By Richard Thomas Rating: A For the last few years, I have thought Highland Park is the natural pairing choice for settling in for a new episode of Vikings. No, the Vikings never drank whisky, but the Orkney-based distillery loves to tie in on the Viking heritage of their island home in the extreme north of Scotland with Norse-themed releases. ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: A- Jack Daniel’s Distillery celebrated it’s 150th Anniversary this year. Mind you, that isn’t 150 years in continuous operation, and that famed distillery in Lynchburg suffered a longer closure than its cousins across the state line in Kentucky. Tennessee enacted Prohibition in 1909. The distillery was not reopened until after the passage of the 21st Amendment ...

By Debbie Shocair Rating: A- Once again, Indian whisky-makers Amrut are impressing me, this time with their single malt, cask strength expression, a non-chill filtered whisky bottled at a whopping 123.6 proof (61.8% ABV). Another NAS whisky, this one again proves the point that what ends up inside the bottle supersedes any seemingly ethereal number. While I think age statements, ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: A- It’s no easy task to keep track of everything that comes out in the jam packed, exciting Autumn release season of American Whiskey, the period when most of the highly prized annual limited editions and much else besides come out. Even so, Woodford Reserve Master’s Collection is one of those lines that should get more ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: A- I’ve been writing quite a bit lately about people who don’t like peated whisky and how smoke doesn’t pair well with this and that, which upon reflection is an odd coincidence, because I am actually rather fond of a smoky dram. One of those distilleries favored by peat-lovers is Islay’s Caol Ila, a key institution ...