By Richard Thomas One of the telling virtues of bourbon is how you can get really good quality for a reasonable price. This sometimes holds true outside the United States, even after import duties have taken their bite. Bourbon is definitely a spirit where “cheap” doesn’t necessarily mean “inferior.” Even among bourbon enthusiasts, the go-to choices for everyday drinking often ...
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Craft Distilling Sitting On A Ticking Timebomb?
The Silver Trail Fire Raises Questions Of Equipment And Training Quality By Richard Thomas While at Scotland’s Spirit of Speyside whisky festival earlier this month, I had the opportunity to visit Strathisla, billed as Scotland’s oldest distillery. It certainly looked the part, roughly the same size as some of America’s bigger craft distilleries and with an appearance comparable to a ...
Read More »Jack Daniel’s Was A Friend Of Mine
Separating Fact From The Legend Of Jack Daniel By Father John Rayls A part of Toby Keith’s “Hit It” song goes: C’mon There’s a gentleman down in Lynchburg On the south side of Tennessee. He started cookin’ that homemade whiskey Had his own little recipe. Now his name’s on a million labels And you can see it on a billboard ...
Read More »Talisker 10 Year Old Scotch Review
Updated June 13, 2020 By Richard Thomas Average Rating: B+ Talisker is so esteemed a single malt that it’s name it’s not one of those distilleries known only among scotch enthusiasts, but instead is one of a handful that is known to casual whisky drinkers after the big pair of Glenfiddich and Glenlivet. Part of the reason lies in the ...
Read More »Bad Whiskey Writing, Piled Higher And Deeper
By Richard Thomas Excoriable whiskey writing piles up fairly quickly in The Whiskey Reviewer’s files, and for our sixth installment of this series on subpar coverage the first example is also a very recent one: the Wall Street Journal’s article from last Tuesday about the barrel shortage. The story itself wasn’t bad on a factual level, however. The problem that it’s ...
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