By Richard Thomas Rating: B Heaven Hill was the pioneer of “urban bourbon” destinations in downtown Louisville. Although it is often forgotten, before they opened the Evan Williams Experience on Main Street, there were no destination distilleries in the city. Although Louisville was a center for the industry, what was there (in Shively) was very industrial in nature and not ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: A- San Francisco’s Old Potrero is part of a tiny class of distillers that I dubbed “craft whiskey before there was craft whiskey.” I say this because outfits like Old Potrero, St. George and Prichard’s were small distillers, starting out in an era when the whiskey industry as a whole was only just starting to rebound ...

Updated June 8, 2023 By Richard Thomas Rating: B The forerunners of modern craft whiskey, distillers like Stranahan’s and Tuthilltown, are fast coming up on their 20th anniversaries. Even so, none has released a 15 year old whiskey, and I don’t expect either that landmark or a 20 year old expression to be coming any time soon. I doubt when ...

By Richard Thomas Average Rating: B- The Old Elk brand got started with a blend of bourbons, crafted by former MGP Master Distiller Greg Metze. Their next step was to expand the line with a straight wheat and a straight rye whiskey. All three are sourced, and the sourcing remains undisclosed. Old Elk’s rye uses the familiar 95% rye mash ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B Located right in the middle of the Speyside region, Tamdhu Distillery has spent most of its existence furnishing malt for use in other blends. My understanding is that it has been such a reliable producer in this respect that it is jokingly referred to as the “Can-dhu Distillery.” That said, Tamdhu has not escaped the ...