By Richard Thomas Rating: A- Highland Park’s Valhalla Collection, a line of celebrated-if-pricey single malts celebrating the Viking heritage of the distillery’s Okrney homeplace, proved quite the splash. This year Highland Park is following that success up with a “Fire and Ice” (or Surtur and Ymir, take your pick Thor fans) themed pairing of limited (but large) releases, starting with ICE. ICE ...
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Types Of Barrels
By Richard Thomas Only a few years ago, a controversy raged in American whiskey circles about the use of small barrels in the craft whiskey sector. A big part of why the issue caught on among bourbon enthusiasts for a time is because, until the craft distilling movement started, the 53 gallon American Standard Barrel (ASB) was the beginning and ...
Read More »The Balvenie 14 Year Old Caribbean Cask Scotch Review
By Father John Rayls Rating: B+ The Balvenie Caribbean Cask Aged 14 Years Scotch has been a very popular offering, and has been reviewed, tested, sampled and consumed by about everyone that could spell the word “Scotch.” Volumes have been written in untold numbers, exploring every nuance of the whisky. My attempt at a review reminds me of Bette Midler’s ...
Read More »Spirit Of Speyside 2016 Whisky School Full, Accepting Students For 2017
Imagine a school that is open just three days a year and is devoted to its students’ favorite subject, and it is little wonder that there’s world wide appeal, and a lengthy waiting list, for the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival Whisky School. That’s the view of four whisky legends who, with a collective knowledge of 200 years in the ...
Read More »Peatageddon: The New Whisky Shortage
Peat, Used In Making Prized Whiskies, Is Running Out By Richard Thomas Drinkers scurried to buy up Islay single malts and other peated whiskies today as the Consolidated National News (CNN) revealed that whiskey was threatened by another dire shortage. Hard on the heels of the threats posed by new Chinese whisky drinkers, an American oak shortage, and the activities ...
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