By Richard Thomas When I penned Why The Trade War Didn’t Put Pappy Back Within Reach in December 2021, a year after Joe Biden’s clear victory in the 2020 elections, I never expected to revisit the subject of tariffs on American whiskey exports again. But here we are. The trade war started by President Trump …
By Richard Thomas At the end of 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared “no level of alcohol consumption is good for you.” Before that came an EU study linking even moderate drinking to cancer, but that received less media attention. This issue did not garner cause a press furor until Summer 2024, when a …
By Richard Thomas The club of diehard fans for Lawrenceburg’s Four Roses Distillery may be smaller than, say, Buffalo Trace, but a good argument can be made their fandom is more devoted and authentic. Four Roses gives its devotees much to latch onto, such as the brand’s almost romantic restoration story: two decades ago, it …
By Richard Thomas Despite the growing, dark clouds of a probable sales slump and market correction for whiskey generally, newcomers are still entering the game–and there is still room for them. For folks with a nose for a quality whiskey, an eye on the market and a good sense for business, there will always be …
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 When it comes to good drink and fine food, living in Kentucky offers a bounty so good that it often surprises those not acquainted with the Commonwealth. The presence of the bourbon industry obviously covers the first part of that pairing, but also serves as the wellspring for the latter. Whiskey and …
By Richard Thomas Having spent a good deal of time asking people with what bottle they were first introduced to whiskey, I have only heard a rye whiskey mentioned once. Various bourbons, Scotch and Irish whiskies have been cited dozens upon dozens of times, and even Canadian whiskies appear in the recollections of Boomers, but …
By Richard Thomas At the end of 2020 and in the midst of the Pandemic, the US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) announced that they would alter regulations allowing for the sale of spirits in 700ml bottles in the United States. For decades prior, the US had a singular requirement for the …
By Kurt Maitland The Rosewood Hotel Group has some of the most luxurious hotels in the world in its portfolio. Andy Loudon has only recently become the new Director of Bars at the Rosewood London and as a fan of the Scarfes Bar (for you Pink Floyd fans, this bar is named after and adorned …
By Richard Thomas When Wes Henderson teamed up with his father Lincoln, a veteran of Brown-Forman whiskey-making and Hall of Famer, to found Angel’s Envy, the father-and-son team did more than establish another sourced whiskey brand. Their company was built around the concept of secondary maturation, more popularly known as finishing, which was still a …
