By Richard Thomas Rating: A- Having reached the apogee of the Isle of Skye ladder of blended whisky, I’ll not repeat the details of the brand or the maker, Ian Macleod Distillers. If you want those tales, you can go back and review the previous installments in the line. There are five of them, and I have nothing new to ...

Lost Lantern has built a solid reputation as a European-style negociant, buying consignments of whiskey from small distillers in the United States and offering them up in their own blends and as single cask bottlings. Now they have taken the next step, and put out their shingle on a brick and mortar storefront with their first tasting room. Located in ...

By Douglas Fraser Rating: B Old Elk has a distillery in Fort Collins, Colorado, but at present much of their output is contract produced or sourced through MGP in Indiana. Working with Greg Metze, the former master distiller at MGP and current master distiller at Old Elk, the company arranged to produce their own made-to-order whiskeys through MGP, rather than ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: C- As the craft whiskey boom really took off in the early 2010s, many small producers were on the look out for techniques to reduce maturation time or bypass it all together. The classic was to age in small or tiny barrels. The best examples of this tailored their production process to make a better new ...

By Alex Southgate Rating: B+ I am sure this is going to wrinkle a few noses out there, but as a rule I’m not a big fan of very smoky whiskies. I love a good Scotch just like the rest, but the heavy peaty aroma that comes with many expressions is something I find a bit off-putting. This being said, ...