By Richard Thomas The meteoric rise of craft whiskey distilling in America has yielded many fruits, and among the most talked about have been the spirit of innovation and (recently) the emergence of American single malts. While the novelty of experimental techniques or unexplored styles have their attractions, I think most drinks writers are missing something important by focusing on ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B- Although the Rye Craze, with its attendant shortages of even that bargain shelf classic Old Overholt, may be several years in the past, the Rye Revival is still ongoing. That revival has brought a moribund class of American Whiskey back to life, and in so doing breathed life into extinct styles, such as the Pennsylvania ...

By Richard Thomas With the maturity of the “Rye Revival” in recent years, some observers have wondered aloud why Jim Beam wasn’t doing more with an illustrious and venerable brand in their stable, Old Overholt, starting with David Wondrich’s excellent two-parter for The Daily Beast in September 2016. Perhaps someone at Beam Suntory was paying attention, because a year and ...

American Whiskeys At Over $3,000 A Bottle By Richard Thomas Although the prices commanded by ultra aged, rare American Whiskeys have not quite caught up with what a similar bottle of single malt Scotch might fetch, much has changed since the last time The Whiskey Reviewer looked at this subject, in the middle of 2015. Prices for prized expressions have ...

By Richard Thomas Whiskey is a quintessentially American drink, a connection that becomes clear when one sees how interwoven it is with American history. The story of American Whiskey is the journey of a rough, unaged distilled spirit made by farmers because it was cheaper to move than grain or flour growing and maturing into today’s modern, multi-billion dollar industry ...