Author Archives: Editor

Is Kentucky’s Bourbon Business Really That Rosy?

Wild Turkey stillhouse

New Economic Numbers And Tax Breaks Leave More Questions Than Answers By Richard Thomas February saw the release of a key economic report from the Kentucky Distillers Association (KDA), the trade group that represents the Commonwealth’s bourbon industry. The statistics presented in the report were held up as a cause for celebration, billed as a picture of the Kentucky bourbon ...

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J. Mattingly Distillery, Formerly Known As Bourbon 30, Joins KDA

The Kentucky Distillers’ Association today announced J. Mattingly 1845 Distillery in Franklin County is the newest member of the non-profit trade group that unites and leads Kentucky’s signature Bourbon and distilled spirits industry. According to founder Jeff Mattingly, the distillery continues the traditions first set out by his sixth-generation uncle, John Graves Mattingly, who was involved in at least nine ...

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Bruichladdich Re/Define Eighteen Scotch Review

By Richard Thomas Rating: B For the whole of the 21st Century, Islay distillery Bruichladdich has been defined by its 1994 closure. Many Scottish distilleries have been closed and reopened, but those closures are often a matter of history and have little or no impact on the whiskies available today. Bruichladdich’s seven year gap is different, precisely because it is ...

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Ben Holladay Rickhouse Proof Small Batch Reserve Bourbon Review

By Randall H. Borkus Rating: B- The brothers Ben and David Holladay founded the Blue Springs Distillery in 1856a, it was at a limestone well supposedly discovered by Lewis and Clark. The distillery changed hands multiple times; first to George Shawhan, who renamed it the Shawhan Distillery in 1900; again in 1936 to become the Old Weston Distillery; finally turning ...

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