Russell’s Reserve Straight Rye Single Barrel Review - The Fancy Wild Turkey

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Russell’s Reserve Straight Rye Single Barrel Review - The Fancy Wild Turkey

Russell’s Reserve is the high-end brand from Wild Turkey Distillery. It’s a little more expensive (but still affordable), with the focus on big flavours. This is one of the things I truly love about Wild Turkey Distillery; they have a simple quality chart. Wild Turkey Bourbon (formally 81) is the cheap stuff. Wild Turkey 101 is the good stuff. Wild Turkey Rare Breed is the fancy stuff. Russell’s Reserve is the posh stuff (insofar as bourbon gets posh, which let’s face it — it's not intended to be all that posh).

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High West Bourye - Playful American Whisky Sacrilege

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High West Bourye - Playful American Whisky Sacrilege

David Perkins started High West after visiting Maker's Mark Distillery and falling in love with bourbon. With a successful career in pharmaceuticals, he took all his knowledge and turned it into whisky. When David Perkins was our guest on The Whisky Topic, he noted that whisky and pharma aren't all that different: they both require biochemistry, and the work you do today won't be available to the public for up to a decade. 

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Laphroaig Cairdeas Madeira Cask Review - Decadent, sweet & peated

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Laphroaig Cairdeas Madeira Cask Review - Decadent, sweet & peated

Let's be honest. The scotch industry is making fools of us with special cask finishes. While sherry cask finishes weren't new five years ago, they've sprouted up like dandelions. Then came the wine finishes, which were never all that successful, but plentiful. Oloroso Sherry became a statement of the quality sherry finishes. Port finishes? Oh, yes! There are plenty of port finishes.

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Willett Family Estate Single Barrel - Aged 11 Years, Barrel Number 438

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Willett Family Estate Single Barrel - Aged 11 Years, Barrel Number 438

This particular bottle of Willet 11 Year Old retailed for $120. It now sells for between $400 to $1200 US in secondary markets. That's at Pappy Van Winkle levels. Welcome to the wonderful world of rare whisky unicorns. If you've looking for bottle number 1 of the total 175 sold, I'm sorry to say, it's in my whisky cabinet and it's sitting empty.

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Gooderham's Canadian Centennial 15 Years Old Canadian Whisky - Dusty Review

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Canada is celebrating its 150th anniversary. In the next few months, we'll be hearing all about Corby's 150th anniversary whisky, but first let's review the whisky released for Canada's 100th birthday. This whisky, released in 1967, was distilled in 1952. At fifteen years matured in barrels, it's a rare old find from an era where Canadian whiskies were rarely bottled with a double-digit age statement. 

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Old Weller Antique Original 107 - On The Boozy Side of Fun

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Old Weller Antique Original 107 - On The Boozy Side of Fun

If you're a whisky enthusiast with a bourbon collection, you either have Old Weller Antique in your collection or you're waiting for the next shipment to your local liquor store. Weller bourbons have family ties with Pappy Van Winkle. Back "in the day," Weller was the bourbon sold by the family that was generally available, and Pappy was the rare stuff. Both products use the same recipe. Contrary to some beliefs, they do not taste the same.

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Spirit of Speyside Makes Whisky Awards Accessible

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Spirit of Speyside Makes Whisky Awards Accessible

Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival is one of the more unique whisky award competitions each year. While selected judges pick a panel of finalists, it’s whisky fans that vote on the winner. This is quite the contrast to the typical whisky award program, where judges are limited to a few (or many) experts in the field, and sessions are often behind closed doors. Spirit of Speyside is among the more accessible whisky award programs, and this year its reach is broadening.

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Blanton's Gold Edition Review - Boozier Version of the Original

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Blanton's Gold Edition Review - Boozier Version of the Original

Blanton's Original is a near-perfect daily sipper for me. It's just the right balance of sweet and boozy, with lots of complexity to keep me interested. A high-proof version of Blanton's Original needed to be made, and it comes in form of Blanton's Gold Edition bottled at 51.5% ABV (compared to 46.5% ABV of Blanton's Original).

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Glenmorangie Bacalta Review - A Rare Treat, A One-Time Release

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Glenmorangie Bacalta Review - A Rare Treat, A One-Time Release

Old-school whisky stories that tell of how a distillery was first conceived are occasionally accurate and of historic relevance. For me, though, I find the story behind a particular bottle of whisky far more engaging--why did the whisky maker decide to make this whisky in particular? Often the answer is because he or she believes it will sell well. Sometimes, though, it's because they're haunted by a whisky from the past.

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Laphroaig 10 Year Old Original Cask Strength - Batch 006 Review

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Laphroaig 10 Year Old Original Cask Strength - Batch 006 Review

Laphroaig is deserving of the scotch cult following. Some hate Laphroaig, some like Laphroaig on occasion, and others love Laphroaig whisky. For those in the latter category, this cask strength variation of Laphroaig 10 is for you. 

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Bowmore 23 Review - Peated Scotch That Rewards Patience

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Bowmore 23 Review - Peated Scotch That Rewards Patience

This whisky is ridiculous. There are few whiskies on the market aged entirely in port casks, and even fewer that spent a total of twenty-three years in port casks. Don't get me wrong, port cask finishings have become a "thing" in the last decade; that's when a whisky is primarily aged in more readily available (cheaper) American oak, and spends a few months to a few years in port casks. However, a whisky aged entirely in port casks for twenty-three years? Damn.

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J.P. Wiser's Union 52 Review - Canada Meets Scotland, They Have a Whisky

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J.P. Wiser's Union 52 Review - Canada Meets Scotland, They Have a Whisky

J.P. Wiser's Union 52 is in an odd flavor category in the same way that it's an odd blend of whisky. This is a blend of 15 year old Canadian whisky and extremely old peated single malt scotch that's been maturing in Canada since the 1964. Old smoky scotch meets Canadian whisky. The blend is ridiculous, and it works. 

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Masterson's Straight Rye 10 Year Old Review - Best Canadian Whisky 2017 (And Best Rye Anywhere)

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Masterson's Straight Rye 10 Year Old Review - Best Canadian Whisky 2017 (And Best Rye Anywhere)

I was one of ten judges scoring the Canadian Whisky Awards for 2017. Masterson's Straight Rye 10 Year Old (Batch PSA3-0035) scored as my the best Canadian whisky, and it also averaged as the best overall Canadian whisky from the judges narrowly beating Gooderham & Warts Four Grain and Lot No 40.

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Laphroaig Select Review - A Gentler Laphroaig That's Not Too Gentle

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Laphroaig Select Review - A Gentler Laphroaig That's Not Too Gentle

Laphroaig Select is a maddening combination of whisky. The core scotch is regular Laphroaig aged in previously used American bourbon barrels, that are "finished" for six months in brand new American oak barrels. The distillery then blended this whisky with other whiskies to create six different single malts. The Laphroaig fan club, Friends of Laphroaig, selected the winning blend from the six to create the Select.

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Reviewing Redbreast 12 Cask Strength, 15, and 21 - You Can't Go Wrong

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Reviewing Redbreast 12 Cask Strength, 15, and 21 - You Can't Go Wrong

Redbreast is produced in New Midleton Distillery (home of Jameson). It’s not a single malt, but rather a pot still, which is made from both malted and unmalted barley. Unmalted barley is typically responsible for greener notes, and it’s traditional from an era where the UK charged taxes based on how much barley was malted.

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