Infectious Charm. Devastating Wit. Below Average Looks.
Wild Turkey's Russell's Reserve has a special place in SWC's heart, as both the Kentucky Straight Bourbon and Rye versions offer a decent pour for a decent price. Say no more. Well, I will say a bit more. I should really stop using that line. Today's selection is a new expression in Big Russ's signature... Continue Reading →
Stagg Jr. was a joy to see launched. Anytime an uncut, unfiltered, barrel proof bourbon aged nearly a decade by Buffalo Trace goes to market, any bourbon fan should be grateful. But of course, when you appropriate the mighty, beloved brand name of George T. Stagg and attach “Jr,” as sure as God made green... Continue Reading →
Baker’s 7 Year Old Kentucky Straight Bourbon is a whiskey that took me years to figure out. Liking a dram your first time seems almost too easy, too…lazy, maybe? The idea that multiple tastings with patience and contemplation, which are eventually rewarded with enlightenment, is much more fun. Some whiskies just take time to get,... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
**This review was conducted by Ian Fallon, a founding member of SWC, and does not reflect the opinions of the entire club** Angel's Envy is a bourbon I have been wanting to experience for a while now. It's about time, pretty much every other blog on the planet wrote their review years ago. And what's... Continue Reading →
I suspect our frequent caterwauling on paying more for less and why that is, you know, bad, is falling on deaf ears. And maybe that’s okay. The whiskey category, especially American whiskey, is growing mainly because people are willing to shell out obscene amounts of money for whiskey that was cheaper five years ago, and... Continue Reading →
A good whiskey connoisseur is able to relate his/her hobby to most people. And this skill has little to do with writing a well phrased review, but rather it has more to do with telling good stories about a special pour you had in the past or sharing some unique memory closely associated with a... Continue Reading →
Kentucky’s weather has a particularly unrelenting way about it when it comes to aging distillate. With the temperature extremes in that searing, hot, humid, hell like state, a multi story rackhouse does not need much time to perfect a fine bourbon. When temperature goes up, whiskey expands, forcing itself in the oak to those wonderful... Continue Reading →
Bill Samuels Jr., president of Maker’s Mark, suddenly realizing that his distillery has only ever produced one product since the fifties, laughed uncontrollably that they managed to get away with it for so long. When finished, he called in his Master Distiller to his vast office and declared that they must make something new for... Continue Reading →
Bourbon brands do a great job, probably the best job, at tracing their lineage all the way back to the farmer-distillers of the late 18th/early 19th century. Way back then, farmers preferred to distill the grain they harvested and sell it for profit rather than travel the many miles to market hauling a few hundred... Continue Reading →
Okay, so here’s the deal. Instead of writing a yearly, tired, and obligatory "Holiday Whiskey Buying Guide" like every other blogger does, I would like to instead focus my considerably charming efforts in writing something like “The Top Ten Horrible, Despicable, Illegal Things I Would Do To A Man In Order To Get The Buffalo... Continue Reading →
The 7th edition of the Parker’s Heritage Collection issues a declarative answer to a simple question: what does a Master Distiller prefer to drink if given the ability to control it’s every aspect? No special gimmicks, no wine finishes, just Parker Beam’s ideal, perfectly realized bourbon. This is the opportunity “Promise of Hope” affords to us,... Continue Reading →
For Bourbon freak boys the annual fall release season is Christmas. In fact, I’m sure if you asked one of these poor, lonely people to choose between Christmas morning and an October release of Pappy, they would have to think about it. While this small group of whiskey buyers indeed are entertaining in so many... Continue Reading →
The Parker’s Heritage Collection began in 2007 as an annual fall release of premium bourbon. The brand’s namesake, Parker Beam, Master Distiller at Heaven Hill Distillery, hand selects and blends the yearly release from the enormous stock levels at Heaven Hill, America’s third largest producer of whiskey. Parker has been making bourbon since 1960... Continue Reading →
The Pappy Van Winkle brand must be one of the more bizarre stories in the whiskey world. From fairly quiet beginnings to now the most in demand bourbon in the world overnight (for now), it was at least interesting at first to figure out why. After the initial blast of rampant empty shelves, black market... Continue Reading →
Spokane Whiskey Club 