By Richard Thomas Rating: A- Ardbeg is almost as well known for their splashy promotions as for the quality of their whisky. Or maybe that is the other way around? This is the distillery that invented the notion of “space whisky,” having brought their samples home from the International Space Station the year before Suntory announced they were sending theirs ...

The Surge Of Flavored Whiskey Shows Signs Of Slowing Down. Is The Fireball Fad Over? By Richard Thomas Although many whiskey fans dearly wish to ignore it, a big part of the whiskey boom in America has been the tsunami of popularity behind flavored whiskey. Led by Fireball, a cinnamon-flavored whiskey, the category grew by 28% in 2015. That is ...

A Look At The Most Recently Founded And Opened Scotch Whisky Distilleries By Richard Thomas Part of the romance of Scotch Whisky is its plethora of distilleries. Having survived the series of world events that shook the American and Irish whiskey industries to near-rubble, Scotland became the place where enthusiasts could wax about how the thin cut of a pot ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B Last month Woodford Reserve journeyed into the realm of American Malts by releasing a new Distiller’s Select whiskey, Five Malt. In my view, Five Malt is both the most natural thing in the world for Woodford to do, but at the same time also a keenly innovative, craft whiskey-style stroke. For those who know world ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Two weeks ago I finally had the pleasure of crossing paths with Joe Beatrice, founder of Barrell Bourbon. I genuinely mean “pleasure” there, since I got to sit for a spell with Beatrice and his team to talk shop and bemoan Donald Trump, sipping on cask strength bourbon all the while. The latter included what ...