By Richard Thomas Whenever I ask someone who enjoys Bourbon or Irish Whiskey why they don’t like Scotch, the answer is most often “because it’s smoky.” That perception likely comes from the use of certain smoky whiskies to add character to the big brand name blends, such as Johnnie Walker, and if it doesn’t it’s then because some of the ...

By Father John Rayls Rating: A- A limited release from Jim Beam ought to grab a bourbon lover’s attention, and this time it truly is something special. The cost is… well, we’ll get to that, but, regardless, Jim Beam Distiller’s Cut is worth a good, long look. And I say that even though Beam is not one of my favorite ...

By Richard Thomas Almost a decade ago, Four Roses released the Mariage 2008, the first in a series of what would become known as the Small Batch Limited Edition (LE). Similar to the regular Four Roses Small Batch, these bourbons draw on individual stocks of the distillery’s famous 10 recipes. These ten variations stem from two separate mash bills, one ...

By Richard Thomas Plenty is wrong with the secondary market. Provenance is unheard of, so fakes are rampant, and despite this prices are often inflated. Yet above those problems is the plain fact that selling liquor without a license is illegal. Since you can’t reform a black market, so long as that was the case none of the other problems ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: A- In my mind, nothing has ever quite encapsulated the hot house absurdities of the ongoing Bourbon Boom quite so much as W.L. Weller 12 Year Old. I think of it that way because of how it went from being a largely overlooked bourbon to a chimera overnight, and all because the late Josh Ozersky wrote ...