In late June, a warehouse at the Barton 1792 distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky collapsed, sending 9,000 barrels of bourbon crashing to the ground. The cause is still unknown. In the days that followed, the situation seemed to get worse and worse. A partial collapse became a complete collapse, and another 9,000 barrels…
To say that Japanese whisky (no ‘e’) is having a moment would be inaccurate, as it’s been having a moment for quite awhile now and at a certain point, a moment becomes a mainstay. But while the buzz surrounding the spirit has extended beyond the realm of whiskey nerds, it’s still not found on all that many bar carts,…
There’s a certain kind of whiskey lover who, every so often, pops into the store where I moonlight as a purveyor of fine spirits, surprisingly affordable wines, and fancy soaps. These shoppers are typically much more interested in educating me about whiskey than actually discussing it, for I, a humble shopgirl, could…
Really good scotch isn’t cheap. Decent scotch isn’t cheap. Frankly, cheap scotch usually isn’t all that cheap. That’s part of what makes this story so delightfully baffling: Aldi makes a scotch blend that costs $17.37, and it just won a gold medal at an international spirits competition.
It’s possible to make whiskey taste as though it’s been aged for years without actually aging it for years, and it does not require possession of a TARDIS.
Today, I bring you a story that prompted Takeout editor Kevin Pang to say this on Slack:
This morning, a delightful piece in Forbes reminded me of one of the more interesting wrinkles in the spirits lexicon: whiskey vs. whisky. That there are two different spellings isn’t news to me, and like many bourbon nerds who also happen to write things, I know better than to include that ‘e’ when writing about…
You’ve got to hand it the McIlhenny Co., the company behind Tabasco. Faced with environmental issues on the island where the company’s signature product has been made for 150 years, Tabasco is still pushing forward with a number of new creations. For example, a Diamond Select $35 bottle of Tabasco to celebrate that…
The celebrity spirits market seems to be wide open lately, with Ryan Reynolds pushing gin, Jon Bon Jovi pushing rosé, and George Clooney selling his tequila line for nearly a billion dollars. The latest such entrepreneur is a bit more surprising: Bob Dylan.
Yesterday, Johnnie Walker announced that it was changing the strident icon on its scotch bottle temporarily to “Jane Walker.” Time reports that the black outlined lady in a hurry to go out riding or something “will appear on 250,000 bottles nationwide in March. For every bottle produced, [brand owner] Diageo is…
My grandmom recently passed away, and at the end of the brief, intimate memorial service we held for her, in typical my-family fashion, we toasted her with a shot of Ozelski-brand Polish Whiskey.
Bartender Laura Kelton, of Sportsman’s Club in Chicago, has brought together the ubiquitous Kentucky Mule (bourbon, ginger beer, lime juice) with the lesser-known American Trilogy cocktail (a variation on the Old Fashioned).
