Updated and corrected, June 19, 2023 By Richard Thomas Rating: B Several years ago, the Old Pepper brand was a fixture on round-ups of the best expressions of MGP’s ubiquitous 95% rye, 5% malted barley rye whiskey. It was near and dear to my heart for more than just that standing, however. When Amir Peay started Georgetown Trading Co. and ...
Read More »B
Sneak Peek: Still Austin Bottled in Bond Bourbon Review
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 ...
Read More »Remus Gatsby Reserve Bourbon Review
By Andrew Graham Rating: B I have become quite a fan of most of what’s in the George Remus portfolio. We’ve talked about Remus here before, but in short, it is one of two in-house brands of MGP, the distillery on the Indiana-Kentucky border that’s more commonly associated with large-scale contract distilling. What’s easy to miss about MGP is that ...
Read More »Sneak Peek: Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Barrel Proof Rye Whiskey Review (2023)
By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ A few years ago, the folks in Lynchburg, Tennessee decided to do a special release of their relatively new rye whiskey (after a series of teaser releases, the flagship JD Rye came out in 2017) by taking it cask strength and single barrel. That was apparently well enough received that its now a permanent fixture: ...
Read More »Old Elk Straight Rye Whiskey Review
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 ...
Read More »