By Richard Thomas Rating: B Rye Whiskey was weakened by Prohibition and then done in by the Whiskey Bust of the 1970s, and is decline too with it the distilleries of Maryland. Thanks to the concurrent whiskey and craft Distilling booms, whiskey-making has returned to Maryland, and appropriately that return is based squarely on rye. Sagamore Spirit opened their plant ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: A- Yesterday I was observing that even though craft whiskey has been a thing for at least a decade, there are almost no examples of a micro-distilled whiskey that is even several years old, let alone ten. In fact, the only one I can think of is Old Potrero Hotaling’s series, a periodic line of limited ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Anchor Distilling’s (now Hotaling & Co.) Old Portero is craft whiskey before there was craft whiskey, predating the movement we know today by almost two decades. However, it took the explosion of small distillers for Old Potrero to pursue brand expansions. After all, you need to know a market is there. Old Potrero 18th Century ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B- One of the things I like to warn folks about is just because someone has a blog does not mean she knows what she’s blogging about. Even some who work as journalists and produce paid work for mainstream publications sometimes have a depressing inability to separate their opinions from fact or distinguish what they actually ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: A- Of all the whiskeys in the Michter’s line up, my favorite has become the 10 Year Old Single Barrel Rye. Some are better whiskeys, but also near impossible to get and dramatically more expensive. I have a short list of whisk(e)ys I’d be willing to pay $100 to $200 a bottle for to keep one ...