By Richard Thomas Rating: C+ Ireland’s Glendalough Distillery follows what is a tried-and-true pattern for craft outfits in America. Since whiskey takes a while to age and hardly anyone wants to wait anywhere from a few to several capital-hungry years before building a brand, Glendalough has resorted to a mix of unaged spirits and sourced whiskeys in the meantime. On ...

The Guide To Understanding Irish Whiskey By Richard Thomas Once upon a time, Irish whiskey dominated the tastes of the world. In the late 19th Century, the small island’s 28 distilleries served a global market that regarded of Irish whiskey as the finest of its kind. Then came the rise of stiff competition from Scottish blended whisky, based on cheaper ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B- When I was in Ireland this past November, I learned Beam Suntory, owners of both the Cooley and Kilbeggan distilleries, intended to consolidate some of the old Cooley brands under the better known Kilbeggan banner. Greenore, one of the earliest entrants in the reinvented single grain category, was one of these, and now it has ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: A- Looking at the title of this Single Cask release from Wemyss Malts, the first question that comes to mind is “what is a punnet?” I’m a wordsmith and I had to look that one up. A punnet is a small container for the gathering and sale of fruit and vegetables, basically the containers you get ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B This summer 2014 release of Wemyss single casks stood out from past batches because of two of its bottlings. One was the Loch Indaal Catch, a Bowmore single cask that is Wemyss’s priciest release to date. Second was the Lemon Cheesecake release, an Invergordon that was Wemyss’s first (and to date only) single grain release. ...