By Richard Thomas Rating: C- As the craft whiskey boom really took off in the early 2010s, many small producers were on the look out for techniques to reduce maturation time or bypass it all together. The classic was to age in small or tiny barrels. The best examples of this tailored their production process to make a better new ...
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Lochindaal 2010 Scotch Review
By Alex Southgate Rating: B+ I am sure this is going to wrinkle a few noses out there, but as a rule I’m not a big fan of very smoky whiskies. I love a good Scotch just like the rest, but the heavy peaty aroma that comes with many expressions is something I find a bit off-putting. This being said, ...
Read More »Old Pepper Bottled in Bond Bourbon Review
By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Many companies began in the whiskey business the way James E. Pepper did, building their brand using sourced whiskey. After establishing that brand and proving its viability, they then set out down the road of financing and building a distillery. In some cases, this begins a transition from reliance on sourcing to basing whiskeys on ...
Read More »Hardin’s Creek Frankfort Bourbon Review
By Randall H. Borkus Rating: A- Beam Suntory’s Hardin’s Creek line of whiskeys, launched just last year, is back with a new trilogy called “The Kentucky Series.” The theme is exploring the impact of very specific buildings and locales inside Kentucky on maturation. All three bourbon whiskeys were laid down with the same mashbill 17 years ago yet aged at different ...
Read More »Octomore 14.1, 14.2 and 14.3 Scotch Review
By Richard Thomas Bruichladdich Distillery brings together two distinct threads. Although the distillery dates back to the late 19th Century, it was shuttered in 1994, and Bruichladdich as a whisky brand really dates to its reopening under entrepreneur Mark Reynier and Master Distiller Jim McEwan in 2000. Much as he did with Waterford Distillery in Ireland, Reynier put Bruichladdich on ...
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