By Father John Rayls “Slainte” is a traditional (and sometimes mispronounced) Celtic toast when drinking Irish whiskey. It means “health,” and is often combined with other Celtic words to make the toast more personal. In the American culture, a more appropriate meaning should be “slow your roll.” Of course, it doesn’t really mean that, but a slower more deliberate approach ...
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Tullamore Dew 18 Year Old Single Malt Irish Whiskey Review
By Richard Thomas Rating: A In a move that truly bucked prevailing trends and certain pessimistic, cynical bloggers, when Tullamore Dew began winding down their much admired 10 Year Old “Four Wood” Single Malt it was not to replace it with one or more No Age Statement (NAS) whiskeys. Instead, they de facto replaced it with two older age statement ...
Read More »Best Irish Single Malts To Try For St. Patrick’s Day
By Richard Thomas St. Patrick’s Day is the day after tomorrow, and from then clear through the weekend people will be donning green attire, slurping green beer and chasing leprechauns. I humbly suggest one change in these annual festivities: ditch the green beer and have a dram or two of a fine Irish single malt instead. That statement will cause ...
Read More »Touring Maker’s Mark
By Richard Thomas When Maker’s Mark says they love having visitors stop by the distillery, that isn’t a modern thing. My first visit was in 1992, when even Jim Beam’s Small Batch Collection was new. At that time, it was the only distillery in the state that could be called a proper tourist destination, that due in large part to ...
Read More »Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey Review
By Richard Thomas Rating: B I used to refer to New York, Texas and Colorado as the three states contending to become “America’s Third Whiskey State.” I’m beginning to rethink if it’s still just those three, but a big part of why I originally put Colorado on the list was Stranahan’s, one of the early entrants in the micro-distillery movement. ...
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