By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ The full name for this bottle is 15 Stars Fine Aged Rye Founder’s Reserve, but most 15 Stars concoctions come with a tile of “Fine Aged” something. Another rye from 15 Stars is called First West. To simplify description and avoid confusion, I’ve dropped that part and zeroed in on …
By Randall H. Borkus Rating: A In late March 2025, Michter’s Master Distiller Dan McKee and Master of Maturation Andrea Wilson approved the release of Michter’s 10 Year Single Barrel Bourbon. “Rather than on a strict age schedule, at Michter’s we bottle whiskey when our production team deems it fully matured. This continues the standards …
By Richard Thomas Rating: A- During the 2010s, Utah’s High West made a splash with whiskey nerds for their transparency. Although they were a negociant (or non-distiller producer, as bloggers who didn’t know there was a better term already in use in whisky circles preferred to call such a company), they had two characteristics that set …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B The most approachable of the latest Lock, Stock and Barrel releases (I wrote up their 21 year old rye earlier this month) is their new Vatted Rye. Frankly, I adore the name. It is borrowed from the now outmoded Scotch whisky terminology of referring to a blend of malt whiskies …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B- The twist for this particular installment of Benchmark Bourbon, a Buffalo Trace whiskey made from the #1 bourbon mash bill and intended as a mass market, bargain shelf product, it draws from barrels aged on the top floors of their rickhouses. In describing Benchmark Top Floor Bourbon, Buffalo Trace Distillery …
By Richard Thomas Rating: A- As it has been years since I last wrote about the brand, a brief background summary of Lock, Stock and Barrel is called for. The brand is owned by Cooper Spirits, a company founded in 2006. Cooper Spirits is an independent bottler, reliant upon sourced spirits, but knowing their foundation …
By Kurt Maitland Rating: A Old Forester is a well known (one could safely say iconic) brand of Kentucky straight bourbon whisky produced by the Brown–Forman Corporation. It was the first bourbon sold exclusively in sealed bottles, first bottled and marketed in 1870 by the former pharmaceutical salesman turned bourbon-merchant prince, George Garvin Brown. The …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Oban is one of those rare distilleries in Scotland that predates the 1823 Excise Act. That law made it much more feasible to operate a legal distillery, paving the way for the Scotch industry we know today. Founded in 1794, Oban saw the many common twists and turns common to …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B- When Sazerac chose to build up the Benchmark line, it really put its back in and did it in one big push, releasing a five-expression brand extension all at once in 2020. Benchmark Bonded was part of that major expansion. The Benchmarks are all Buffalo Trace bourbon mash bill #1 …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ It all started in 2010 with inserting some French Oak staves into existing barrels of maturing bourbon to create Maker’s 46, but since then Maker’s Mark has taken the stave insert concept to its limits. The Loretto distillery erected the world’s only bourbon-aging cellar to further the production process for …
