There are a lot of famous names dabbling in celebrity spirits right now, but it’s becoming clear that only a few are truly in it for the love of the game. One unexpected dark horse to watch in 2026 is country singer-songwriter Eric Church. The “Drink in My Hand” crooner first dipped a glass into the whiskey world with Jack Daniel’s in 2020. That bottle (just a single barrel pick) was fine, but Church left that experience with a passion for whiskey that has since led to an exciting new brand all his own called JYPSI.
Whiskey JYPSI is a partnership between Church, financier Raj Alva, and whiskey maker Ari Sussman designed to do creative things in a bottle. In a world where actors and singers slap their name and likeness on whatever a Kentucky marketing department offers them, Church and Alva hired Sussman onto the team to help them think outside the very type of box that most of the other “celebrity” brands never escape.
This is probably a good time to mention what those pitfalls actually are. There are only a few things you need to do “right” to make some interesting products. An A-list actor doesn’t need to run a still, or read Noah Rothbaum’s Whisky Bible to make something great, but they do need to have ideas, and to find someone to compensate for what they don’t know, and translate vision into a liquid.
Most of the celebrity whiskeys on shelves right now are slightly different versions of products you could have bought before, under a different name, for much cheaper. For the new consumers this whiskey will be introduced to, the distillery offers the celebrity a “crowd-pleasing” turnkey whiskey to do their product placement and an ad campaign with. And then they move on.
JYPSI isn’t just bottling someone else’s barrels, instead looking for stave finishing experiments to conduct, as they do for their 6-year-old Explorer Bourbon, or double barrel finishes, as they do for the 4-year-old Tribute Bourbon. But for their top-tier Legacy Series, the process has been many times more creative — and complicated.
Take the most recent release — a deconstructed, American-style Rye whiskey called “The Declaration.” It’s reverse-engineered from very unusual liquids. Sussman sourced a 20-plus-year-old corn whisky from Canada to make up 30 percent of the blend that’s sweet and creamy. This corn whiskey was finished in new American oak for two years (a move that likely adds intense flavor and color to Canadian corn whiskey, which typically tends to be pale in color and subtle in flavor, owing to Canada’s preference for barrels that have been used one or more times already).
Then he went to Virginia to find the 10 percent of American single malt used to add nutty, earthy depth. And while Sussman did admittedly go with “Indiana rye” for the remaining 60 percent (one of the most common recipes from one of the most common distilleries in the non-distilling whiskey world), Sussman finished the rye (which is aged 8-12 years) in apple brandy barrels before blending. Those barrels, acquired from the Mount Vernon Distillery, were previously used by that distillery’s project to distill the way George Washington would have in his time.
If most celebrity whiskeys are crowd pleasers, Declaration feels intentionally blended to shock the crowd. It also echoes the design of previous “Legacy” batches — batch 002 took a corn-centric approach by blending 11-year-old Tennessee whiskey with 18-year-old Canadian rye and 10-year-old single malt from Indiana.
There’s no doubt that the celebrity booze market has ballooned in recent years. Maybe it started with George Clooney’s big cash-in on tequila, or with Bob Dylan deciding he wants to build a distillery, or with Matthew McConaughey partnering with the folks at Wild Turkey. All of the A-listers are doing it, but very few of them are doing it right, or even doing it well. And then there’s Eric Church.
JYPSI is a daring attempt to make something that tastes different in a good way, rather than repackage what’s already selling. It may not replace Buffalo Trace, Maker’s Mark, or Wild Turkey, but that isnt’ really the point. JYPSI is supposed to be something different, and I don’t get the sense that that’ll change. Eric has put out several albums over 20 years, won countless awards — he knows how to play the long game and keep fans listening. For $200, Declaration is a curious drinker’s must-try — but it’s also an invitation to give JYPSI a chance to impress you, play the long game, and keep us drinking. I’m still new to the brand and excited to see what comes next, but I can already say I’m a fan.
G. Clay Whittaker is a Maxim contributor covering lifestyle, whiskey, cannabis and travel. His work has also appeared in Bon Appetit, Men’s Journal, Cigar Aficionado, Playboy and Esquire. Subscribe to his newsletter Drinks & Stuff for whiskey reviews and trends, perspectives on drinks, and stuff.
