By Richard Thomas Rating: B- Isle of Jura is a specialty branch of the Whyte and Mackay family. The whiskey is made at a single, historic distillery dating to 1810, located on the namesake island, right next door to the more famous island of Islay. Jura itself is a storied place, albeit somewhat forbidding and thinly populated, at least according ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ My experience with The Glenlivet 18 Year Old scotch is a good example of how giving the gift of whiskey comes around on you. I helped my wife pick The Glenlivet 18 Year Old as a birthday present for her uncle. I had only dim memories of the 18 Year, since The Glenlivet has never ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B- Named for its host town in Moray, Knockando means “Little Black Hill.” The distillery was build there in 1898, and while that is not a particularly aged date for a scotch distillery, it does mean that Knockando’s distillery was built at just the right time to become the first distillery in Scotland with electric lighting. ...

Updated April 10, 2021 By Richard Thomas Rating: B The Glenfiddich distillery is named after the Dufftown, Scotland river valley that has served as its home ever since it opened for business in 1887. “Glen Fiddich” means “Deer Valley” in Gaelic, hence the stag logo that graces Glenfiddich’s labels. Dufftown is where William Grant, founder of the distilling company William ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B William Grant & Sons founded the Balvenie distillery in Speyside, Scotland in 1892. The company now owns a host of distilleries, including the Glenfiddich distillery, but the best scotch distilled under the William Grant & Sons banner remains the Balvenie. For more than a century, the Balvenie has grown its own barley on a 1,000-acre ...