The Whiskey Reviewer A World of Whiskey, Poured Every Weekday

By Richard Thomas Rating: B Seattle’s Westland Distillery has staked itself out as a leader in the rising category of American Single Malts, placing a major emphasis on adapting the model to their home in the Pacific Northwest. That includes harvesting local peat for use in making their peated malts, and for five years now they put the spotlight on ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: A Back in 2014, Jim Beam celebrated the 25th anniversary of the first exploratory, almost prototype release of Booker’s with a 25th Anniversary Edition. That limited edition whiskey was noteworthy as having been barreled in January 2003, so it was 10 years and some months in age rather than the more usual six to eight year ...

Booker’s Batch 2019-1, the first of this year, has been dubbed “Teresa’s Batch” and is now headed for store shelves. Named for longtime Beam distillery employee Teresa Wittemer, the bourbon is a 6 year, 3 month old whiskey bottled at 125.9 proof. Wittemer started at Jim Beam 30 years ago under Booker Noe. During her career at the distillery, Teresa ...

Kilbeggan Irish Whiskey Limited Release Small Batch Rye By Randall H. Borkus Rating: B In October 2018, Beam Suntory’s Kilbeggan Distilling Company celebrated the release of Kilbeggan Irish Whiskey Small Batch Rye. Although Kilbeggan was restored in 2010, reviving a 260 year old legacy in whiskey-making (one of the stills there is the oldest working pot still in the world!), ...

By Richard Thomas If any part of world whiskey is booming bigger than bourbon, it must be Irish Whiskey. When I started The Whiskey Reviewer, there were still just four distilleries in Ireland (and that only if you count the North as part of Ireland; in whiskey terms, we always do): Bushmills, Cooley, Kilbeggan and Midleton. By the end of ...