By Father John Rayls Rating: B- Heritage Distilling Company (HDC), a craft distillery based in Gig Harbor, Washington, has won many awards since starting work in 2012. In fact, HDC is the American Distilling Institute’s most award-bedecked craft distillery in North America four years in a row now, from 2014 to today. And, for a trendy women in whiskey twist, HDC ...

By Randall H. Borkus Rating: C+ West Cork Distillery was founded in Union Hall in 2003 by three lifelong friends; Denis McCarthy, Ger McCarthy and John O’Connell , West Cork, Ireland. Ger and Denis McCarthy had long histories as deep sea trawler men and O’Connell was a research and development scientist the food and beverage industry. Inspired by West Cork’s ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B One of the great traditions in Southern style moonshine is the apple pie flavor, a classic recipe for making white lightning more palatable. Most purveyors of legal moonshine have a version. So, it only follows that one of the biggest legal moonshine distilleries would too, and especially so considering it is located outside Great Smoky ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B Nowadays Early Times has a reputation as a palatable, but firmly bottom shelf whiskey, a status underlined by its American designation* as a “Kentucky whisky” rather than a Kentucky bourbon. The brand got that title in 1983, back when Maker’s Mark was the only premium bourbon around and rubble from the 1970s world whiskey crash ...

By Father John Rayls Rating: B- “There is no bad whiskey. There are only some whiskeys that aren’t as good as others.” Raymond Chandler “My own experience has been that the tools I need for my trade are paper, tobacco, food, and a little whisky.”  William Faulkner   These are famous whiskey quotes coming from well-known wordsmiths, and most of ...