Today was the day President McKinley was shot… What does this have to do with whiskey, you ask? William McKinley had a cocktail named after him while he was running […]
Old Taylor Distillery Returns…
Old Taylor Distillery is coming back to us! The Old Taylor Distillery was built in 1877 by Colonel Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr. as his own “personal castle” distillery. The place […]
What Makes This Bourbon Boom Different Than Other Liquor Fads?
No one wants to drink what their parents drank… Mad Men, Prohibition-style cocktails, trendy bars and their mixologists…it all contributes. I’ve heard that whiskey is a fad and that young […]
Solera Aging in Whiskey
I wonder if we won’t start seeing more solera aged bottlings of whiskey in the future… Dave Pickerell was the first to use the solera aging technique in whiskey production […]
Bourbon is Not Scotch…
Bourbon is not Scotch. Silly and obvious, I know, but after reading an article where a man was blasting bourbon distilleries for removing age statements, I feel it must be […]
To “E” Or Not To “E”…
The spelling of the word whiskey is somehow an argument… I’ve been asked this question many times, “What is the correct spelling of whiskey?” There is no correct spelling. It […]
Larceny is the new Old Fitzgerald?
The Larceny brand of bourbon by Heaven Hill is a nod to the legend of John Fitzgerald… Max Shapiro’s daughter, Kate Shapiro Latts, is the business savvy designer of the […]
Old Fitzgerald- the Survivor.
Everyone wants Pappy Van Winkle, but Old Fitzgerald came first. The Old Fitzgerald brand (originally Jn.E.Fitzgerald bourbon) was created by S.C. Herbst around 1870. In the 1890’s Herbst purchased the […]
Possible Origin for the Word “Whiskey”?
I discovered a new option for where the word “WHISKEY” may have originated… The word “whisk” (Scotch: quhiske)- to move rapidly, to go lightly-is the word given to to light […]
The Taft Decision
Did you know that President Taft is responsible for defining “what is whiskey?” E.H. Taylor with the help of John G. Carlisle, then the Secretary of the Treasury, enabled the […]