By Richard Thomas In Portugal, it often seems like half the people with even so much as one back acre of land don’t use it to put in a swimming pool or plant a flower garden, but instead plant a vineyard. Those who do almost invariably make their own wine, and some of them take it a step further. Using ...

An Interview With Western Kentucky Still-Maker Christopher Kelley By Richard Thomas The “bourbon shortage” gets all the headlines these days, but one of the genuine shortages in the whiskey-making business, or indeed in the larger distilling industry, is in equipment. Since The Whiskey Reviewer’s early days the number of micro-distilleries operating or under construction in the United States has quadrupled, ...

By Richard Thomas The American craft whiskey boom and the widening interest in home distilling has created a demand for stills and other distillation items on a scale that simply did not exist 15 years ago, leaving established copperworks shops such as the famed Vendome of Louisville, Kentucky with waiting lists stretching out more than a year. A crop of ...

By Richard Thomas Renewed interest in small barrel aging has come up hand-in-hand with the micro-distilling boom, causing even big distilleries to get in on the act. Proponents of small barrel aging claim the use of smaller barrels allows them to create a superior product in a short space of time, an attractive proposition for a small start-up who would ...