Whiskey

A small town on the east coast of the South Island is home to some of the greatest whisky on earth.

American single malts offer a wild, diverse range of flavors.

In 2012, an American single malt whiskey from Balcones Distillery in Texas defeated nine other world-class single malts from around the world and gained international attention.

If you’re in the market for something a bit different, their newly released 15 Year Single Barrel Sherry Cask is richly rewarding aesthetically and on the palate.

Our guide to the 16 best home bar- and spirits-related gifts under $50.

Forty Creek’s John K.

The rise of craft American whiskey now extends beyond the bourbon belt.

We toured 12 distilleries in a five-day blitz, asking everyone we met to walk us through the bourbon-making process. Here, you’ll find all of the steps that go into making America’s unique take on whiskey.

“Buffalo Trace is already making the bourbons of the future”, said our guide Freddy Johnson. It sounded bold until we stopped to think about it.

At one of Lexington’s best bourbon bars, we laid eyes on some of the absolute rarest bottles in the world.

At some of the distilleries along the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, there are bottles you can’t find anywhere else — rarities that can only be purchased on-site.

Willett Master Distiller Drew Kulsveen doesn’t have time for bullshit. It’s not something he has to tell anyone.

Bourbon is booming, but only decades ago, it was on a path toward failure. This was most evident in the 1980s, at the height of vodka and big hair, when distilleries in the Bluegrass State were shuttering their doors.

We review Highland Park’s latest edition to their core lineup of single malts, Dark Origins, which is defined by a high percentage of double first fill sherry casks and a peatiness yet unheard of from the brand.

Brent Stiefel and Mikael Mossberg didn’t know much about whiskey when they met up for drinks in May of 2011. Like many people navigating an ocean of Scotch and bourbon, they “were intimidated by folks with mustaches”, Stiefel says, but didn’t want to drain their bank accounts by buying every bottle to learn more about what they liked and what they didn’t.

Today in gear: a new entry level Logitech Harmony remote, the Nuvyyo Tablo DVR for cord cutters, Quixotic Pocket Squares, Wild Turkey Diamond Anniversary Bourbon and BBQ recipes from London.

Learning about the process of whisky-making is one reason to take a distillery tour, but we all know that the real name of the game is the post-tour tasting. Any day spent sampling a range of whiskies is a special one in our books.

Highland Park has officially been making whisky in Kirkwall since 1798. The distillery requires no introduction for rabid fans of single malt.

At night, when bourbon connoisseurs go to bed, many dream of Pappy Van Winkle, a line of three exquisite bourbons (15, 20 and 23 years old, all of them colloquially referred to as “Pappy”) distilled and bottled by the Sazerac Company at the Buffalo Trace Distillery. Much of Pappy’s legend comes from its high demand: when it’s released, liquor stores dust off month-long waiting lists to decide who gets a bottle. At the end of last year, Bourbonr Blog made headlines in the liquor community by posting a recipe for “Poor Man’s Pappy,” a mix of two mid-range W.L.

Today in Gear we examine, a grill approved for Gauchos, a newly immigrated Irish Whiskey, baseball hats from the ’30s and wireless routers your IT staff will love.