By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Few individual expressions have the kind of production story about them that Maker’s 46 has built up. The expression was Maker’s Mark first major brand extension, using a finish based on seared French Oak staves inserted into the middle of the barrel. This was an idea first employed by the independent Scotch blender-bottler Compass Box ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B- Battle Cry is one of the beer-inspired American Malts coming from Rhode Island brewstillery Sons of Liberty. It’s billed as a single malt, but it’s a bit more interesting than that. Technically, a single malt is 100% malted barley and made at a single distillery. Battle Cry doesn’t quite qualify because it used a little ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B- If you are a spirits nerd (distilled, not ghostly), then the latest outfit to pay close attention to is PM Spirits. Last month we took our first look at their doings with Mic Drop Bourbon , a cask strength, 8 year old MGP-sourced bourbon. PM Spirits is into more than just bourbon though, and among their ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B That an eight year old whisky is the oldest single malt ever released by Kilchoman for global distribution ought to tell you a lot about how young the distillery is, especially for a distillery on the fabled island of Islay. When Kilchoman went operational in 2005, it was the first new distillery built on Islay ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ When Craft Barrell Spirits (aka Barrell Bourbon) released their inaugural batch of rye whiskey several months ago, it was a noteworthy groundbreaking for one of America’s most popular independent bottlers. Little did we realize at the time that the company had something even more noteworthy waiting around the corner. I say noteworthy because it’s novelty ...