By Richard Thomas Rating: B- The Pinhook brand name represents whiskeys from at least the warehouse of the Castle & Key Distillery, which in turn is the renovated and revived Old Taylor Distillery, a neo-Gothic glory that was formerly the showpiece of the famous Colonel E.H. Taylor (whose name now graces a Buffalo Trace-brand). The company hired Marianne Eaves (then ...

By Douglas Fraser Grade: C+ The Kooper Family Distillery is 100% family owned and operated, by Troy and Michelle Kooper, who have spent years making and blending whiskey in Ledbetter, Texas. Their blends can be found predominantly in the Lone Star State, but aren’t unknown elsewhere. Like many a small whiskey company, they started by blending sourced distillates before making ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B Releases from Barrell Craft Spirits are periodic in nature, but we’ve been waiting more than a year for the coming of Barrell Rye Batch 003. This one is a whopper in its blending stock, though. They’ve drawn on sourcing in Indiana (of course), Poland (the novel source introduced with Batch 001), Tennessee and Canada. Given ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B This being Kentucky, our locals probably spawn more whiskey projects per capita than anywhere else in the world (and yes, I’m looking at you too, Scotland). An example is last summer, when Jason Brauner launched Buzzard’s Roost Rye. Brauner is the co-owner of Louisville’s Bourbons Bistro, and where this anywhere else one might expect a ...

By Emily Mullis Rating: B On a mission to bring back that good ‘ol pre-Prohibition whiskey, Lux Row has created a new whiskey line thusly named after the county where it all began. As one of the earliest Kentucky distilleries (in the modern sense), Daviess County Distilling Company set the course for other distillers to follow, and was the biggest ...