By April Manning Rating: C The Hirsch brand roots extend back to a distillery that is a now both a ruin and a National Historical Landmark in Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania. “Schaefferstown Distillery,” or Bomberger’s, has roots that run deep and it claims to be the first distillery established in the United States. It operated for more than two centuries in various ...

By Father John Rayls Rating: A- Have you has a whiskey catch you absolutely taken off guard?  Imagine the instructors when James T. Kirk led the cadets in the combat training exercise The Kobayashi Maru (Star Trek fans?). It was designed to measure how a candidate would cope with certain defeat and ultimate death in a sure loser of a ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B Magnus is brand new expression from Highland Park and part of a larger repackaging and shake-up of the esteemed Orkney distillery’s product line. The name is not a reference to the Latin word magnus, meaning “great,” but instead is a homage to the distillery’s late 18th Century founder Magnus Eunson. The new expression is now ...

By Debbie Shocair Rating: B Portland holds a proud little secret: in the world of American Craft Whiskey, Clear Creek Distillery is a true pioneer. After Steve McCarthy became enamored of peated Scotch, he decided to make his own variety right there in the Pacific northwest. The distillery has been making a fine peated single malt whiskey since the mid-1990’s, ...

By Father John Rayls Rating: B Sir Edwin Landseer created an oil painting known as “The Monarch of the Glen” in 1851, which became extremely popular through the 1800’s. The original was purchased by John Dewar & Sons in 1919. I mention this bit of art history because Dewar’s current Master Blender, Stephanie Macleod, used the painting many decades later ...