By Kenrick Thurston-Wilcox Rating: C+ Cracking the top 10 list of best selling blended Scotches last year, Chivas Regal is likely one brand that most whisky drinkers have reliably heard of. The Chivas brand starts around 1857, but stretches back even further to 1801, when the grocery store the bothers would come to acquire, was …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B The Jack Daniel’s Distillery Series, formerly known as the Tennessee Taster’s, has become quite a deep-run thing. Only in the last several days, the tenth installment in the series was announced. With that in mind, I’m looking back on the ninth release, a rye whiskey finished in highly toasted oak …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B- West Virginia’s Smooth Ambler still has a lingering reputation for its sourced whiskeys, but those are steadily receding into the horizon as the distillery moves forward with its in-house spirits. Drinkers initially became familiar with their wheated bourbon, but the distillery also laid down some bourbon made with the traditional …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B Balcones made it’s reputation with their very first whiskey, Baby Blue. This was partly because although they weren’t the first operational whiskey distillery in Texas (that was Garrison Brothers), they were the first one to release a product. The other reason is their innovative approach in making that product; Baby …
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 Michael Cervin Rating: B Nikka was founded in Japan in 1934 and currently uses two different distilleries to hone their blends. As the bottom tier blended whisky of the Nikka brand (The Nikka, and Super Nikka hold the top spots), the Days iteration is meant to be light, easy going and affordable for everyday …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Earlier this spring, Jack Daniel’s introduced a new series on bottled in bond whiskeys. One of these was a revamping of an already existing expression, Jack Daniel’s Bottled in Bond Tennessee Whiskey. This one took an already existing, one-liter travel retail bottle and repackaged it as a general release in …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ A distillery in the Dewar’s portfolio, the regular line of Craigellachie is a relatively new fixture among Scottish malts, having been introduced in 2014. The malts have since become known for their meaty quality, something of a middleweight hitter on the spectrum of Speyside malts. Craigellachie 13 Year Old is …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B Back when Painted Stave Distilling in Delaware first started making bourbon in late 2013, every enthusiast was most enthusiastic about wheated bourbon. They chose to buck this by committing to a high rye mash bill, and it proved to be wise to ignore what the buzz was all about at …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B- As I have been working through the Broken Barrel line-up for The Whiskey Reviewer bit by bit these last months, only a brief recap of who these folks are is necessary. Drawing on sourced whiskey made in Owensboro, Kentucky, Broken Barrel then adapts stave bits from other casks (ex-bourbon barrels, …
