By S.D. Peters Rating: A- PHILADELPHIA, PA. 1795: Local farmer and distiller Philip Vigol (later Wigle) was sentenced to hang for treason. His crime: attacking a tax collector and burning his house. If, like Wigle, you were a whiskey-distilling farmer in Western Pennsylvania, it was no crime, but an act of defiance, the last resort of Pennsylvania’s rye distillers after ...

By Jake Emen Depending on who you ask, or what you try, being struck by “White Lightning” — a white, unaged whiskey — can either be a revelatory experience or one you’d sooner wish to forget. As a newcomer to white whiskeys, arguably I’m in a sound place to offer the insight I’ve gained from recently tasting two different white ...

By S.D. Peters Rating: B- Death’s Door White Whiskey: is this whiskey fit for consuming in a death rattle? Or will it put start the rattle? The well-worn tales of blinding raw moonshine do come to mind. Let’s face it, there’s a particular base of consumers (mostly male, I’ll wager) who’ll read a challenge into this name, which might well ...

By S.D. Peters A Moonshine Romance “Moonshine” – a word that’s worth a thousand pictures. Whether sepia-toned, awash in cinematic midnight or muddled with shadows, those pictures evoke a giddy infatuation for Appalachia’s hills & hollers or a longing nostalgia for Chicago’s speakeasies in the hearts and minds of those who have never tasted moonshine, never visited Hazard or Harlan ...

By S.D. Peters Rating: B Finger Lakes Distillery, in scenic upstate New York, has established quite a range of products – more than we’ve seen for other micro-distillers.  Of their 14 spirit line, six are whiskeys.  The Whiskey Reviewer had the opportunity to try their McKenzie Rye Whiskey and McKenzie Bourbon Whiskey, and these reveal that Finger Lakes’ Master Distiller ...