By Richard Thomas Rating: B- As a distillery located amid the various state and federal parklands preserving redwood forests, Redwood Empire draws heavily on forest imagery in naming its whiskeys. Their bonded rye was named after a famous redwood tree, Rocket Top; their bonded bourbon is named for North America’s biggest bear, the grizzly (this …
By Douglas Faser Rating: B+ Bib & Tucker is a 19th Century term used for one’s best clothes. In modern times, this language is not really used, but Deutsch Family Spirits has brought it back as the name of their small batch bourbon line. Bib & Tucker is a sourced, six year old Tennessee-made bourbon. …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B The second in the new Benriach “Season” series whiskies is Malting Season, so named because Benriach is one of just seven Scottish distilleries still engaged in on-site, in-house floor malting. Indeed, Benriach itself only resumed the practice in 2012. For this particular single malt, the wort was made using Concerto …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B These last few years, it seems like everybody (even slightly) famous thinks they can start up a spirits brand or merit having an expression named after them. At this point, I am so sick of seeing adds for Proper Twelve that I would gladly watch Floyd Mayweather whup his ass …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Newport’s New Riff Distilling is riding more waves of novelty than just those names. The distillery is part of a new class of medium-sized distilleries in Kentucky, and is also part of the group that followed Old Pogue in bringing bourbon-making back to Northern Kentucky. New Riff has also become …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ I first wrote up Compass Box’s Great King Street Artist’s Blend in Spring 2012, and we are fast coming upon the 10th anniversary. Much has changed in that decade, not just for Compass Box, but for this specific brand. Created as the standard bearer for Compass Box’s line of artfully …
By Richard Thomas Rating:B+ The premise behind The Glenmorangie’s Cadboll Estate line of single malt whisky is simple. The distillery is taking their estate-grown barley from the lands around the distillery itself. The whisky is matured for 15 years (or more) in first-fill examples of the most common cask type used in Scotland, ex-bourbon barrels. …
By Randall H. Borkus Rating: B+ This 2021 bottling is the first release of US*1 Toasted Barrel Finish Bourbon in three years. The Toasted Barrel expression is distinctive from the standard US*1 Bourbon as it undergoes a second round of maturation, following its initial rest (my best guess 6-8 years) in an American charred oak …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Jeptha Creed occupied a special spot for me for a few reasons before I got hold of their new bonded bourbon. They were the first new distillery I visited upon returning to the United States from my long sojourn abroad; they were among the first (and are engaged in a …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B If one reads these pages about world whiskey or the business of whiskey at all, then the fact that France is the world’s second largest market for our thematic drink should be well-driven into your noggin by now. Because French whisky consumption is the highest in the world, at over …
