Category: Whiskey Wednesday
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A Balvenie Burns Night
Welcome to Burns Night. The annual celebration of the life and death of Robert Burns, the National Bard of Scotland and has an almost cult like following as a cultural folk hero. Not a bad legacy for a man born a poor Scottish farmer and who only lived to the age of 37. Burns was […]
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Redbreast and the Irish Behemoth
For all the talk of the growth of Japanese whisky and the revival of American Bourbon and Rye the words “explosive growth” can only truly apply to Irish whiskey. This trend shows no sign of slowing down with sales expected to double by 2020. Those are some staggering gains so why doesn’t it get the […]
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Old Grand Dad’s Goodbye
It’s been an interesting few months for the “Beam” portion of Beam Suntory. Back in October the had a full worker strike at Jim Beam, it only lasted a single week before both sides reconciled their differences but it also happened to be the same week that Booker’s Rye was named Jim Murray’s World Whiskey […]
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Just A Little Larceny
Larceny is not theft. Let’s draw an analogy: Marketing is selling. False marketing is theft. It’s theft of your time, your ability to make informed decisions and ultimately your money. It’s spending those things with the expectation of one product and getting something at best tangentially related. The liquor world is awash with claims that […]
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Your “Pappy’s” History
Pappy is history. Literally and figuratively. Figuratively, the time when the whiskey was equal to the hype is long gone. The search and endless discussion of the search for Pappy Van Winkle has become a bigger story then the actual whiskey itself. But for most people it’s still just a name. Rather than focus on […]
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Booker’s: Lost In Imitation
Lost in Imitation. There is an idea that new adaptations of old work, work that inspired countless imitators, will tend to resemble the imitators more than the original. Think of how the Frankenstein Monster has become a shambling, mute zombie thanks to the 1930s movies despite the original character being verbose, intelligent, and vicious. Booker’s […]
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A FEW Good (Rye) Barrels
Inertia can have its benefits. I’ve been running the bar at Areal for 4 years now which means that these days the bar is essentially an extension of my personal tastes over the years. It also means that I am spoiled. On average I get to taste 3-6 new spirits a week. Which honestly isn’t […]
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Whiskey Wednesday: The Preacher Just Keeps Getting Younger
Hey it’s time to talk about two of my favorite things again. Privately selected single barrels and, less enthusiastically, change! Let’s take this arrival of a brand new 10 year old single barrel of Elijah Craig to look at just how much things have, or haven’t changed. First things that clearly haven’t. A bit of […]
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Back In The Alley 6
The craft distillery and spirits movement wasn’t born yesterday but it sure feels like it. In 2011 there were a mere 200 “craft” distilleries running spirit off their stills. By 2014 that number had literally tripled to over 600 and now there are estimated to be over 1200. That’s a massive jump in in 5 years. […]
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Orphans. Orphans as far as the eye can see.
Rhetoric: -language designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect on its audience but often regarded as lacking sincerity or meaningful content. Let’s say you’re a major spirits company. Let’s even say you’re the largest in the world in fact, and in the late 90’s you divest yourself of all of you major American whiskey […]
Bottled In Bond LA 