About ten years ago, I posted something on Facebook about my ideal liquor store. Justins’ House of Bourbon meets most of the criteria I set for my perfect liquor store. There is an excellent selection of American whiskeys. They carry… Continue Readin…
Chet Zoeller, with his son Trey, founded the Jefferson’s Reserve brand. I have known Chet for over a decade and I helped him find information on many of the distilleries in the book. He is always looking for more information… Continue Reading →
I have always liked the whiskeys that Alan Bishop is making at the Spirits of French Lick Distillery. I was happy when he sent this bottle of rye whiskey to me the other day for review. I like his products… Continue Reading →
Last March I was invited to participate in a behind-the-scenes look at how Maker’s Mark picks their wood project series of whiskeys. Jane Bowie invited me and several other whiskey writers to her lab at the distillery. I have written… Continue Readin…
I am often asked “What books I should I but when building a library on American whiskey”. I have put together this list of books that are a foundation of a good reference library. They cover history, but also the… Continue Reading →
Every year, Michter’s releases their legacy brands of Shenk’s Sour Mash and Bomberger’s Bourbon brands. This year, the Shenk’s Sour Mash was aged in specially toasted French oak barrels whose staves had been air dried for 24 months from the… Continue…
When you look at Sanborn Insurance Maps from the pre-Prohibition era, you often see a distillery warehouses labeled as “Patent Warehouse”. These are warehouses with barrel racks. In 1879, Frederick Stitzel patented the system of barrel racks we see in….
Matt and I had a hard time picking this month’s Whiskey of the Month. I had received three samples of the Rare Character whiskeys – all of them are rye whiskeys. This was our favorite of the three and we… Continue Reading →
I received these bottles from Rare Character. Rare Character whiskeys are single barrel products chosen by different groups and offered through internet sales as well as the people who chose the barrels. They are bottled at barrel strength and unfilter…
Distillery tours have changed a lot since I started working in the industry in 1991. In 1991, distillery tours were limited to Maker’s Mark and Wild Turkey, who had visitor centers and offered tours. You could tour the other distilleries,… Continue R…
