By Richard Thomas Bruichladdich Distillery brings together two distinct threads. Although the distillery dates back to the late 19th Century, it was shuttered in 1994, and Bruichladdich as a whisky brand really dates to its reopening under entrepreneur Mark Reynier and Master Distiller Jim McEwan in 2000. Much as he did with Waterford Distillery in …
By Richard Thomas Rating: A- Isle of Skye Blended Whisky has an eye-catching title, conjuring as it does the awe-inspiring landscapes of its namesake tourist magnet of an island. However, the brand isn’t a new one, nor is the association of the Isle of Skye with tourism. Ian Macleod created the original Isle of Skye …
By Andrew Graham Rating: A A joke that whisky nerds often make is that we should all band together and drink more sherry to support the Scotch industrial complex, the joke being that many popular Scotch whiskies spend time in the Sherry butts, which are quite expensive and hard to come by lately. More Sherry …
By Richard Thomas Rating: A- For its 16th release of the annual limited edition of Four Roses Small Batch, the Lawrenceburg, Kentucky distillery is also marking its 135th brand anniversary. That’s right: although the distillery dates to 1910 (and is thus a historic site in its own right), the brand goes all the way back …
By Richard Thomas Rating: It’s escaped the notice (or at least the commentary) of all of my colleagues, but Summer 2023 has been an unusually busy time for the release of much sought after American whiskeys. This is because some stuff that normally doesn’t drop in summer was delayed, like Old Fitzgerald Spring 2023. Add …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B- The first thing to understand about this bottle is who it comes from, which has more to it than merely where it comes from. The name “World Whiskey Society” makes this sound like club that does their own bottlings, akin to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. Instead, they are a …
By Richard Thomas Rating: A- The 10 year old, single barrel iteration of Michter’s rye whiskey remains my favorite whiskey in its class (and that class includes W.L. Weller 12 Year Old), one of my favorite ryes and one of my favorite expressions from Michter’s generally. The expression is released semi-annually, which is to say …
By Andrew Graham Rating: B I have become quite a fan of most of what’s in the George Remus portfolio. We’ve talked about Remus here before, but in short, it is one of two in-house brands of MGP, the distillery on the Indiana-Kentucky border that’s more commonly associated with large-scale contract distilling. What’s easy to …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Diageo’s Orphan Barrel line, which in practice is built around sourcing middle and ultra-aged whiskeys drawn from their worldwide portfolio specifically for the American market, has released its first-ever rye whiskey. Because Orphan Barrel has been around for a decade, its an interesting choice to do so now. The whiskey …
By Randall H. Borkus Average Rating: A Last month saw Michter’s Distillery release a new edition of its 10 Year Single Barrel Bourbon. That is a big deal because unlike most of its peer labels, Michter’s 10 Year Old doesn’t necessarily come out every year, and it wasn’t shipped in 2022. Michter’s President Joseph J. …
