By Debbie Shocair Rating: B Portland holds a proud little secret: in the world of American Craft Whiskey, Clear Creek Distillery is a true pioneer. After Steve McCarthy became enamored of peated Scotch, he decided to make his own variety right there in the Pacific northwest. The distillery has been making a fine peated single malt whiskey since the mid-1990’s, ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Maple syrup and Bourbon are so intertwined nowadays that there are maple-flavored whiskeys made from Bourbon and maple syrups aged in Bourbon barrels. Most often the latter are either made by the Bourbon brand, either in-house or under license. The Maple Guild has gone the other way, and it’s not surprising given how much effort ...

By Father John Rayls Rating: B Sir Edwin Landseer created an oil painting known as “The Monarch of the Glen” in 1851, which became extremely popular through the 1800’s. The original was purchased by John Dewar & Sons in 1919. I mention this bit of art history because Dewar’s current Master Blender, Stephanie Macleod, used the painting many decades later ...

By Richard Thomas Rating:B- It’s been several years since the mixology-driven Rye Craze damn near wiped Rye Whiskey off the shelves, creating a legitimate shortage of the type that saw even Old Overholt in short supply. At that time, craft whiskey was in its infancy and there were really only three styles of Rye to be had: the Kentucky “barely ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B Whisky-making is a feature of the Anglophone world, forming a complete circle when Australia changed its laws in the 1990s and allowed whisky distillation. Across a deceptively vast expanse of ocean in New Zealand, however, they had been up to it off and on since the 1860s. Ironically, the last distillery in New Zealand, Willowbank, ...