By Richard Thomas Rating: A- I was abroad visiting my son not too long ago, and found myself looking at the contents of a quite modestly equipped hotel bar, choosing the Jack Daniel’s. Part of the reason why is because it had been years since a pour of Old No. 7 had passed my lips, and I knew a bottle ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B Kentucky Owl dates its brand identity back to 1879, and was one of many Bardstown distilleries that were shuttered by Prohibition, never to reopen. The brand was revived in 2014, in the middle of the Bourbon Boom, and fast gained a reputation for producing excellent one-time releases based on well-sourced, middle aged whiskeys. The new ...

By Randall H. Borkus Rating: A+ Michter’s 10 Year Old Single Barrel Rye is a regular, annual limited release. It is also a favorite at The Whiskey Reviewer; Richard Thomas and Kurt Maitland both swear by it. Although perhaps not as over-obsessed about as Thomas H. Handy or Sazerac 18 Year Old, it sounds like the rye has been gaining ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: A Among the Kentucky Majors, Heaven Hill has the strongest reputation for wheat whiskey, built on their 2005 introduction of Bernheim Original Wheat Whiskey. That was years before anyone even spoke of a craft whiskey sector, which is where most of Heaven Hill’s competition in this department comes from. The only other wheat whiskey brand to ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B One of the things anyone who loves Scotch Whisky or follows world whiskies should know: France is the second largest market for Scotch Whisky in the world. They love the stuff, single malts in particular, and it therefore follows as something the above folks should never forget is that the French make their own whisky ...