By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Bruichladdich (pronounced “bru-kla-dee”) is one of the distilleries that bucks against the popular image of Islay, the island of peat, or at least they do with one foot. They are one of the whisky-makers on the island that doesn’t do nothing but peated whisky, but that isn’t to say they …
By Richard Thomas Rating: C- Although the company was notionally started earlier, it’s been more than a decade since WhistlePig 10 Year Old Rye was first released. The product was very much a creation of opportunity and moment. Raj Bhakta, a former investment banker, Apprentice contestant and Congressional candidate, wanted to start a whiskey company. …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B- Uncle Nearest almost instantly became a well-known whiskey brand thanks to two points. First, it’s named for and honors the legacy of Nathan “Nearest” Green, the slave who is known to have worked as distiller and taught Jack Daniels the whiskey-making trade in the 1850s. Second and related, it’s a …
By Randall H. Borkus Rating: B+ Kentucky Peerless Double Oak Bourbon is a twice-aged bourbon that was inspired by an accident, which required the distillery to transfer the bourbon from one leaky barrel to another barrel to salvage the contents. Mind you, double new oak bourbon predates the start of Peerless by several years, but …
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 Of the two single barrel reserves made by Rochester’s Black Button Distilling, my impression is that their Port Barrel-finish is better known than the Apple Brandy finished bourbon I took up a few weeks ago. The pedigree is quite similar: Black Button made it with their four grain mash bill, …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Reading the specifications behind the new Orphan Barrel release, Fable & Folly, makes it sound like the swan song of this Diageo-made series. Series Master Blender Andrew Mackay drew on “remaining stocks of Barterhouse, Forged Oak and various Rhetoric releases with aged rye and corn whiskies.” Knowing a bit about …
By Randall H. Borkus Rating: A+ The Jack Ryan Whiskey Company presents small releases of malt whiskeys, aged and finished in their own stock of select barrels. Jack Ryan whiskey finishes range from classic ex-bourbon casks to innovative rum and Madeira casks, and include collaborations with small, quality spirit producers. Jack Ryan “The Centenary” is …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B The second in the new Benriach “Season” series whiskies is Malting Season, so named because Benriach is one of just seven Scottish distilleries still engaged in on-site, in-house floor malting. Indeed, Benriach itself only resumed the practice in 2012. For this particular single malt, the wort was made using Concerto …
By Richard Thomas Rating: A Among the Kentucky Majors, Heaven Hill has the strongest reputation for wheat whiskey, built on their 2005 introduction of Bernheim Original Wheat Whiskey. That was years before anyone even spoke of a craft whiskey sector, which is where most of Heaven Hill’s competition in this department comes from. The only …
