Infectious Charm. Devastating Wit. Below Average Looks.
Some time ago another club member and I were prepping work on a “Best Bourbons under $20” project that would surely sweep the interwebs by storm and propel us into the stratosphere of whiskey blogging. While I am sterling certain that our popularity will be irresistible, the project probably stays in the hopper for the... Continue Reading →
It’s been too long since I have spent a meaningful amount of time poking around the Irish whiskey scene. Last I looked, it wasn’t just all about Midleton, Bushmills and Cooley. Small outfits were popping up much like the American craft boom, although not quite at our pace. The most prominent of these new distilleries... Continue Reading →
If we just stuck with our standard rotation of Scotch, American, Irish and the occasional Canadian whisky, we would have plenty to do content wise. But it seems like we would be missing out on a whole new world of whisky making. We don’t want to be that kind of group, endlessly dogmatizing only what... Continue Reading →
While the Knob Creek brand under Beam started in 1992 as part of the Small Batch Collection, the timeline of the brand can actually be traced back to the 30’s. The significance of the name can be loosely attributed to Abraham Lincoln having lived near an actual “Knob Creek,” and his father working seasonally at... Continue Reading →
To say that Woodinville’s newest bourbon is great for Washington state's whiskey industry merely starts the conversation. In this author’s opinion, Woodinville Straight Bourbon is a major step forward for the entire American craft whiskey industry, if I may be so bold. I should also stress that this opinion is not expressed flippantly or out... Continue Reading →
Not that it has ever stopped me in the past, but to use a tired yet accurate phrase, “success story” seems to be a nice tight fit for the Four Roses brand. Its history, however, is a rather strange one when you start at the beginning. The distillery was founded in 1888, and eventually the Four... Continue Reading →
Meanwhile, up in Canada, Diageo’s small, heel nipping startup distillery called Crown Royal released Northern Harvest Rye whisky earlier this year. Should be interesting, as Canadian whisky has been trying to grow from the top down, meaning the premium category has seen quite a few new bottlings in recent years. Crown Royal is doing something... Continue Reading →
We find ourselves bathing in the glory of Laphroaig’s 200th anniversary. One of the distillery’s celebratory bottlings is this year’s Cairdeas, Laphroaig’s selected trophy in honor of this year’s Feis Ile Festival of Music and Malt. Each Islay distillery is given a day to during the week long festival to promote and celebrate its contribution... Continue Reading →
Whisky writer Dominic Roskrow remarked that marrying smoky, peaty flavors with sherry finishing is a tricky thing. He covered the Lahproaig line for his book 1,001 Whiskies You Must Taste Before You Die and mentioned this in his write up on Laphroaig Triple Wood. If we are talking about heavily peated whiskies it’s not hard... Continue Reading →
Micro barreling used to be kind of a thing in the American whiskey industry. More like a craft thing, but a big thing. Without getting into it too much, the idea is that new companies, needing to get a brand to shelf as soon as possible, turn to aging their new make spirit in small... Continue Reading →
A Tennessee whiskey company that buys bulk rye whiskey from Indiana, modifies it somewhere in Plainview, IL and then bottles it in Norwalk, CT is almost a quintessential example of the current state of American whiskey. Maybe a better way is to say that George Dickle Rye is a glimpse behind the curtain of the American whiskey business.... Continue Reading →
The old joke goes like this: "95% of the world’s bourbon is made in Kentucky and the rest just isn’t bourbon." It’s a cute line, sure, but it’s kind of dumb and not really funny anyway, except if you live in Kentucky or if your name is Jimmy Russell. I don’t know for sure if... Continue Reading →
Batch Variation. You see this cryptic phrase all over the whisky blogosphere. It is generally used to point out apparent differences from one batch to the next in whiskey production. Of course, whiskey is produced in batches, some small, some enormous, and for NDP’s, they have the perhaps the least amount of control from batch to... Continue Reading →
While we rage, rage against the dying of authenticity, or, the common business practice of companies purchasing already aged whiskey, bottling it under their label, and sometimes lying about it, you can’t fault a business group for being upfront about it. At least I don’t. Not too much, anyway. There is a perceived gap in... Continue Reading →
The French wine industry coined the word “terroir” as a way to romanticize not just the wine but the very ground from whence the wine is derived. Terroir is defined as “the characteristic taste and flavor imparted to a wine by the environment in which it is produced.” Ever see that documentary “Somm?” The sommeliers... Continue Reading →
I think the American craft distilling scene could take a lesson from Benromach Distillery. Looking at the movement from afar, it seems that there are a number of things they can no longer get away with, but one in particular is simply this: no more riding on the coat tails of anything other than what you put... Continue Reading →
I hope the good people at Glenlivet never read this review. Not that there is any remote chance they would anyway, but hope remains. You see, we as a club have tried every readily available expression from Glenlivet with the exception of their 25 year old. We’re not dentists, so we don’t count the glass... Continue Reading →
Bastille 1789 Blended French Whisky is a first for us. I am aware of no other French whisky available where I live, and of course cognacs and brandies abound. I'd say it’s about time we started seeing something from the Frenchies as their country is the biggest per captia consumer of whisky in the world. Perhaps they should... Continue Reading →
So we move on from the sassy fest of our last post to a more reasoned approach this time around. We present today a rather invigorating rhapsody of whisky geekery on Auchentoshan Triple Wood. The issues raised by this particular malt’s style inspire a quick word or two on distillation, as Auchentoshan distills their Scotch... Continue Reading →
Spokane Whiskey Club 