Category: Sneak Peek

Sneak Peek: Benriach The Forty Scotch Review

By Richard Thomas Rating: A Benriach Distillery is expanding its lineup of ultra-aged single malts in the United States with “The Forty.” That name is the age statement, so forty years old, but it is more than a forty year old Speyside single malt. The whisky was initially “released” in 2022 as part of an …

By Richard Thomas

Rating: A

Benriach The Forty(Credit: Benriach/Brown-Forman)

Benriach Distillery is expanding its lineup of ultra-aged single malts in the United States with “The Forty.” That name is the age statement, so forty years old, but it is more than a forty year old Speyside single malt. The whisky was initially “released” in 2022 as part of an NFT scheme, but we’ll overlook that and focus squarely on the liquid, since the liquid is now physically available. Master Blender Rachel Barrie has drawn on these malts that are old enough to fret about retirement, aged in a combination of ex-bourbon barrels and Port casks. The resulting marriage has been bottled at 43.5% ABV.

The Scotch
I find that older Scotch doesn’t necessarily mean darker Scotch, which has a lot to do with the wood its matured in. Students of bourbon whiskey know that all of the color comes from the new oak aging, and the various kinds of vessels Scotch whisky is aged in could be used two, three or even more times. Thus, when this forty year-plus old single malt came out with a middle amber coloring to it, I take that as a good sign the bourbon and Port casks were mostly or entirely of the first-fill variety.

The nose was packed with plum and citrus zest, thickly layered atop a solid foundation of honey. Hints of earthy nuts and heather round out the scent, which is luscious and should be lingered upon every bit as much as the flavor.

The palate leads with fortified wine elements, coming across with plums, chocolate-covered dried cherries and white peaches. That honeyed foundation continues from the scent into the flavor, and its only on the back-end that all this sophisticated, rich sweetness drops away. The finish rolls up with a current of dry wood, but only briefly, before folding into the flavor of dried tobacco leaf.

I honestly can’t say The Forty is worth the price on offer, for the same reason I can never say a four figures-plus bottle of whisky is worth it: I don’t have four figures of cash to spend on a consumable item of this kind. But if you do have that kind of disposable income, this is a fine bottle to consider picking up.

The Price
The asking price for Benriach The Forty is $4,500.

Sneak Peek: Old Pepper Bottled In Bond Rye Whiskey Review

By Richard Thomas Rating: B Several years ago, the Old Pepper brand was a fixture on round-ups of the best expressions of MGP’s ubiquitous 95% rye, 5% malted barley rye whiskey. It was near and dear to my heart for more than just that standing, however. When Amir Peay started Georgetown Trading Co. and acquired …

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B

James E. Pepper Bottled in Bond Rye
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

Several years ago, the Old Pepper brand was a fixture on round-ups of the best expressions of MGP’s ubiquitous 95% rye, 5% malted barley rye whiskey. It was near and dear to my heart for more than just that standing, however. When Amir Peay started Georgetown Trading Co. and acquired the rights to the Old Pepper and began building it up as a sourced whiskey brand, he also started down the path to reviving the James E. Pepper distillery.

The Pepper plant was a fixture of my childhood in Lexington, Kentucky. My father’s first horse farm was a couple miles down the road, past where Manchester Street became Viley Road. I have vivid memories of the looming bulk of the abandoned factory as I rode with my father, driving by on my way to visit my uncle at his job (coincidentally, that job was found in a cluster of old bourbon warehouses, further up Manchester Street). When I began exploring Kentucky’s abandoned bourbon heritage in my late teens, the Pepper plant was an obvious and early project. I’ve paid keen attention to the property ever since.

Peay brought the brand home by reopening a distillery on that property in 2017. The new James E. Pepper is a much smaller affair than the old distillery, since it occupies only the middle part of the former main building. Even so, five years ago is long enough for Old Pepper to have some aged, in-house whiskey on hand to fashion into that signature of small and mid-sized distillers across America: the bottled in bond.

Old Pepper Bottled in Bond draws on two distinct distillates, both made at the Pepper plant. The first uses the familiar 95% rye, 5% malted barley mash bill of their old MGP-sourced stock. The second is a 100% malted rye whiskey. Pepper says the old distillery made a 100% rye whiskey, which would be a curious thing given that the Kentucky style of making rye is “barely rye” (i.e. at or slightly above the legally mandated 51% rye mash content), but that is what they are attempting to replicate.

The Whiskey
A pour of Old Pepper Bonded takes on that coppered, orange-amber look that so many ryes have, once it gets into the glass. The nose coming out of that glass shows the malted rye in the blend quite well, with a scent of molasses and rye spice, plus a current of mustiness. The spicy character of the whiskey becomes sharper on the palate. So, a sip of Old Pepper Bonded Rye has a bit of a kick to it initially, until it is met by a rising tide of caramel, which evens things out. The finish jinks back to where things started on the nose, with musty rye spice, but this fades fast.

