By Richard Thomas Rating: A- Bourbonola is a nod to the long history of the Lexington Brewing Company. By that, I don’t mean the modern company, which was established in 1999 and is very much a creation of the late period of the Craft Beer 1.0 era. There is an earlier Lexington Brewing Company, one …
By Richard Thomas Rating: A- Larceny Barrel Proof has been bucking the expectations for what wheated bourbon is supposed to be lately. Through 2023, the expression became quite spice-driven, although how much so varied from batch to batch. Although they still had a softened character, and were certainly not falling into the spicy and dry …
By Richard Thomas Rating: A- A sample of the latest Bernheim Original Barrel Proof, the A224 (meaning first batch of the year, February 2024) arrived at my house in a timely manner, because I was departing for visitation with my son a couple of weeks later. So I tucked it away in my luggage, took …
By Richard Thomas Rating: A- Although Lexington Brewing occupies a clear place in my heart, their place in the beer world is not quite as easily summed up. On the one hand, the company is owned by Alltech, not a big drinks conglomerate. Although Alltech is a substantial company, their base is in animal feed, …
By Richard Thomas Rating: A- Having reached the apogee of the Isle of Skye ladder of blended whisky, I’ll not repeat the details of the brand or the maker, Ian Macleod Distillers. If you want those tales, you can go back and review the previous installments in the line. There are five of them, and …
By Richard Thomas Rating: A The revived brand King of Kentucky is the latest ultra-aged entry to enter the lists of the Autumn Release Season, the period when most of the prized annual editions are sent to market. This year, King of Kentucky enters its sixth edition. The modern rendition of King of Kentucky was …
By Randall H. Borkus Rating: A- Beam Suntory’s Hardin’s Creek line of whiskeys, launched just last year, is back with a new trilogy called “The Kentucky Series.” The theme is exploring the impact of very specific buildings and locales inside Kentucky on maturation. All three bourbon whiskeys were laid down with the same mashbill 17 years …
By Andrew Graham Rating: A A joke that whisky nerds often make is that we should all band together and drink more sherry to support the Scotch industrial complex, the joke being that many popular Scotch whiskies spend time in the Sherry butts, which are quite expensive and hard to come by lately. More Sherry …
By Richard Thomas Rating: A- It’s been seven and a half years since Elijah Craig Small Batch went from 12 years old to No Age Statement, informally hovering between 8 and 10 years old. During that time, people like me have pointed to Elijah Craig Barrel Proof as a way to get at what the …
By Richard Thomas Rating: A- For its 16th release of the annual limited edition of Four Roses Small Batch, the Lawrenceburg, Kentucky distillery is also marking its 135th brand anniversary. That’s right: although the distillery dates to 1910 (and is thus a historic site in its own right), the brand goes all the way back …
