By Richard Thomas Rating: A The most interesting twist in the dubious Great Bourbon Shortage storyline is how Jim Beam has consistently defied it these last few years. The first act of defiance was in 2019, when it was announced the the flagship Knob Creek brand would return to its roots as a 9 year …
By Andrew Graham Rating: A- If you don’t know what the Remus Repeal Reserve series is, here’s what’s up: MGP is the giant whiskey factory on the border of Kentucky and Indiana that mostly does contract distilling, selling the juice that other whiskey brands (“non-distilling producers”) put their labels on and market. You’ve heard of …
By Richard Thomas Rating: A My first thought when I read about the Old Fitz Bonded coming out this season looked back on when the series was first launched, and how the croakers derided the series as a rip-off, complaining that one of their old favorites had been replaced by an ordinary bourbon with a …
By Richard Thomas Rating: A- In Royal Brackla’s repackaged regular line-up, the 21 Year Old expression is the crown, but it’s got a bit more sparkle than just a high age statement. Some whiskies are finished in old Sherry casks, but this one draws on three different types of Sherry wood stock: Oloroso, Pedro Ximenez …
By Richard Thomas Rating: A- The latest creation of Rachel Barrie, the Master Blender of the BenRiach Group (also known as the Scotch Whisky arm of Brown-Forman) is also the latest installment in Glendronach’s Grandeur series, a 28 Year Old single malt aged in Pedro Ximénez and Oloroso Sherry casks. Since some readers might wonder …
By Richard Thomas Rating: A+ Although Teeling Whiskey Company is well past its days of being solely reliant on sourced whiskey stocks for their work, having opened their Dublin distillery in 2015. That said, they still have some ultra-aged stuff socked away to play with, which is why we get periodic releases of things like …
By Douglas Fraser Rating: A- Shady Mile is said to be made (sourced) from the tenth oldest distillery in the state of Kentucky, and named after a point in the country roads where bootleggers met to conduct business and have a sip of whiskey. The whiskey is known to come from Owensboro, and Green River …
By Richard Thomas Rating: A- The bourbon hunt springs off the starting blocks on Monday, and it’s first major (and arguably most interesting) quarry is Four Roses Small Batch Limited Edition. This year’s installment is drawn mostly from 14 year old OESV and OESF, and 15 year old OESK. These three are from the 75% …
By Randall H. Borkus Rating: A Barrell Craft Spirits launched Dovetail, a blend of bourbon and whiskey expressing the company’s favorite sources and flavors, in 2018. For 2022, they have released an ultra-premium Gray Label expression using the same blending. Here Barrell Craft Spirits chose older and rarer barrels with some of the spirits aged …
By Richard Thomas Rating: A Summertime had been a pretty sleepy season on the whiskey release calendar. Autumn is the time of year most of the exciting one-shot releases and fan favorite annual editions come out, running right up to Christmas. Springtime also has some buzz, especially in Europe. Perhaps because summer isn’t considered “whiskey …
