By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Utah’s High West earned its reputation as a fan favorite through their transparency. The company was among those that tried and proved the path of using sourced whiskey to develop a brand while mustering the resources and expertise to build a working distillery, develop whiskeys and mature them. What made them the darling of so ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ When Heaven Hill finally took the 12 year age statement off Elijah Craig Barrel Proof last year, several years after taking the Elijah Craig Small Batch no age statement in 2016, it was an even noteworthy for just how little comment it attracted. Sure, some croaked, but compared to the outrage that similar transitions sparked ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: A- Larceny Barrel Proof has been bucking the expectations for what wheated bourbon is supposed to be lately. Through 2023, the expression became quite spice-driven, although how much so varied from batch to batch. Although they still had a softened character, and were certainly not falling into the spicy and dry character attributed to high rye ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: A- A sample of the latest Bernheim Original Barrel Proof, the A224 (meaning first batch of the year, February 2024) arrived at my house in a timely manner, because I was departing for visitation with my son a couple of weeks later. So I tucked it away in my luggage, took my notes one evening, and ...

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 ...