By Richard Thomas Rating: B- When I first wrote about the latest bourbon brand to come to Kentucky, Avalon Spirits’ Whiskey Row, I made a brief, opening observation: given the lead time that goes into starting a venture like a whiskey brand, one rarely gets to choose the circumstances under which one gets started. For …
By Douglas Fraser Rating: A- Lindores Abbey is known in Scotland as being the birthplace of Scotch Whisky. The actual abbey site hosts the oldest evidence for distilling in Scotland, supported by both archaeological evidence abbey documents. These include a written order for a Friar named John Cor to make “acqua vitae” for King James …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B Next Century Spirits was founded by Scott Bolin and Joel Pawlak, and the company opened their distillery in Raleigh, North Carolina in 2018. Their website makes it clear that they have positioned themselves as a contract distiller, but the company also has its in-house brands relying on a mix of …
By Douglas Fraser Rating: B+ Old Elk Distillery, located in Fort Collins, Colorado, has been adding some interesting blends to its lineup of bourbon. Old Elk Slow Cut is the latest release from the distillery, highlighting their lengthy proofing technique. Old Elk has a longer proofing process than most bourbon distilleries, a step undertaken to …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B My first acquaintance with Iowa’s Cedar Ridge Distillery was 7 1/2 years ago, one of those things that serves to remind me just how long I have been writing about whiskey. I had traveled to Iowa to visit a different distillery, invited for the bottling and launch of a different …
Updated January 19, 2025 By Richard Thomas Average Rating: B While working up a feature on the 2025 release of a Single Barrel Collection by Four Roses, one containing four of the ten bourbon variants the distillery makes, I realized that our review for Four Roses Single Barrel was published in 2011 and last …
Updated September 20, 2024 By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ The single barrel whiskey concept, in America at least, began with the introduction of Blanton’s in 1984 by the legendary Master Distiller Elmer T. Lee. Back then, however, that Frankfort, Kentucky distillery was known as the George T. Stagg Distillery. It wouldn’t be renamed Buffalo Trace …
By Douglas Fraser Rating: A Lodestar Whiskey is a women-owned and -operated spirits brand, based out of California. Two German-born cousins, Anna Axster and Wendelin von Schroder, founded the brand after discovering whiskey while working in the music industry. They found that, in their opinion, there was not a whiskey expression that spoke to everyone. …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B- One more block is laid into the case that the American Single Malt has arrived with the spread of the idea to North America as a whole, because now Crown Royal has released its own single malt. Perhaps the only thing missing is popular clamor, and I say that as …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B Continuing with the recent practice of using the Basil Hayden brand to produce many, many iterations of Beam-made whiskeys, the latest such twist has yielded Basil Hayden Subtle Smoke. The journey that led the brand, which started out as a light, dry and 8 year old, 80 proof version of …
