Blends – Dram Devotees

What happened to Maryland’s Hunter Rye?

Once one of the most popular brands of rye whiskey in the country, if not the world, Hunter Rye Whiskey, was a product of Maryland. The brand was first introduced […]

When Bottled in Bond Was Not Actually “Bottled in Bond”

Posted on: September 3, 2022March 4, 2023Blends , Production , Prohibition , Reference , Rye , Uncategorized , Whiskey laws and regulations , Whiskey Trust

The Bottled in Bond Act is something that most whiskey enthusiasts can recite the basics on fairly easily. A whiskey that’s bottled-in-bond is a 100 proof, four-year-old whiskey that’s been […]

Why Was the Taft Decision Necessary?

Posted on: June 1, 2022March 26, 2023American whiskey , Blends , History , Reference , Uncategorized , Whiskey laws and regulations , Whiskey Trust

(Hint: It’s Not Necessarily Why You’d Think…) Rectifiers VS. Straight Whiskey Interests To understand why the Taft Decision was so important to the whiskey industry, one must first understand why […]

An Opinion on Metallica’s Blackened American Whiskey

Posted on: September 8, 2018September 11, 2018Aging Techniques , American whiskey , Barrels , Blends , craft whiskey , Distillation , Master Distiller , Whiskey Science

So…Metallica has its own whiskey now. Ugh. Everyone has their own whiskey, it seems. Nothing new, of course. Celebrity sells. There have been celebrities moving distilled products since advertising’s […]

Texas and Its Whiskey

Posted on: December 30, 2015December 30, 2015American whiskey , Blends , Bourbon , Canadian Whisky , craft whiskey , Distilleries , Non Distiller Producers

Yesterday, Dec 29th 1845, Texas became the 28th state in the union. Texan citizens have always been fiercely loyal to their state and to the products produced there. There are now about […]

Why So Defensive About Sourced Whiskey?

Posted on: December 12, 2015December 12, 2015American whiskey , Article link , Blends , Bourbon , craft whiskey , Distillation , Distilleries , Non Distiller Producers , Packaging , Production , Reference , Rye , Whiskey Facts

I was asked at the Dram Devotee’s Whistle Pig tasting on Thursday, “Why do you sound so defensive when you are speaking about sourced whiskey?” It must be true that […]

Filibuster Whiskey from Washington D.C.

Posted on: November 24, 2015November 24, 2015Aging Techniques , American whiskey , Blends , Bourbon , craft whiskey , Distilleries , Liquor stores , Non Distiller Producers

Did you know that the citizens of Washington D.C. didn’t get to vote in an election until this month in 1964? (Don’t worry, I talk about whiskey in a bit..) […]

John Hall’s Forty Creek

Posted on: November 22, 2015Aging Techniques , Barrels , Blends , Canadian Whisky , craft whiskey , Distilleries , History , International Whiskies , mashbills , Master Distiller , Production

I have found that many of the new distillers in America have come to distilling from breweries and beer production. It’s a logical step, as “beer” must be brewed before […]

Midleton Distillery -Old and New

Posted on: November 10, 2015November 12, 2015Blends , Distillation , Distilleries , History , Irish Whiskey , Production , Prohibition , Whiskey Facts

Midleton Distillery is home to the whiskeys we will be tasting this Thursday at Nektar in New Hope. The distillery in use today is not the one founded in 1825 […]

Japanese Whiskey

Posted on: September 2, 2015November 8, 2015Article link , Blends , Distilleries , History , International Whiskies , Japanese Whisky , Master Distiller , Whiskey Facts

I am a huge fan of Japanese whisky… Two of the most influential figures in the history of Japanese whisky are Shinjiro Torii and Masataka Taketsuru. Torii created the Yamazaki […]