Whisky Posts

Jefferson's Reserve

Back to Jefferson's, which fills me with trepidation after being fairly unimpressed with their standard bourbon. Still, I was impressed with their Presidential Select a few years ago so this could go either way! Jefferson's Reserve is marketed is the "bigger brother" to their standard bourbon, bottled at a slightly higher 45.1% ABV and with a ...

Elijah Craig 12 Year Old Barrel Proof

Back to Kentucky, and back to Elijah Craig. More interestingly, back to a 12 year old bourbon but this time bottled at barrel proof (or 'cask strength', in English!) - considering how much I enjoyed the standard 12 Year Old edition, this could be a very interesting dram indeed. Elijah Craig 12 Year Old Barrel ...

Hudson Baby Bourbon

Hudson Whiskey was the first whiskey distillery to open in New York State since Prohibition, having opened their doors ten years ago. Since then they've been joined by an increasing flood of fellow producers, with some sources suggesting that the state's distilleries are up into triple figures! Baby Bourbon is a 100% corn bourbon, bottled ...

Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage 2004

After bemoaning the problem of "mass market" single barrel bourbon, it's nice to see Evan Williams taking a slightly different approach - by providing a vintage, they give themselves the flexibility to explore different flavour profiles every year, and expose some of that individuality I was muttering about yesterday. Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage 2004 ...

Four Roses Single Barrel

Back to Four Roses today, and another single barrel offering. However, given that this appears to be one of their core range I can't help feeling that it's missing the whole point of a single barrel bottling - the uniqueness and individuality of the barrel. Four Roses Single Barrel is a 50% ABV bourbon ...

Eagle Rare 10 Year Old

Eagle Rare is a single barrel bourbon from Buffalo Trace. It's produced at two different ages - 10 and 17 years - with the older of the two being part of Buffalo's Antique Collection. There's always a slight hazard in reviewing single barrel spirits, because inevitably every barrel has it's own variations. That's the whole ...

1792 Small Batch

The 1792 Distillery is one of those confusing operations that seems to use several names for the same product - although I suspect the truth of the matter is rather that the name has changed over time, and different sources have updated at different times. The bourbon in question was initially launched as Ridgewood ...

Noah's Mill Bourbon

Noah's Mill is one of a number of whiskies produced by Kentucky Bourbon Distillers, a Bardstown-based distillery. From what I can make out of their remarkably comprehensive history, the distillery in it's current form dates from the 1980s, when it took over the old Willetts distillery - which explains the heavy use of the Willetts ...

Jefferson's Bourbon

Jefferson's is one of those brands that feels like it's been invented by someone in Corporate Marketing, rather than someone in a distillery. The website is desperately slick, and yet manages to convey almost no information. Barely any tasting notes, a warm and fuzzy bit of history that tries to connect a young (founded in ...

Smooth Ambler Old Scout 7 Year Old Bourbon

To Smooth Ambler, for the second time this advent. Having been slightly underwhelmed by their Contradition last week, I'm curious to see how their Old Scout measures up. As a young distillery, their older offerings such as this are bought in from other producers - some searching suggests that at least some of that older production ...