Category: review

Brooklyn Brewery Black Ops Bourbon Barrel Stout Review

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ A major league connection between bourbon and beer comes to us through the Japanese brewing company Kirin, but not in the most predictable way. Many bourbon fans already know Kirin bought and revived Four Roses some twenty years ago. However, Kirin isn’t using Four Roses bourbon barrels to age Kirin …

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B+

Brooklyn Brewing Black Ops Bourbon Barrel Stout
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

A major league connection between bourbon and beer comes to us through the Japanese brewing company Kirin, but not in the most predictable way. Many bourbon fans already know Kirin bought and revived Four Roses some twenty years ago. However, Kirin isn’t using Four Roses bourbon barrels to age Kirin beers (although they are using them to age certain Japanese whiskies). Instead, Kirin acquired some American craft brewers, including Bell’s, New Belgium and Brooklyn Brewing. The latter is where the Four Roses bourbon barrels went.

Black Ops is a Four Roses barrel-aged imperial stout, made with Goldings and Sorachi Ace hops. The stint in the barrels lasted for several months, and after all that was said and done, it came out at 11.5% ABV.

The Beer
This pours as a pitch black, velvety brew, with a quite modest head. The flavor has the roasted malts, deep vanilla, cocoa powder and hints of coffee that I would expect from any stout of this kind, but also a strong current of tart red berries. The stout is too heavy for truly casual drinking, but it is quite yummy. The fruit dimension makes it a good choice for a dessert beer or a moody pour for indulging a boozy sweet tooth.

The Price
Black Ops comes in four-packs of 16 oz cans. Expect to pay about $20 for one, which is pretty reasonable compared to what a pint at the bar costs nowadays.

Cardhu Gold Reserve Single Malt Scotch Review

By Alex Southgate Rating: B+ I’m the sort of person that loves to try new things and this is absolutely true when it comes down to Scotch. The thing about Scotch Whisky is there is so much to try and always something new to learn, and for me this is very true when it comes …

By Alex Southgate

Rating: B+

I’m the sort of person that loves to try new things and this is absolutely true when it comes down to Scotch. The thing about Scotch Whisky is there is so much to try and always something new to learn, and for me this is very true when it comes to the Cardhu family of malts. So I’ve now become better acquainted with Cardhu Gold Reserve Single Malt.

Cardhu comes from one of the oldest Speyside distilleries, and the basic Cardhu is a classic among widely available, inexpensive single malts. The Gold Reserve comes from oak barrels selected by the Master Blender, which is where the upmarket aspect of a no age statement whisky is supposed to come from. Fruitier and smoother than the standard 12 year old expression, this whisky has been bottled at a cask strength of 40%.

The Scotch
The Cardhu Gold Reserve is a very enticing whisky from the start. The Stylish gold box reveals a chunky, square bottle that is really pleasing to the eye. The contents are a deep honey in the bottle, something that carries over to the glass on the pour. I have to admit I couldn’t wait to take a sip on looks alone and the nose only added to my desire to give it a try.

The nose starts with the aroma of sweet honey which is paired with vanilla and roasting barley. This sweetness carries into smooth toffee. Orange with a hint of cinnamon complete the scent, these drier notes being backed with warm oak.

Honey is very much a theme with this Scotch and this is something that carries over to the taste. This sweetness is tempered with the crisp fruitiness of apple and pear. The finish is warm and spicy with baked notes and a gentle whisper of peat.

I wouldn’t necessarily say I have a sweet tooth, but the Cardhu Gold Reserve is making a very pleasant change from the savory Single Malts I’ve been sampling of late. It has to be noted that when I say sweet I’m by no means confusing this with sickly. The fruit coming through in this expression cuts the notes of honey very nicely and leaves the palate feeling clean and ready to go back for more.

This might just have become one of my new favorites and is certainly up there in terms of my hot picks for 2023. Having said this, there isn’t anything particularly stunning or new when it comes to this whisky and it probably won’t win any awards for innovation. This doesn’t stop it from being a very enjoyable dram and now that I’ve discovered it, it’s a Scotch that I think I’ll find myself going back to regularly. This bottle would probably be suited as a good all rounder for those of you that select a Scotch based on an occasion.

