By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ For decades, the sole preserver of the Irish pot still whiskey tradition was New Midleton, best known as the maker of Jameson’s. When the world’s whiskey industries hit rock bottom in the 1970s, Ireland was hit hardest and they consolidated down to just two distilleries: New Midleton, which was purpose-built …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B- Just in time for my favorite time of year, Spooky Season, the shelves have a bottle bearing the name “Ghostwood Bourbon” on them. The company’s marketing speaks more to cowboys than specters, but that’s okay. Check out the bottle image. That more than matches it to October in my book. …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B The next step up in Chicken Cock’s core line-up from their entry level Straight Bourbon is the Chicken Cock Small Batch. The term “small batch” remains ill-defined, but rarely abused, and this whiskey is a perfect example. Mine is from Batch 30, drawing on just five barrels. Anyone who would …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B The George Remus brand was launched by MGP Ingredients, owner of the former Seagram’s plant in southern Indiana that continues to be the source of most of America’s aged stock whiskey for sourced brands, to offer the company their own in-house counterpart to what so many of their customers do. …
By Douglas Fraser Rating: B Redemption Single Barrel Bourbon is hand selected by Master Blender Alan Kennedy for character, structure, and balance. But it is also a Bottled in Bond whiskey, meaning distilled by only one distillery in a single distilling season, matured in a government-supervised warehouse and bottled at 100 proof. It’s also at …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ The last of the trio from Old Elk’s new collection of 10 year old whiskeys is named as the 10 Year Old Straight Bourbon, which is so named because there is a wheated bourbon in the trio. By calling it “straight,” what they mean is that it uses the traditional, …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Jim Beam earned the top spot as America’s best-selling bourbon company only in recent years, and much of the credit for seizing that crown does not go to Jim Beam itself. Instead, it goes to the steady promotion of the many brands owned by the company. The endgame came when …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B Branch & Barrel is located in Centennial, Colorado (“The Centennial State”), an exurb of Denver located south and just slightly east of Denver’s core. Operating since 2015, the distillery is part of a vibrant craft whiskey scene that I had in the running for becoming America’s third whiskey state (after …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B Starting out almost a decade ago as the company that brought whiskey-distilling back to Baltimore, Sagamore Spirits has built its reputation around a Maryland rye revival. Although not as famous as its Pennsylvania neighbors for rye whiskey, Maryland has its own rye-making tradition that is at least as old, eventually …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B It has been little over a year since Ohio’s Middle West Spirits bought Old Elk Distillery, based in Colorado, but now Old Elk has come out with its first major release since the acquisition. This new launch is a 10 year old collection, consisting of a straight bourbon (rye recipe); …
