By Richard Thomas Rating: B Some may put the focus of their whiskey geekery on still design or mash bills (a rare few wisely include yeast to that), but seeing as how 40 to 80% of the flavor of a whiskey comes from its barrel maturation, I prefer to focus on wood, climate and time. One of the best outcomes ...

By Father John Rayls Rating: B- Collabor&tion Straight Bourbon Whiskey finished in American Brandy Barrels is, as the name implies (rather more strongly that the first glance suggests, in fact), a collaboration project between Bardstown Bourbon Company (BBCo) and Copper & Kings. The former is a mid-sized distillery intent on joining MGP as a major supplier of stock whiskey to ...

By Father John Rayls Rating: A- Have you has a whiskey catch you absolutely taken off guard?  Imagine the instructors when James T. Kirk led the cadets in the combat training exercise The Kobayashi Maru (Star Trek fans?). It was designed to measure how a candidate would cope with certain defeat and ultimate death in a sure loser of a ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ New Zealand Whisky Company is unique among independent bottlers because it exists in a country with no active distilleries, and their stock in trade is whisky made by a single distillery, Willowbank, that was shuttered in 1997. The Oamaruvian story starts with Dunedin DoubleWood, which in turn began with 200 ex-Bourbon barrels of grain whisky. ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B Magnus is brand new expression from Highland Park and part of a larger repackaging and shake-up of the esteemed Orkney distillery’s product line. The name is not a reference to the Latin word magnus, meaning “great,” but instead is a homage to the distillery’s late 18th Century founder Magnus Eunson. The new expression is now ...