Amrut Distillery makes complex and punchy flavor-forward whisky. The grain of choice is malted barley, and the peated releases use smoked barley from Scotland. The key to Amrut, though, is the barrel maturation.
Read MoreReleased as part of Old Forester's Whiskey Row series, the 1897 honors the Bottled-in-Bond Act and the old way of making whisky. Old Forester doesn't always get lot of love from whisky enthusiasts, but these new product releases seem intended to attract today's whisky drinker. This release definitely seems designed to bring enthusiasts willing to pay for premium bourbon back to the Old Forester brand.
Read MoreFor Scotch drinkers that love their peat, Ardbeg represents the trinity of Islay along with Laphroaig and Lagavulin. The three neighboring distilleries brag about peat levels and expensive rare releases, but each has a unique voice in the whisky world. Lagavulin is civilized and composed. Laphroaig brags about its "you either love it or hate it" flavors. Ardbeg embraces the funky briny nature of Islay.
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 MoreArdbeg releases Uegeadail and Corryvreckan annually. The Uegeadail is primarily ex-sherry barrel and ex-bourbon barrels blended while the Corryvreckan is matured in a raw mixture of French Oak casks and Burgundy wine casks. In this way, these are peated scotches with opposing views on texture. One is dry and cinnamon spice forward, the other is zesty and peppery. Both are delicious.
Read MoreFor whisky enthusiasts, today's lack of supply of old favorites is creating a frantic buying environment. There are, however, whiskies that are available and delicious. Aberlour A'Bunadh is one of those whiskies. It's not cheap in any traditional sense, but it is affordable considering it's cask strength first-fill single malt scotch.
Read MoreI sometimes avoid defining “Single Malt Scotch” during whisky tastings because I get the inevitable questions that cause more confusion than clarity. Single malt scotch is a single distillery whisky made in Scotland of 100% malted barley. It's most often blend of hundreds of barrels, and so long as those barrels contain 100% malted barley whisky that was distilled in the same distillery, it's defined as single malt scotch.
Read MoreEagle Rare, is in many ways, is the perfect bourbon for casual bourbon drinkers. There’s enough dramatic shift between the oaky-vanilla start and the oak-based-spicy finish to say yes, this is well-aged bourbon. It’s easy to drink, but not boring. There’s enough complexity that you can sit back and enjoy it, but it’s not so luxuriously priced that you feel bad for drinking it absently.
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 MoreColonel E.H. Taylor championed the Bottled-in-Bond act of 1897 that served to protect bourbon drinkers in an era where poisons, flavouring, and un-aged spirit were all common additives to whisky. The designation means the whisky has been aged at minimum of 4 years in a federally bonded warehouse, bottled at least 50% ABV, and made in the same distillery during the same year.
Read MoreBarrel Proof, uncut, unfiltered. This is the sort of wonderfully chaotic whisky that grabs your attention and doesn’t let it go. It’s intensely loud from start to finish, and that’s no surprise—It’s over 64% ABV (ABV changes from release to release). When doing whisky tastings, the Colonel E.H. Taylor Barrel Proof is (using the baseball term) the “closer” whisky. At the end of the night, no matter what else that you’ve had, CEHT Barrel Proof will be the standout star (Unless, maybe, you’re drinking Stagg).
Read MoreThis whisky, in many ways, exemplifies a well-aged oaky bourbon—it’s the sort of bourbon I’d love ten years ago. Today’s whisky world has changed, though. I’m often forgetting about Elijah Craig’s existence in my whisky cabinet, which largely contributed to the low whisky cabinet rating. Subtle bourbons can be wonderful; but subtle should still be interesting.
Read MoreTo get the beauty of this drink, you need to nose it like a scotch drinker. That is, don’t breathe in, just let the vapours naturally come to you as you lift the glass to your nose. You can practically smell the soil the grain were grown in, the grains themselves, the fermentation process, and all those condensed flavours that were fortunate enough to survive distillation.
Read MoreThis whisky was once the secret darling of the whisky connoisseur, easily available and wonderfully enjoyed. It still is the latter, but with Weller 12’s association with Pappy Van Winkle, it’s no longer a secret. Like Pappy, Weller is a wheated bourbon that uses wheat as the second ingredient in place of rye (both whiskies are made at Buffalo Trace Distillery). Wheat offers a slightly thicker mouth feel, and without rye, those harsher spicy notes associated with rye are lacking. However, because this bourbon is aged for 12 years, you do get these softer peppery spice notes from the oak throughout the flavour profile that's quite wonderful.
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