By Richard Thomas Rating: B In the northern Highlands town of Edderton lies Balblair, one of the oldest of Scotland’s distilleries. Founded in 1790, it was a family-owned distillery until 1894. Since then, the distillery has seen many of the ups and downs of the industry. It was closed from 1911 to 1948, and has changed ownership a couple of ...

By Father John Rayls Rating: B+ For me, Tamdhu 10 Year Single Malt Scotch Whisky was a surprise tasting experience, and I do love these kinds of surprises! Tamdhu is a Speyside distillery, dating to 1896 and its name meaning “dark little hill” in Gaelic. Among its oddities is its use of a Saladin box, a 19th Century piece of ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: Phoenixville, Pennsylvania is home to Bluebird Distilling, a prime example of one of the branches the rapidly expanding craft distilling scene is following. With well over a thousand micro- and nano-distilleries operating in the United States, many newcomers are either becoming very specialized or setting up not in major cities, but picturesque, oft-visited locations. In my ...

By Father John Rayls Rating: B The Watkins Select Bourbon Whiskey is a “bottom shelf” winner.  Bottled at 80 proof, it’s a surprise find and an interesting sample of sourced bourbon from Kentucky. It’s readily available and probably much overlooked, but very little information is available for Watkins Select, and it definitely isn’t a top tier bourbon. Still, it’s good ...

Updated August 7, 2017 By Richard Thomas Rating: B- Whiskey enthusiasts should count themselves fortunate that the Rye Craze started at the same time that the micro-distillery movement took off. That left plenty of room for small distillers looking to make a name for themselves to move into as the rye whiskey scene initially suffered a severe shortage and then ...