The Price
At time of writing, the price wasn’t available, but hopefully I’ll be able to update the review with the MSRP soon.

Sneak Peek: Still Austin Bottled in Bond Bourbon Review

By Richard Thomas Rating: B The forerunners of modern craft whiskey, distillers like Stranahan’s and Tuthilltown, are fast coming up on their 20th anniversaries. Even so, none has released a 15 year old whiskey, and I don’t expect either that landmark or a 20 year old expression to be coming any time soon. I doubt …

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B

(Credit: Richard Thomas)

The forerunners of modern craft whiskey, distillers like Stranahan’s and Tuthilltown, are fast coming up on their 20th anniversaries. Even so, none has released a 15 year old whiskey, and I don’t expect either that landmark or a 20 year old expression to be coming any time soon. I doubt when these companies were start-ups, they were thinking about laying away barrels to produce an ultra-aged expression, especially when most of their early barrel stock was of the tiny variety (i.e. 10 gallons or less). Underlining why is something I once heard Harlen Wheatley say, that drinkable 20 year old bourbon was an expensive accident.

But craft distilling has, for the most part, left behind those early days of one year old whiskeys aged in tiny barrels. The mark of maturity for a small distiller is now well-established: releasing a bottled in bond expression. The latest small distiller to cross this threshold is Still Austin. With their artsy labels and grain-to-glass ethos, Still Austin is very much an urban distillery in sync with its namesake city, the town of both SXSW and Austin City Limits.

This is was an interesting sneak peek in a recent run of sneak peeks for me (a review is a sneak peek when it is both the first to get on the internet and is published before the whiskey is known to be in circulation), because no information accompanied it! At time of writing, I don’t know if it is older than the statutory minimum of four years or what the price point is. I also don’t have any regular bottle art, and I hate taking pictures of dinky sample bottles. I do know, however, is that it’s a red corn mash-made bourbon.

The Bourbon
This 100 proof pour has a reddened, middle amber appearance. The nose smacks of deep vanilla, plus some a ginger cookie spice blend accent to season things up. The flavor has a current of red berry sweetness, more of that oozing vanilla syrup from the nose, and a light dusting of cinnamon and ginger. I found the finish to be spicy too, but light and quick, which was the main thing holding this bourbon back.

The Price
As mentioned above, I have no idea. The review will be updated as more information becomes available.

Sneak Peek: Heaven Hill Heritage Collection 20 Year Old Corn Whiskey Review (2023)

By Richard Thomas Rating: A- Heaven Hill launched their Heritage Collection last year with a 17 year old bourbon, but the distillery has a habit of using their annual series to showcase the breadth and depth of what they make there (witness the variety of Parker’s Heritage over the years). So their choice for the …

By Richard Thomas

Rating: A-

Heaven Hill launched their Heritage Collection last year with a 17 year old bourbon, but the distillery has a habit of using their annual series to showcase the breadth and depth of what they make there (witness the variety of Parker’s Heritage over the years). So their choice for the second installment of Heritage Collection makes perfect sense: a 20 year old corn whiskey.

This is an ultra-aged version of Mellow Corn, of course, drawing on stock of the same mash bill of 80% corn, 12% malted barley and 8% rye. Another feature to recall about corn whiskey is that it is aged in used barrels; this is key to separating it from what would otherwise be high-corn bourbon. They had 110 barrels of this stuff, socked away for five times as long as Mellow Corn, from the 3rd floor of Rickhouse 1K. In my opinion, it’s worth recalling that if this stuff had been bottled on the Mellow Corn maturation arc, it would have been on store shelves in the days of Bush the Younger. It’s bottled at 115 proof.

It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to do a Sneak Peak. I only name a review as such when it is both done before the whiskey goes into distribution and is the first review to get out. So, without further ado…

The Whiskey
Reflecting that the whiskey was aged in old, not new, bourbon barrels, it has a golden coloring in the glass. Corn whiskeys are often marked by their scent of sweet corn at best and corn husk at worst, but I didn’t find that here, and this despite what Heaven Hill themselves say about it. The nose was more fruity than grainy. It came across as a cinnamon and apple cookie, something like the Quaker Cinnamon and Apple oatmeal, but without those oats. The flavor is much the same, and superbly mellow.  The finish is also rather on the sweet side, making this a supremely easy-drinking pour. I have a hard time seeing anyone not enjoy it.

The Price
Officially, this will go for $290 for a 750 ml bottle when it hits store shelves on March 1. Unofficially, expect mark-ups. That is the way of things nowadays… but maybe, just maybe, this one won’t be marked up that fiercely. It is a corn whiskey from a new series after all. That might just offset the 20 Year age statement.