By Kurt Maitland There are a world’s worth of bars – from speakeasies and dives to tourist traps and posh hotel bars, but for me perhaps the most important is the neighborhood bar. A “Cheers” type situation—where the bar owner knows the name of their regulars, the bartenders know what you drink and what’s new on the menu that you ...

Battle of the Knob Creeks, Comparing NAS To 9 Year Old By Richard Thomas Some three years ago, Beam Suntory quietly removed the age statement from Knob Creek. After dropping the 9 years from the label, it retained its official label as “Knob Creek Small Batch,” but to writers, bloggers and enthusiasts it became known as “Knob Creek NAS” (i.e. ...

By Kurt Maitland Amazon’s Three Drinkers are the spirits world’s version of the old Top Gear TV show. Less sports cars, less controversy, younger crew but strangely an almost equivalent amount of (better) booze. Their series hit Amazon last year, and they are finalizing Season Two as we speak. The Drinkers took time from their hectic schedule to chat with ...

This Year Saw Many Outstanding Rye Whiskeys. Was It The Best Class For Modern Times? By Richard Thomas With the coming of Fall, I can look back on 2019 and tell you it was a mighty fine year in rye whiskey. Three releases in particular have given me sufficient pause to wonder if this hasn’t been the best year for ...

By Richard Thomas For many years, Scotch Whisky was the most expensive category in world whisky, and has only lately been eclipsed on a general level by Japanese Whisky. Scotch continues to produce the whiskies that command prices on par with that of a new car, but Japanese Whisky has the 12 year old, entry level single malts that cost ...