The Price
Cardhu Special Reserve Single Malt is coming in at £48 UK, though I’m sure if you look hard enough you’ll be able to find this bottle for less than that. I found mine on offer at £27 UK so it can definitely be done.

Jack Daniel’s Bonded Rye Whiskey Review

By Richard Thomas Rating: B While I know it has been many years since Jack Daniel’s made their initial foray into rye whiskey, it sometimes seems like it was only the other day when Jack Daniel’s released their rye counterpart to Old No. 7. In reality, that was also several years ago, six and a …

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B

Jack Daniel’s Bonded Rye
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

While I know it has been many years since Jack Daniel’s made their initial foray into rye whiskey, it sometimes seems like it was only the other day when Jack Daniel’s released their rye counterpart to Old No. 7. In reality, that was also several years ago, six and a half to be exact.

This project of the former master distiller at Lynchburg, Jeff Arnett, follows in the Old No. 7 style. Just as the standard JD Tennessee Whiskey uses a high corn mash of 80% corn, 8% rye and 12% malted barley, the rye uses 70% rye, 18% corn and 12% malted barley. As with everything out of the Moore County distillery, Jack Rye gets the Lincoln County Process: drip-filtration through vats of sugar maple charcoal prior to entry into the charred, new oak barrels for maturation.

Now the company has taken that flagship, entry-level rye expression and carried a step up with a regular brand extension: Jack Daniel’s Bonded Rye. It has been reported that the initial batch of the whiskey is actually seven years old, and although they don’t want to be bound to a clear age statement, consistency and the Bottled in Bond statute suggest it will continue to be that going forward. Think about it: a bonded whiskey must be bottled from within a single distilling season, so to deviate substantially from seven years old would very likely be noticeable in the bottle. This isn’t an expression that can do a blend from multiple years. It’s bottled at 100 proof, of course. An odd touch is the Europe-friendly bottle size, 700 ml.

The Whiskey
This pour takes on the look of copper once it is in the glass. The nose presents as fruity, with a salad of pear, tangerine and banana, couple to notes of herbal spices and evergreen. The spices grow bolder on the palate, turning to mint, pine, a dash of cinnamon and a pinch of black pepper. The sweet fruit steps back a bit, but stays on center stage, bringing the whiskey into better balance: molasses with hints of vanilla and banana. Throw in a little barrel char, and you’ve got the whole thing. The finish runs with the barrel char and pepper, but is a light touch and neither element linger.

The Price
When you consider the quality of this bottle, the price is simply amazing: $32 a bottle. If you like rye and you want it spicier than the typical Kentucky style offering, but retaining a smooth drinking quality, this is a strong candidate for your go-to bottle.

Still Austin High Rye Bottled in Bond Bourbon Review

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Texas’s Still Austin Whiskey Company (I shouldn’t need to tell you where in Texas they are from with that name) has a range of bottled in bond whiskeys, based on their standard straight whiskey line. It’s a now commonplace arrangement among small distillers in America, and many plan their initial, …

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B+

Still Austin High Rye Bottled in Bond Bourbon
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

Texas’s Still Austin Whiskey Company (I shouldn’t need to tell you where in Texas they are from with that name) has a range of bottled in bond whiskeys, based on their standard straight whiskey line. It’s a now commonplace arrangement among small distillers in America, and many plan their initial, full scale production runs with an eye on releasing an initial volley of straight whiskeys, followed by the bonded versions two or three years later. That line currently consists of the Red Corn and Blue Corn bourbons, their rye whiskey and the High Rye Bourbon.

The Still Austin High Rye is mashed with 70% white corn, 25% rye and 5% malted barley. The industry lacks a standard definition for what “high rye” or any high grain proportion actually is, leaving distillers from Still Austin to Heaven Hill to call anything a high rye if they want to. For my part, I draw the line at 30% and therefore would not actually call this a high rye. Nonetheless, the whiskey comes across with an extra helping of spiciness, which I suspect comes as much from the choice of yeast or white corn as it does from the only slightly elevated proportion of rye.

Past that, it sits right on the statute of the 1897 Bottled in Bond Act: 100 proof, four years old, single distilling season, one distillery.

