By Kenrick Thurston-Wilcox Rating: B- With American Single Malt most likely becoming a legally recognized category, it seems Jack Daniel’s is trying to cash in on the hype. Tennessee whiskey is bourbon but with an extra filtration step added before barreling: the white dog is filtered through Maple Charcoal, the charcoal pulling out impurities similar …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B- West Virginia’s Smooth Ambler still has a lingering reputation for its sourced whiskeys, but those are steadily receding into the horizon as the distillery moves forward with its in-house spirits. Drinkers initially became familiar with their wheated bourbon, but the distillery also laid down some bourbon made with the traditional …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ A short history lesson is necessary to explain Bomberger’s Declaration. The 1980s and 1990s were a decidedly mixed period for the American Whiskey industry. On the one hand, the seeds of its future revival were being sewn with the creation of premium expressions, like Blanton’s and Elijah Craig. Maker’s Mark …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B Kentucky Owl released their St. Patrick’s Edition earlier this year, I rolled my eyes so hard the thud on the floor was audible in Louisville, Cincinnati and Bowling Green. Kentucky Bourbon for an Irish holiday stretches things a bit far for even a casual drinker, I should think. For those …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B Liquor generally and whiskey specifically is so popular these days, it seems many celebrities want to get in and own their own brand, and musicians in particular seem drawn to whiskey. Keeping that in mind, it probably shouldn’t be a surprise that Bob Dylan partnered with an outfit called Spirits …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ One of the problems with being a well-known, perhaps even ubiquitous brand is that even the most casual snob will bypass it. By “casual,” I mean a crippling case of toxicity or Kruger-Dunning effect is unnecessary. All someone needs is the notion that they should pursue something novel or (imagined …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B Balcones made it’s reputation with their very first whiskey, Baby Blue. This was partly because although they weren’t the first operational whiskey distillery in Texas (that was Garrison Brothers), they were the first one to release a product. The other reason is their innovative approach in making that product; Baby …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ A decade ago, Utah’s High West was a fan favorite, instantly earning a reputation for transparency at a time when a handful of whiskey bloggers led an often trollish obsession among enthusiasts with the sometimes shady marketing employed by non-distiller producers. High West was unusual in not only did they …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ It would be fair to say Pennsylvania whiskey begins and ends with its rye, and Pittsburgh’s Wigle Distillery is as good an example of how that works in practice as one is likely to find. Rye isn’t the only whiskey–nor whiskey the only spirit–they make there, but their rye footprint …
By Richard Thomas Redwood Empire Whiskeys comes from the Sonoma-based Graton Distillery, who created and inaugurated the brand with the release of three expressions in 2019: Pipe Dream, Emerald Giant and Lost Monarch. They followed up on that last year with the start of a bottled in bond brand extension, with two redwood forest themed …
