By Richard Thomas For decades now I have had the pleasure of either showing friends and assorted visitors around my native Bluegrass, or at least offering advice on such things when I am not there to do it in person. When it comes to bourbon distilleries, I usually ask a simple question: “Do you have a favorite brand, and you ...

By Julia Ritz Toffoli A couple of weeks ago I was up in the Hudson Valley with a group of friends to celebrate a birthday and visit the Tuthilltown Distillery, where Hudson Whiskey, among others, is produced. Now, I’m from Massachusetts, so I’m well familiar with fall foliage, and the gorgeous explosions of color that graces New England during autumn. ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: C- Rebel Yell has gone through plenty of changes between its 1936 introduction* as a Stitzel-Weller bourbon and its present ownership by Luxco, reflected both by what is inside the bottle and in the appearance of the bottle itself. The brand began life as a small circulation release focusing mostly on Southern customers, but by the ...

By Richard Thomas One of the clearest markers that the whiskey boom was a worldwide phenomenon was the surging growth of Irish whiskey, measured not just in cases of Jameson shipped but in the revival of Ireland’s very distillery scene. Whereas Irish whiskey-making began the century consolidated around a mere three distilleries, by 2013 one could ask if the country ...

By Kurt Maitland As the Master Blender for Diageo’s Johnnie Walker, Dr. Jim Beveridge has access to one of the most extensive collections of single malt and grain whiskies on the planet. His creations run from recent Johnnie Walker releases like the Explorers’ Club Collection and his re-imagining of an old classic, Johnnie Walker Double Black, to individual blends that ...