The Bourbon
The pour has an amber coloring with heavy red accent. In fact, I’m struck by just how much that pour from last night looks like the cup of roobios tea I’m sipping on as I type this.

The nose smacks of pine needles, orange zest peppermint, nutmeg and vanilla. Sipping yields a silky texture with notes of cinnamon, more mint, orange zest and nutmeg, and a base of candy corn. The silky mouthfeel carries right over into the finish, plus a dash of black pepper.

I rate Still Austin’s bonded high rye bourbon above the other, better known examples of high rye whiskeys, such as Basil Hayden, Old Granddad or Bulleit. The whiskey is spicy, but balanced, and lacks the dryness and lightness that sometimes accompanies whiskeys in this class. That combination makes it superbly easy-drinking. To anyone looking for a good craft whiskey buy or a good high rye bourbon buy, I heartily endorse this one.

The Price
Officially, this is priced at $83 a bottle.

Loch Lomond Peated Single Grain Scotch Review (2021 Festival Bottling)

By Alex Southgate Rating: B You have to love a good special edition and the one examined here is very close to home for me personally: the Peated Single Grain Scotch Whisky from Loch Lomond that was bottled especially for the 2021 Southport Whisky Festival. Southport, England, is my home town and I’m always going …

By Alex Southgate

Rating: B

The standard Loch Lomond Peated Single Grain Whisky
(Credit: Loch Lomond)

You have to love a good special edition and the one examined here is very close to home for me personally: the Peated Single Grain Scotch Whisky from Loch Lomond that was bottled especially for the 2021 Southport Whisky Festival. Southport, England, is my home town and I’m always going to be rooting for our local fair, so once given the opportunity I couldn’t wait to give this whisky a try.

My Loch Lomond Single Grain Scotch Whisky is the peated expression, made entirely from malted barley. Really the only thing separating this from a Loch Lomond peated malt is the equipment, because if it had been distilled in pots it would have been a single malt. The cask was for my bottling selected by Michael Henry and bottled exclusively for the 2021 Southport Whisky Festival. Coming from the Loch Lomond Distillery, this is a single cask bottling, my bottle coming from Cask#730. Distilled in 2017 and bottled in 2021, a 2nd fill ex-bourbon barrel was used to mature this single grain whisky. This is a small run of 247 bottles and comes in at a respectable cask strength of 61.3%, but it is an example of the larger Loch Lomond Peated Single Grain expression. This bottling is naturally colored and non-chill filtered.

The Scotch
The Loch Lomond Peated Single Grain Scotch Whisky is a very clean looking Scotch. Very pale in hue in the bottle, it’s even lighter when it hits the glass and quite appetizing to the eye. This is a very easy-pouring whisky leaving only faint legs on the sides of the glass.

This is a fairly heavily peated whisky and this comes across instantly to the nose after the pour. The smokiness of peat lifts to reveal a good waft of ginger mixed with sweeter tones of brown sugar. These scents pair nicely with the citrus punch of lemon. The finish is dry and spicy with the scent of cloves and notes of oak.

Likely on account of the peat used in this expression the first notes you get to the taste are slightly medicinal. This isn’t at all unpleasant but definitely noticeably immediately on the palate. The carrying flavor is one of autumnal berries which blend nicely with the zesty lemon hit that is also present to the nose.  The finish is short but herbal with an aftertaste of mint and lavender.

The Loch Lomond Single grain is definitely a tasty scotch but also a powerful one. This isn’t by any means what I would call a smooth whisky and at 61.3% I’m certainly not surprised at this.

As enjoyable a drink this is, it probably isn’t something you’d drink a lot of in one sitting. This is the sort of thing you drink a few slow glasses of and enjoy with friends. I don’t think it would be the first thing in your collection you’d reach for on a whim. This being said, it’s still a really nice winter warmer if you like your whisky to be on the stronger side.

The Price
My select version of this Loch Lomond Single Grain came in at about £46, which is very reasonable considering that this is such a small, specialized run. The standard version is often listed at around £30.

