank 31-Year-Old took Best in Show Whiskey overall (and if you can find one, be ready to write a very large check). Starlight Distillery’s Japanese Mizunara-finished bourbon won Best Special Barrel-Finished and Best Overall Bourbon. Elijah Craig Barrel Proof and a stack of O.K.I. single barrels cleaned up in the straight bourbon categories. But when they announced the new releases, Lasso Motel Darts stood alone.
A lot of expensive limited editions are going to spend the next year trying to figure out how a seventy-five-dollar bottle made them look silly. Meanwhile, regular guys who just want something that tastes great next to a cigarette can order it today, pour it tonight, and not feel like they have to save the last two ounces for their grandchildren.
Sometimes the best new thing in bourbon isn’t the one with the biggest price tag or the longest story on the back label. Sometimes it’s the one that knows exactly who it’s for — the guys in the dive bar, the ones on the porch, the ones who never apologized for liking what they like.
Raise a glass. Darts just proved you don’t have to spend a fortune to drink the best new bourbon in the world.
