By Richard Thomas Rating: C- My interest in Jim Beam Black 8 Year Old was rooted in a simple curiosity. That classic of small batch bourbons, Knob Creek, also comes from Jim Beam and is a nine year old (albeit a much stronger one). So, I wondered, would an eight year old version of Jim Beam, bottled at a slightly ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: C+ Crown Royal Black is essentially the first step up the Crown Royal line ladder. It has the same bottle, same faux velvet bag, and a slightly different label, with whisky that is billed as a more robust rendition of the Crown Royal blend. That more robust flavor is the intended result of increasing the proportion ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: C- In addition to honey and fruit flavors, the third major twist in the flavored whiskey game is spiced whiskey. The thing is that “spiced whiskey” could mean just about anything, so what you get depends very much on the brand. So it is with Wild Turkey Spiced, introduced last year. The label tells us only ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: C- Before flavored whiskeys like Fireball and Bird Dog caught on, the bourbon honey liqueurs started coming back. Wild Turkey is the grandfather in this category, having had a fine honey liqueur in production since 1978, only lately rebranded “American Honey.” Yet these days it seems every big whiskey brand has a honey liqueur of some ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: C- Although the white whiskey trend started several years ago in the then-nascent craft whiskey sector, that hasn’t stopped the big boys getting in on the act. Hence, Jim Beam’s introduction Jacob’s Ghost White Whiskey. Billed as a throwback to what the historic founder of the Beam dynasty, Jacob Beam, was making in the late 18th ...