 

 

Waterford Peated Fenniscourt Irish Single Malt Review

By Richard Thomas Rating: B To a large extent, Waterford Irish Whiskey represents an entrepreneur taking his past experience in Scotland and carrying it over into a new venture in Ireland. Mark Reynier bought a shuttered Islay distillery, Bruichladdich, in 2000, and in so doing he confronted a problem that was novel at the time. …

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B

Waterford Peated Fenniscourt Single Malt
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

To a large extent, Waterford Irish Whiskey represents an entrepreneur taking his past experience in Scotland and carrying it over into a new venture in Ireland. Mark Reynier bought a shuttered Islay distillery, Bruichladdich, in 2000, and in so doing he confronted a problem that was novel at the time. The distillery had only been closed for six years, but wasn’t exactly chugging away in terms of production before that, so any brand built upon it was inevitably going to confront a hollow period when it didn’t have enough whisky in stock for making the entry and middle run levels of a conventional line-up.

Stop and think about it. Just a few years after getting started, Reynier and his master distiller, Jim McEwan, would already start hitting the wall in terms of being able to create even an eight year old single malt. Considering that 18 year old Scotch is still generally considered merely middle-aged, it would be two decades of waiting before this gap would cease to matter to what most single malt lines consider their bread and butter expressions.

The company dealt with this problem by choosing a grain-driven approach, choosing to borrow from the wine industry’s terroir concept by emphasizing more flavorful barley choices than the standard distiller’s grain, chosen more for its alcohol potential than its other attributes. This malt-forward style actually works better at younger ages, cutting short the influence of the cask as it does.

Reynier and his investors sold Bruichladdich to Remy Cointreau in 2012, and Reynier began looking for a new venture. He found a recently closed Guinness brewery in Waterford, Ireland, and in 2015 jumped into the Irish Whiskey business. Drawing on past experience, the new Waterford brand would root itself in young, grain-forward whiskeys.

Waterford Peated: Fenniscourt is made from Arcadian barley, grown at Fenniscourt in County Carlow. It’s peated to a middling level, 38 ppm, using sphagnum-heavy peat from County Kildaire. Another aspect of releasing a younger whisky like this one is that peat influence is one of the things that tends to fade over decades-long aging periods, so it sings more than one would think in a youthful release of this kind. A third factor pushing the flavors the single malt has at this stage is its strength: it’s bottled at 50% ABV, a level familiar to the many fans of the American bottled in bond whiskeys.

The Whiskey
The pour has the color of straw, and a nose that smacks of smoldering, dry compost. It’s a peaty essence that has no sea spray to it at all, but is more like burning vegetation that got dredged out of a tannic moorland watercourse, dried, and then thrown on the fire. This rests heavily atop a base of honey tinged with ginger.

On the palate, the flavor isn’t light, but it is lively enough that I found myself thinking I had a highball without the soda carbonation. It’s got some spring in its step, far more than one would expect from a 50% ABV whisky. The peat is a strong presence, taking on a more herbal character now that it is on the palate, while the malty honey base adopts some Constant Comment tea style seasoning. The peat runs into the finish, turning earthy and ashy.

A flavorful, but not particularly complicated dram, I urge all peatheads to try it for two reasons. First, any real fan of peat should be eager to become better acquainted with the flavors of regional peats. Second, said fans should also be keen on the notion of younger whiskeys retaining more of those peat flavors.

The Price
Officially, Waterford’s Peated Fenniscourt Single Malt is priced at €94, approximately $103 at the time of writing.

 

Jack Daniel’s Distillery Series 12 Tennessee Whiskey Review

By Kenrick Thurston-Wilcox Rating: B With the rise of craft whiskey distillers offering consumers more varied options then ever before the producers over at Jack Daniel’s have taken notice. In recent years they have been producing one off experimental releases (originally known as Tennessee Taster’s Selection now changed to Distillery Series) to showcase the versatility …

By Kenrick Thurston-Wilcox

Rating: B

Jack Daniel’s Distillery Series 12, a sherry cask finished Tennessee Whiskey
(Credit: Brown-Forman)

With the rise of craft whiskey distillers offering consumers more varied options then ever before the producers over at Jack Daniel’s have taken notice. In recent years they have been producing one off experimental releases (originally known as Tennessee Taster’s Selection now changed to Distillery Series) to showcase the versatility of their distillery. They’ve even gone so far as to produce their own American Single Malt, as it stands poised to take its spot in the history books. The newest Distillery Series expression takes what the producer learned from their experiments with Oloroso sherry casks, first used in their American Single Malt, which are used to finish their ubiquitous Tennessee whiskey mash bill for an additional 3 years. Long time employee and whiskey taster Randall Fanning, now retired after working at the distillery for close to 50 years, personally selected the whiskey in this release, settling on a final 90 proof bottling.

