By Richard Thomas Richard Thomas, Owner-Editor Best New Whiskey, Heaven Hill 27 Year Old Bourbon: This survivor of the greatest American distillery disaster of modern times, the 1996 Heaven Hill fire, is more than just a magnificent pour of ultra aged bourbon. It also somehow got to the grand old age of 27 years, ancient in bourbon terms, without becoming ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: A This bottling from Exclusive Malts follows a vintage from 1991, and should not be confused with it. Both are 25 year olds, but because we’re looking at two different (albeit similar) bottlings of single cask, cask strength whiskies, they are cousins and should be seen as such. Another potential source of confusion is that this ...

By Richard Thomas Everything turns green and Gaelic again this week, as St. Patrick’s Day 2018 is upon us. The combination of winter-cusping-on-springtime weather and the Hibernian holiday make it an ideal time to crack open a bottle of Irish Whiskey, and there is no better way to mark the occasion by trying something new. These ten whiskeys, grouped by ...

By Father John Rayls Rating: A- Although first and foremost a Bourbon drinker, I have found a really interesting Irish Whiskey to be a very satisfying trip down a different trail. It’s the whiskey I use to offer a softer, diverse perspective on life. Irish Whiskey has a very different flavor profile from Bourbon, which gives a much more “in ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ New Zealand Whisky Company is unique among independent bottlers because it exists in a country with no active distilleries, and their stock in trade is whisky made by a single distillery, Willowbank, that was shuttered in 1997. The Oamaruvian story starts with Dunedin DoubleWood, which in turn began with 200 ex-Bourbon barrels of grain whisky. ...