By Douglas Fraser Grade: C+ New Riff Distilling was established in 2014 in Newport, KY, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. This medium-sized distillery is independently owned, committed to the standards set by the Bottled in Bond Act of 1897, and to bottling without any chill filtration. They draw their water from a private well, which they drilled under their ...

By Douglas Fraser Grade: C- In the mountains of Vermont lies the town of Jeffersonville, home of the Smugglers Notch Distillery. Named after the famous passage through the Appalachian mountain range, Smugglers Notch was part of a number of routes used to smuggle goods, including alcohol, from Canada into the United States during a trade embargo in the early 1800s. ...

By Douglas Fraser Grade: B+ Kinsey 4 Year Old Rye is the second of the three whiskies in the Kinsey box set I received for Christmas 2019 (I’ve also written up the 10 Year Old American Whiskey). Kinsey is a revived brand coming from New Liberty Distillery in Philadelphia, PA. The distillery pays homage to the original foundation along the ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B New Riff’s inaugural Backsetter release consists of two new spins on their staple whiskeys, their bonded bourbon and rye. That spin is the use of backset from the mash of an entirely separate, third whiskey, which was made with a mash of peated malted barley and rye. What makes all this so unorthodox is that ...

By Andrew Graham Grade: B Tincup is a Colorado-based whiskey brand that brought its newest expression, a rye whiskey, to market in January. In my view, the most intriguing element of Tincup’s expressions — aside from the rye; it sells two high-rye whiskeys — is its use of Rocky Mountain water to cut the whiskey, which is aged for three ...