The Blind Barrels tasting experience solves all that in a terrific and beautiful package. According to its owner, Bobby DeMars, the point is remove bias builders like brands and costs to let drinkers focus solely on the liquid before them. Tasting whis…
Such people are the ideal audience for ready to drink cocktails, a.k.a. RTDs. My friends enjoy variety in flavor and spirits, but more importantly, they like it delivered by someone else. This couple works hard, their children are gone, and though they…
River barges don’t seem large until you’re about to enter one. The vessel before me is 200 feet long, 24 feet wide and 24 feet tall: not diminutive by any stretch. (That a barge pilot and towboat can link together 35 of these and squeeze the lot throug…
Michter’s 2022 US*1 Barrel Strength Rye Whiskey is a great whiskey. Always has been and, hopefully, always will be when Michter’s own maturate from its Louisville plant is bottled in the future. This release, just like the 2021 and the 2018 releases I’…
The success of New Riff’s 5-year Malted Rye release in 2021 gave its team an idea: Finish this vibrant whiskey in 12, custom-made 53-gallon oloroso and Pedro Ximenez casks for a year, then vat the whiskey from each for another six months. The result is…
Contrary to what some have suspected, Jeff Arnett didn’t leave because he disliked the master distiller’s post at Jack Daniel’s. Even after 12 years in the high-stress role as the person in charge of whiskey making at the world’s most prodigious whiske…
Seeing Steve Nally in a suit and tie is unusual. Six-foot-four and broad-shouldered, the master distiller at Bardstown Bourbon Co. (BBC) has as good a frame for fine couture as any 71 year old. It’s just that few in the crowd of 80 gathered (on a recen…
Bardstown, Ky.-based Heaven Hill Distilleries announced it will spend $135 million to begin construction on a new distillery there this spring. According to a news release, construction of the plant is expected to conclude in late 2024. Located on a 61…
Does SOBAR really help slow alcohol absorption? After writing a commentary about drinking less in 2022, I received an email from a representative of SOBAR, a producer of what the company calls, “The snack designed for drinking.” A SOBAR is, as describe…
Townsend, Tenn., markets itself as “the peaceful side of the Smokies,” and indeed, it’s quieter than the fabricated expanse of Pigeon Forge and the din of crowded Gatlinburg. Townsend has the feel of a village scattered in plots over a several-mile str…
