By Richard Thomas Rating: A- Making its way to or reaching shelves right now is the latest batch of Booker’s Bourbon for 2022. This one is dubbed The Lumberyard Batch, referring back to the time that Booker Noe worked in a lumber yard prior to entering the family trade at Jim Beam and embarking on his legendary bourbon career. More ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Dublin’s Teeling Whiskey Company has launches a new series, called the Wonders of Wood. Obviously built around the theme of what wood choices do in barrel aging, this first installment is aged in new Chinkapin white oak. This is a varietal from Eastern and Central North America, noted for its wide wood grain. Note this ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ The Whiskey Reviewer is 11 years old now, so it predates most of the annual limited edition bourbon series currently on the market. So, when something like Blood Oath Pact No. 8 shows up at my house and I hold the bottle in my hand, all I can do is think “Really? It’s been 8 ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ One of the best aspects of Lost Lantern’s model is also what makes it unique: it’s a true negociant in the European sense, but plying its business in the United States. There are two things to understand about that statement to get at why it makes them unique. First, as much as I love Barrell ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: A- California’s St. George Spirits is an example of what I call craft distilling before there was craft distilling. Founded by Jörg Rupf in 1982. After Rupf had spent more than a decade in brandy-making, ex-nuclear scientist and former brewer Lance Winters showed up on Rupf’s doorstep, looking to make whiskey and with a bottle of ...