The Whiskey
The liquid is a brown copper color with red tints. The nose is rich, dense and leathery, smelling of wet wood and a cherry sweetness, vanilla and caramel. Typical sherry notes surprisingly don’t appear in the nose but rather seem to add a deep richness to what is already in the liquid. The liquid feels oily and sooty with the leather, cherry and caramel notes carrying through from the nose. Sherry cask influence finally makes itself known with dark fruits now being present along with some lemon and citrus flavors.The finish has a satisfying smoky feeling with leather and tobacco notes, staying in your mouth for quite a while.

The Price
This release is $41.99 for a 375ml bottle but can only be found at the distillery’s White Rabbit Bottle shop and select Tennessee retailers.

 

Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond Bourbon Review (Fall 2023)

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ An axiom in the whiskey trade is that a high age statement doesn’t necessarily mean a good whiskey, but what about the reverse? Can you have a great whiskey with a merely average age statement? Certainly much more than merely time goes into whiskey maturation, and if you doubt the …

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B+

Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond (Fall 2023)
(Credit: Heaven Hill)

An axiom in the whiskey trade is that a high age statement doesn’t necessarily mean a good whiskey, but what about the reverse? Can you have a great whiskey with a merely average age statement? Certainly much more than merely time goes into whiskey maturation, and if you doubt the truth of that statement, I suggest looking no further than the famous case of the Colonel E.H. Taylor Tornado Bourbon.

Heaven Hill‘s latest installment in the Old Fitzgerald line of bottled in bond, wheated bourbons raises this question because it rests at the bottom of the age range in that series, being just eight years old. That is still double the statutory minimum required by the Bottled in Bond Act, but the age statements on the series are often in the teens. The release has been accompanied by the usual croaking, despite the fact that this is only the second time the series has gone down to an eight year old expression, so that release certainly didn’t begin a race to the bottom for the series.

So, leaving aside the age statement of this 100 proof bourbon leaves the only question that really matters: how is it?

The Bourbon
The pour has copper, leaning to bronze appearance to it, which actually is rather suggestive of its age. That might be my mind playing tricks, but it is what I see, and generally speaking a lighter coloring speaks of a mature whiskey, rather than one that is middle aged or truly old.

The nosing yields the staple bourbon scents of melted brown sugar and caramel, coupled to current of nutmeg, clove and pine, with a fainter trace of cinnamon. Taking a sip revealed a more fruity dimension, but also a bit more tannic, so the brown sugar and caramel is jointed by peach tea, while the spicy notes all remain the same. Those spicy notes are what linger in the finish, and as a grouping at that.

In my estimation, Old Fitz Bonded Fall 2023 certainly punches above its weight. It’s flavorful, and has certain characteristics one doesn’t expect from an eight year old bourbon. To put this into perspective, Elijah Craig is said to be made from an eight to ten year old batching, so this is on the lower end of that range and is distinctively better. That said, I don’t think it is so much better as to merit the price tag (see below), seeing as how Elijah Craig Small Batch is a $35 bottle.

The Price
Officially, this bourbon is tagged at $109.99.

 

Distillery Gem Glen Moray 15 Year Old Scotch Review

By Alex Southgate Rating: B In the whiskey world you hear certain names and can’t help but hope for good things. This is very much the case when it comes to Glen Moray, perhaps one of the better known Speyside distilleries. We’ll be diving into one of their 15 year old offerings today and I …

By Alex Southgate

Rating: B

Distillery Gem’s Blair Athol bottling
(Credit: Glen Clyde Whisky)

In the whiskey world you hear certain names and can’t help but hope for good things. This is very much the case when it comes to Glen Moray, perhaps one of the better known Speyside distilleries. We’ll be diving into one of their 15 year old offerings today and I have to say I’m rather looking forward to it.

