By Richard Thomas Rating: B Releases from Barrell Craft Spirits are periodic in nature, but we’ve been waiting more than a year for the coming of Barrell Rye Batch 003. This one is a whopper in its blending stock, though. They’ve drawn on sourcing in Indiana (of course), Poland (the novel source introduced with Batch 001), Tennessee and Canada. Given ...

Updated August 26, 2020 By Richard Thomas Rating: B- Castle & Key Distillery is known for being the revival of the neo-Gothic castle that was the Old Taylor plant, as well as being the former home of Master Distiller Marianne Eaves, Kentucky’s first woman to hold that title and something of a prodigy. However, before the distillery actually went into ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ I look forward to new releases from Craft Barrell Spirits because they are always cask strength and consistently in the B+ category. In the uncommon event a release doesn’t receive that scoring, it is more often an A- than B. Lately the company has given me something else to look forward to, as it does ...

The 2020 edition of Yellowstone Limited Edition Kentucky Straight Bourbon will be on shelves in September, just in time for National Bourbon Heritage Month. This year’s edition features a seven-year-old straight bourbon finished in French Armagnac barrels. “When I began working on this limited edition, I knew I wanted to finish our bourbon in a cask and I was looking ...

Michter’s 10 Year Old Single Barrel Bourbon is generally thought of as a middleweight favorite in the annual run of limited edition American whiskeys. When it comes out, it typically retails for about $130 a bottle, but the on-demand market value with online retailers is closer to $300. It’s a precious, hard-to-get item, but neither as scarce or as dear ...