By Richard Thomas With the maturity of the “Rye Revival” in recent years, some observers have wondered aloud why Jim Beam wasn’t doing more with an illustrious and venerable brand in their stable, Old Overholt, starting with David Wondrich’s excellent two-parter for The Daily Beast in September 2016. Perhaps someone at Beam Suntory was paying attention, because a year and ...
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The Priciest Bourbons And Ryes In 2018
American Whiskeys At Over $3,000 A Bottle By Richard Thomas Although the prices commanded by ultra aged, rare American Whiskeys have not quite caught up with what a similar bottle of single malt Scotch might fetch, much has changed since the last time The Whiskey Reviewer looked at this subject, in the middle of 2015. Prices for prized expressions have ...
Read More »Six Laws That Made American Whiskey
By Richard Thomas Whiskey is a quintessentially American drink, a connection that becomes clear when one sees how interwoven it is with American history. The story of American Whiskey is the journey of a rough, unaged distilled spirit made by farmers because it was cheaper to move than grain or flour growing and maturing into today’s modern, multi-billion dollar industry ...
Read More »New Wintertime Whiskeys To Look For
By Richard Thomas Winter is usually a fairly sleepy time for new whisk(e)y releases. After all, it’s the autumn that is the time of year bursting at the seams with hot ticket items. Once Christmas rolls around, things quiet down. That may seem a bit counter-intuitive though, since winter weather is pretty much synonymous with winter-warmer, whiskey-drinking weather. Thankfully, “fairly ...
Read More »Barrell Rye Batch 002 Whiskey Review
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 ...
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