A whisky review of Little Book Chapter One The Easy, Little Book Chapter Two Noe Simple Task, and Little Book Chapter 3 “The Road Home” and a closer look into their stories, the bourbon category, and the general American whisky category.
Read MoreThe Irishman at Cask Strength is a limited run vintage release. In the year of 2018, only 3716 bottles were produced, and it’s being sold in limited markets. There aren’t many cask strength variations of Irish Whiskey that make it to North America.
Read MoreI’ll stand out on a (not so high) limb and say that Nikka Whisky from The Barrel is the best Japanese whisky that you can both find, and actually afford. There are lots of issues with Japanese whisky, and as far as drinking, this is one of the few solutions available to those that want to explore the category.
Read MoreArdbeg’s annual special releases come in two flavors: Regular, and Committee Release. The latter is typically a few points higher proof, and distributed specifically to the Ardbeg’s fan club and select stores.
However, sometimes a bottle apparently sneaks through into retail. Back in 2017, I was able to pick this one up in Kentucky the day of its official release. I also seemed to have purchased it at the regular non-Committee Edition price. Miracles do happen!
Read MoreThe Balvenie continues to flirt with peated whiskies. A Week of Peat is the second in The Balvenie Stories Collection, and this one focuses on Balvenie’s lesser-used flavor component. In fact, they only use heavily peated barley for a week each year! Ian Miller calls peat week the most joyous week of distillation because of the new smells that come from the distillery. After releasing Triple Peat, and Peat Week, how’s A Week of Peat differ from the other expressions?
Read MoreHenry McKenna was once an affordable bottled-in-bond bourbon that rapidly sold out when it won best whisky in the world at the San Francisco Spirit Awards. It went from affordable ($30s US), to gone, to now being difficult to find for under $50 US.
Read MoreBarrel Bourbon seeks out unique barrels of whisky from various sources, batches them, and bottles them when they’re ready to go. Their mantra is “no two batches taste alike.” It’s a good mantra. It’s a fantastic idea. It’s a play on a weakness, since smaller producers buying barrels have a challenge of producing a consistent product.
Read MoreThere are a few misconceptions around Scotch whisky that I still hear today. First, I often hear how scotch is ‘smoky’ with strong iodine notes, and therefore a big turn-off for whisky drinkers. In truth, most scotch sold contains very little in terms of smoky notes. The second misconceptions is, only Islay distilleries make peated whiskies. In truth, peat was a main fuel source up until the 1950s in many parts of Scotland and was commonly used in the whisky making process.
Read MoreDavid 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.
Read MoreIf 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.
Read MoreBy every comparison, the Bowmore Tempest is the opposite of the mild please-all peated Bowmore 12 Year Old scotch. Bowmore Tempest is the whisky for a growing enthusiasts. It has all the flavor one would expect in non-chill filtered cask strength scotch, without the intensity many cask strength whiskies hold.
Read MoreMaker’s Mark 46 Cask Strength bourbon comes in a charming miniature bottle that has that “I snuck it out of the test lab” feeling to it. At the time of this writing, though, it’s only available at the Maker’s Mark Distillery gift store. There’s a good degree of bottle variation between releases. Proof levels will vary. The one reviewed here is bottled at 54.45% ABV.
Read More
