By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ For the last decade, Pappymania has crowded out enthusiast attention for wheated bourbons not made at a certain riverside distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky. As Pappy Van Winkle gained popular renown, extending outside bourbon circles, a fever started building. First that fever swept up the other wheated bourbons (the Weller bourbons) …
We continue The Whiskey Reviewer‘s tradition of offering the staff’s Top Picks for the previous year, announced every year in early January. This is our informal version of an awards show in print, with an infamous on informal. We do not convene a panel, because that is too much of a bother! Instead, each member …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B Louisville’s Rabbit Hole Distillery is both one of the newcomers to Bluegrass whiskey and at the same time part of its new class of medium-sized distillers (distinct from both the legacy and new “Kentucky Majors” and the small producers typically associated with craft whiskey). Considering the company went from foundation …
By Richard Thomas Rating: A For any brand that is revived and reintroduced during my career as a food, drinks and travel writer, I’m always amazed when the lot count reaches several or (especially) a double digit number. Inevitably I find myself thinking “Has that newcomer really been around that long? Is it actually a …
The Baltimore distillery Sagamore Spirit has two new expressions coming out soon, including their oldest yet. Sagamore 9-Year-Old Straight Rye Whiskey, and the Sagamore Bottled in Bond Straight Rye Whiskey, both part of the brand’s Reserve Series. Sagamore 9-Year-Old Straight Rye Whiskey exemplifies the craft of long-term aging, proudly representing Sagamore’s oldest age statement to …
Six years ago, Barrel Craft Spirits released a 15 year old, gray-labeled bourbon, continuing its practice of skillfully sourced and blended, one-shot, cask strength whiskey releases. What we were not told at the time was that they set some of that batch aside for further aging in toasted barrels, with an eye on a prolonged …
For its third expression in its single rickhouse concept line, Wild Turkey has released Russell’s Reserve Camp Nelson B. This follows the 2022 release of Camp Nelson C and 2023’s Camp Nelson F, and is the highest proof release of the entire brand to date. Each release in this series is crafted from a small …
Beam Suntory has been revisiting its long languishing brands in recent years, such as Baker’s and Old Overholt. The development of the latter, once a classic of Pennsylvania’s rye-centered whiskey industry, has received another boost with Beam’s release of an 11 year old, cask strength Old Overholt. Although the original Old Overholt was a very …
King of Kentucky is back for its seventh year, and Brown-Forman has made the single barrel, cask strength bourbon it a 16 year old this time. Approximately 5,100 bottles will be produced with a suggested retail price of $349.99. For this year’s iteration, Master Distiller Chris Morris chose two lots of barrels to set aside …
By Alex Southgate Rating: A- It’s nice to try something new. It’s even nicer to be given the opportunity to be one of the first to try something and this is why I’m currently feeling both honored and excited in equal measure: Halcyon Spirits newest expression is a 17 year old Caol Ila. This whiskey …
