By Richard Thomas Rating: B Balblair is one of a very select group of Scottish distilleries that releases their single malts as vintages rather than age statement or no age statement (NAS) expressions. It’s an odd way of going about doing things for a whisky, for while wine is very much influenced by how good the grape crop of a ...

By Father John Rayls Crown Royal is the top-selling Canadian whisky in the U.S. and second best in the world, while ranking as the eight biggest world whiskey brand overall. Yet you would never guess this from looking at the map. The Crown Royal Distillery is located about 1 1/2 hours north of beautiful Winnipeg in Gimli, Manitoba near the ...

By Richard Thomas Rating:B+ When Barrell Bourbon (or Barrell Craft Spirits, by the company’s lesser known, formal name) introduced a brand extension, it was not drawn from America’s second whiskey, rye. Instead, it was from the broad category of “American Whiskey,” which can mean a number of things. Not going with the popular, fast growing and still relatively open whiskey ...

Don’t Call Tasmania A Whisky Newcomer, Because They’ve Been Making It For A Generation By Richard Thomas In Tasmania, Lady Jane Franklin is known as one of the Australian island’s pioneers. However, she was also an enthusiastic supporter of the Temperance movement, famously declaring in 1838 that she “would prefer barley be fed to the swine than used to turn ...

By Richard Thomas Thanks to the bourbon boom and its attendant increase in tourism, most of Kentucky’s distilleries have become more than just whiskey factories. All but the most industrial sport attractive visitors centers, and some have positioned themselves as events venues as well. That some Kentucky distilleries would take advantage of their own events facilities to host evening entertainments ...