Infectious Charm. Devastating Wit. Below Average Looks.
In a world saturated with bottle after bottle of Jameson, Bushmills and Tullamore Dew, it’s hard to find something different to sample. Any trip to a local liquor store is telling: the Irish section is usually the smallest. However, the gems are there. And we drink them for you. It’s a solemn duty, really. In fact,... Continue Reading →
When you go through as many whiskies as we do, it’s crucial to seek out what is different to keep things interesting. The same is true for the individual for a big reason: the palate acclimates to whatever you throw at it. Constantly introducing variables is the best way to keep a system guessing. This is an important point... Continue Reading →
Friends, if you are not a regular viewer of CNN, allow me to share with you a recent press release from your trusted Spokane Whiskey Club: it is with great joy and full glee that I announce the club has returned to the Irish Whiskey Category with four new reviews. I know you’re all pretty... Continue Reading →
Folks, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I can also confidently state that Bourbon is pretty good at present for the most part. However, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t welcome attempts to make it slightly better on occasion. The problem is that a “new” whiskey is very difficult to simply introduce into the market place.... Continue Reading →
My bottle of Blanton’s Single Barrel sat undisturbed in the cabinet for about 8 months. I daily resisted opening it up and sampling the legendary spirit known throughout the bourbon lover community as a top shelf offering. I was saving it for the club, basically, and I was convinced I had a home run on... Continue Reading →
A few years back, while visiting one of my go to liquor joints, I spotted a curious set of bottles on the top shelf in the bourbon aisle. They all said Pappy van Winkle on the labels, some in bags, with age statements of 10, 12, 15, 20 and 23 years old. Some were in... Continue Reading →
So there I was, at a local liquor store in Spokane, WA. The ever helpful clerk was happily showing me recommendations for a nice bourbon. I found it rather odd that the clerk never pointed me towards a name brand product but only the “Brand X” bottles scattered about the shelf. I’m a whiskey guy and fairly... Continue Reading →
You see folks, the world of Single Malt is a rather small one. The market’s insatiable appetite for blends devours roughly 90% of all whisky production for the numerous brands. The 10% remaining is bottled as the noble Single Malt. We don’t take a certain side one way or the other when it comes to Malt vs.... Continue Reading →
One of the many reasons why we love whisky is the care required to produce it. Not only are we impressed with the process but even more with how long it takes to make this stuff. From grain to barrel you are looking at most a week, depending on your process. Distillers would love to... Continue Reading →
A curious new Scotch drinker stumbles into a local liquor store. He isn't quite educated on all the different regions, flavor profiles or even brand names. A few of the bottles have this peculiar phrase on the label: Islay Single Malt. Sounds interesting, he thinks. He proudly slaps down the cash, the store clerk asks... Continue Reading →
Scotch blends tend to get less credit than they deserve. In fact, any zealous disciple in the Church of the Single Malt wouldn’t be caught dead with his lips to a glass of blended Scotch. One of the chief causes of this bias is the fact that blended Scotch uses a large amount of column... Continue Reading →
Canadian whisky can be innovative. Even better is when innovation can be purchased for $28. Collingwood Canadian Whisky from Brown & Forman is distilled at Canadian Mist Distillery in Ontario, Canada. The innovation mentioned comes from the fact that Collingwood is the only sugar maple mellowed whisky in Canada and at the time of this... Continue Reading →
If you are a whisky company as big as Crown Royal, you can pretty much do whatever you want. One of the biggest factors in this freedom is the 2 million barrels of whisky stock currently aging in their warehouses. Crown Royal Cask No. 16 is one such recent creation from Andrew Mackay, Master Blender... Continue Reading →
Greetings. We continue on with our first venture into the whisky of Canada with Crown Royal Reserve. Formerly “Special Reserve” but now the less special “Reserve” is the premium version of the ever popular Crown Royal Canadian whisky. The Spokane Whisky Club is now including Canada in our regular rotation of styles we review throughout... Continue Reading →
So here’s the deal with Canadian whisky, dear readers. Our close, personal friends living north of the border keep most of the good stuff to themselves. To the best of our vast and ever reaching knowledge, this has more to do with the legality and process of which goods pass between our nations than it... Continue Reading →
Whistle Pig Straight Rye Whiskey is quite the curious bottling. Specifically, this curiosity is because of the numerous hats Whistle Pig wears. This Dave Pickerell selected rye comes from Canada and is bottled at an impressive 50% ABV. Our expectations are certainly peaked for a whisky that has been categorized as “voluptuous” and “requiring its own... Continue Reading →
Lagavulin 16yr Old Single Malt Scotch is a bit of a milestone whisky for the club. We wouldn't even come near this bottle a year ago, but not just because it's a heavily peated malt whisky. Whiskies like Lagavulin need to be taken seriously in order to be understood due to the complexity behind the thick smokiness (whiskies like this... Continue Reading →
It’s always fun to see a craft distillery, relatively new on the scene, tackle something other than another vodka and go for that great old chestnut known as American Bourbon. Keep in mind that bourbon is a few hundred years old with generations of distilling history and tradition standing behind it. Arguably, to even get... Continue Reading →
The Isle of Jura is a very curious place. This Scottish island is but a mere 34x7 miles with a bustling population of 225 inhabitants. It is even said that the deer outnumber the humans on this lonely isle. There is only one road on Jura but also only one distillery which produces our whisky reviewed... Continue Reading →
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