We’re going to be tasting the Glen Moray 15 Year Old (distilled 2007) Single Malt which has been bottled by Glen Clyde Whisky. Bourbon barrel casks have been used for maturing the Distillery Gem expression that under discussion, and this malt is coming in at a rather respectable cask strength of 59%.

The Scotch
This Distillery Gem expression is a deep honey in the bottle and very easy on the pour, leaving faint legs as it hits the sides of the glass. The rich amber shade of this single malt is very appealing to the eye and I couldn’t wait to give this whiskey a taste on looks alone.

The nose starts with deep nutty tones of hazelnut and almond, backed by smooth chocolate. These savory notes give way to the dry fruity aroma of green apples. This scent carries through to the finish and is completed by rich, dark molasses.

The nutty, savory notes that greet the nose also come across in the taste and are paired with a splash of cream. These flavors carry into the unmistakable baked taste of fresh biscuits. The finish is full of savory, baked cereal notes with just a hint of leather.

I have to say this is the perfect whiskey for a cold Autumn night. Sometimes we refer to something as a hug in a glass and this is very poignant here. This is the sort of whiskey that just makes you feel happy drinking it and it packs just the right amount of punch to warm the bones without stepping into the realm of tasting overly alcoholic.

I wouldn’t say that the Glen Moray 15YR old was doing anything particularly new or special but that doesn’t alter the fact that this is a very enjoyable drink. I generally gauge my ratings on where I’d drink a whiskey and how much of a bottle I would drink in a sitting.  This particular expression is right up my alley and perfect for an evening in with friends. Very enjoyable stuff all round.

The Price
Distiller Gem Glen Moray 15 Year Old is selling for around £97 per bottle for those of us here in the UK, or about €114 for our friends out in Europe.

Bruichladdich Black Arts 11.1 Scotch Review (2023)

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Bruichladdich (pronounced “bru-kla-dee”) is one of the distilleries that bucks against the popular image of Islay, the island of peat, or at least they do with one foot. They are one of the whisky-makers on the island that doesn’t do nothing but peated whisky, but that isn’t to say they …

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B+

Bruichladdich (pronounced “bru-kla-dee”) is one of the distilleries that bucks against the popular image of Islay, the island of peat, or at least they do with one foot. They are one of the whisky-makers on the island that doesn’t do nothing but peated whisky, but that isn’t to say they have shunned the island’s identity entirely. Octomore is one such example, lauded as the most heavily peated single malt being made today. Another is Black Arts.

As the title implies, this is the eleventh year for Black Arts. This line is renowned not because it is so heavily peated, but because it is made using “pre-renaissance” casks, which is to say they were filled prior to Bruichladdich’s closure in 1994. The distillery stood closed for more than six years, so it was a brief gap in production, but a gap and change in management nonetheless. The exact details of Black Arts releases are kept secret, adding to the hype, so we have no idea what kind of cask stock was used for aging or the mix of peated and unpeated malt (if there is such a mix). The two statistics we do have is that it is a 24 year old single malt and bottled at 44.2% ABV.

The Scotch
The color of this whisky suggests some Sherry casks in the background, because it came out as dull bronze in color. Building on that first impression is the nose, which smacks of a freshly drained Sherry solera vat sitting on a straw-strewn, damp clay floor.

Sipping yields a bowl of dried fruits: raisins, sultanas, prunes, even a little something tropical in there, but that note is a non-descript one. The earthiness has moderated down to milk chocolate, but rising up on the back end is a new, but quite modest spicy aspect: a mere fleck of pepper and cumin. The character here is soft and restrained, and that spice is really too tiny to merit the descriptor “note.” It’s just enough to give the rest of the profile a little contrast.

The finish, however, rolls straight off that gossamer of spice, and opens with a peppery kick. It’s a jolt the first time around, but that fades swiftly down to dried tobacco leaf.

The Price
Officially, Black Arts 11.1 is tagged at $140 for a 700ml bottle. For a 24 year old single malt from Islay, that is a pretty good bargain just on the face of it.