By Father John Rayls Rating: B+ Uncle Nearest 1856 Premium Whiskey shows where Tennessee Whiskey is headed as a category. Defined by law as, essentially, bourbon with the added step of filtration in sugar maple charcoal undertaken before maturation, the category has spread from Jack Daniel’s and George Dickel to a host of craft distilleries in the Volunteer State. As ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B As the ranks of whisk(e)y enthusiasts continues to swell, an old concept has gotten some new life and is spreading: the infinity bottle. When a particularly favored bottle reaches its last pour or two, the contents are emptied into a special bottle, mixing with the remnants of past favored whiskeys already there. Thus an evolving, ...

By Richard Thomas The Derby City got its newest urban distillery earlier this week, when the ribbon was cut at Rabbit Hole Distillery, just in time for the Kentucky Derby. Rabbit Hole’s $15 million facility is located in the trendy NuLu district, on Jefferson Street. Founded in 2012 by Kaveh Zamanian and started with sourced whiskeys, created with advice from ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: A- An oddity in the world of independently bottled Scotch single malts is not indicating what distillery a whisky came from, but that is exactly what Exclusive Malts did here. This release is labeled “Orkney,” distilled in 2000 and aged 17 years in a refill hogshead. Only two distilleries are on Orkney, then and now: Highland ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B- Craft whiskey is full of stories about this how this whiskey is inspired by something from the pre-Prohibition era or how this recipe was used by moonshiners. This quest for historic authenticity is understandable, and backstories of this kind run a Politifact-style range from true to “Pants On Fire.” Clyde May was a real moonshiner ...