By Richard Thomas Whiskey observers were shocked at the end of last week as word broke that Kirin Holdings Company intended to sell Four Roses for $1 billion. The news arrived in the midst of sliding sales afflicting most of the world’s whiskey industries. According to reports, Kirin was exploring the sale with advice and …
By Richard Thomas Going into 2025, the tea leaves were already looking like at least a slowdown in sales was looming. By the end of September, the picture was one of a sales slump rather than a mere slowdown. After fifteen years, the US Bourbon Boom was over, while across the Atlantic sales were down …
Yesterday Buffalo Trace Distillery placed its nine millionth barrel of bourbon since Prohibition into Warehouse V, the one-barrel monument that has held their millionth barrels since 1953. The distillery began official barrel counting in 1933, after the repeal of Prohibition. Since then, the Distillery has celebrated multiple millionth barrel milestones – the first in 1942, …
By Richard Thomas During a Zoom tasting of the Four Roses Small Batch Limited Edition 2025, Master Distiller Brent Elliott revealed that not only did his distillery have a new mash bill, but they had two and had already put barrels of the new whiskey onto their ricks. Until very recently, Elliott and his predecessors …
By Richard Thomas The Bourbon Boom is over. Although just how bad the current whiskey sales slump is unclear to outsiders, the slump is very real. Attending this slump is the bursting of the investment bubble that led so many tech\finance bros to sink their excess cash into barrels of whiskey and warehousing ventures, while …
Purchase a copy of Mother of Bourbon on Amazon. By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Although I would not describe Mary Dowling as the literal mother of bourbon, the subtitle of this new book from Rabbit Hole founder Kaveh Zamanian and author Eric Goodman is certainly true enough. The story of Mary Dowling has been quite neglected, …
By Richard Thomas The other day my inbox had a share in it, a video short from the TikToker Barchemistry about frothing whiskey to improve its taste. The idea is to use a milk frother, the sort of device that an avid home barista ought to have handy, to give the liquid a vigorous stir …
The American Craft Spirits Association (ACSA) today announces the election and installation of Jordan Cotton of Cotton & Reed (DC) as the President of the Board of Directors. He has served as a member of the organization’s Board of Directors since 2023, and has been a key ally on the ground in Washington, including chairing …
By Richard Thomas Buffalo Trace Distillery draws in some 340,000 visitors annually which places it among the most visited distilleries in the world. For most of those visitors, the distillery’s location on the banks of the Kentucky River is one of its most bucolic features; indeed, the distillery itself figures prominently for kayakers and boaters …
By Richard Thomas When Maker’s Mark released Maker’s 46, it was a major landmark for Kentucky bourbon. Since its inaugural release in 1953, the only product the Loretto, Kentucky company had ever sold was its flagship expression, Maker’s Mark itself. Five decades passed between Bill Samuels, Sr. starting the family business over again, famously burning …
