The first time I tried the Glenfarclas 10 Year Scotch Whisky was during a trip to Innsbruck, Austria in the dead of winter. I don’t ski, though, so to pass the time I picked up a bottle of this whisky in one of the local shops, and I absolutely could not put it down. Back in the States with nothing but time on my hands (thanks COVID-19), I had an opportunity to do a deep dive into this whisky and find out what it was that really resonated with my taste buds.
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I feel like every time I see the word “old” in branding, I immediately distrust it. I don’t know if that’s because I’ve been too jaded by marketing hype for whiskey brands over the years, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that the “old” in this case was legitimately bestowed. The spot on the whiskey shelf, on the other hand, is something it’s going to need to prove itself to earn.
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There are two great tragedies in the history of American bourbon. The first is well known: the prohibition era shutdown of the American alcohol industry, which killed a number of brands along with much of the institutional knowledge built over generations. But there was a second, lesser-known tragedy caused by the market downturn in the 1970’s and 1980’s, in which once great whiskey was forced into hibernation or turned into cheap imitations of itself. Early Times is a whiskey that was hit by both of these troubling times, but now Brown-Forman is trying to bring it back to fighting form.
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One of the things I appreciate about the time and effort I’ve put into this blog is that it has helped me refine my preferences and better understand exactly what I like about whiskey. And, surprisingly, I’ve learned that I’m a sucker for a good rye. Ezra Brooks is a brand I’ve tried before and seems to crank out a solid product, but does that extend to their rye as well?
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With autumn right around the corner, it’s about that time: break out the apple cider doughnuts, pumpkin spice lattes, and prepare yourself for lots of sweater-weather instagrams. One of the flavors from my childhood that reminds me the most of fall is fresh apple cider — and J. Seeds Apple Cider Whiskey is trying to capture that same flavor in a whiskey glass.
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There are a few brands of spirits which are simply iconic and cultural icons, and Captain Morgan is absolutely one of those. Much like some of the other spirits that have come out of Seagram, it’s so popular that it has its own instantly recognizable drink named after it (Captain and Coke), but the question is whether we’re dealing with an actual quality spirit that just happens to be infamous… or just a really good marketing campaign.
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I’m a sucker for apple pie. There have been more than a handful of occasions where I’ve been on a strict keto diet and doing great losing some weight, only to be presented with a slice of apple pie and have all my efforts thrown out the window. I can’t help it. Much like how I couldn’t help picking up a bottle of this apple pie whiskey and giving it a try.
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Most whiskey in the world has a single root: Scotland. Both America and Japan were inoculated directly from that source, with Scottish immigrants bringing their expertise to these newer whiskey regions. But where Japan perfected the Scottish tradition, America (in typical fashion) hot-rodded it and added some twists. Now that Japan is a major player in the global whiskey market, though, it seems like they are also trying to branch out and test some of those improvements that the U.S. has been working on.
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Japanese whiskey is still a bit of a novelty, but it’s nowhere near the level of obscurity that it once was. For me, Suntory Toki was one of the first Japanese whiskey bottles I ever saw on a store shelf years back. At the time, I had no idea the history and the craft that went into that product — its strange to look back and realize how little I knew, but I’m happy to say I appreciate this spirit on deeper level today.
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Japan may be one of the more recent countries to adopt a whiskey distilling culture, but that hasn’t kept them from becoming a worldwide powerhouse. Recognized for their ingenuity and incorporation of traditional Japanese practices into the whiskey distilling process, it’s a country where the unique historical context greatly influences the whiskey they produce.
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