Whiskey Jim's Ramblings

Oh Taste & See: Aberlour A'Bunadh Single Malt Scotch

2011-12-22T20:20:00.000-05:00

Just in time for Christmas, I bring you a tasting of one of the best Scotches I've ever had. A friend of mine brought a bottle of Aberlour A'Bunadh to a whisky tasting that I hosted a few weeks ago, and it turned out to be everyone's favorite. After having a few more glasses since then I can say it wasn't just a favorite because it came near the end of many whisky samples, it really is a

2011 List of Philadelphia's 50 Top Bars

2011-11-14T09:42:00.000-05:00

The website Foobooz.com, which covers all things food and drink in Philadelphia, recently released its 2011 list of Philadelphia's top 50 bars. I posted about last year's list here, and thankfully a lot of my favorites still made the list along with some notable newcomers. My nearest neighborhood joint, the South Philly Taproom jumped up to #2 this year (from #5 in 2010), and the newly revamped

Oh Taste & See: Jura Superstition Single Malt Scotch

2011-10-27T20:01:00.000-04:00

I had a sample of Jura Superstition sent to me a while back, and I finally got around to having a taste of this no-age-statement Scotch from Isle of Jura Distillery. This 90 proof whisky is a good compromise for those times when you want something tough with a bit of smoky or peaty flavor, but you don't want to be overwhelmed with the funky flavors that can come from an Islay malt like Lagavulin

Oh Taste & See: Clynelish 14 Year Old Single Malt Scotch

2011-10-24T14:55:00.000-04:00

I've been sitting on this bottle of Clynelish 14 Year Old for a few months, but I'm glad I finally got around to popping it open as it quickly jumped to the top of my list of favorite single malts. It's not a common single malt - I picked up this bottle at a duty-free shop, but if you see it it's worth every penny of the $45-$50 price tag. Clynelish distillery is owned by Diageo and is billed as

Oh Taste & See: Old Forester Bourbon

2011-10-19T20:33:00.000-04:00

Old Forester is one of the oldest names in the world of bourbon, but until recently it wasn't widely available here in Pennsylvania. Recently though I started seeing it on shelves at the state stores, and at $18.99 it seemed like it might be a good deal so I picked up a bottle. It's a rye-heavy bourbon, probably 4 to 5 years old, and bottled at 86 proof. Unfortunately when I started drinking it I

Oh Taste & See: The Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year Old Single Malt Scotch

2011-10-05T10:37:00.001-04:00

I've been working on this bottle of The Balvenie DoubleWood for a while, but realized that I had never posted a tasting, and since it's a perfect drink as summer cools into fall I figure now is the time. The Balvenie is one of the larger small Scotch distilleries, or one of the smaller large Scotch distilleries. The distillery was built in 1892, by William Grant. The company he founded, William

Ken Burns' Prohibition - A Great Excuse to Enjoy a Drink!

2011-10-03T18:11:00.000-04:00

If you're reading this be thankful that it's 2011 and not 1911. In 2011 you can legally and comfortably sit back, enjoy a glass of whiskey, and watch TV while reading this blog on the internet. In 1911 you could have had the whiskey, but you would have felt the cloudy days of Prohibition approaching quickly, and the TV and internet things would have sounded like absolute crazy talk. Anyway, I

Oh Taste & See: Wild Turkey 81 Bourbon

2011-09-19T10:28:00.000-04:00

Wild Turkey, long known for its signature 101 proof bourbon, recently launched a new bourbon known as Wild Turkey 81. They've also launched a big ad campaign featuring the catchphrase "Give 'em the bird," and if you haven't seen the TV ads yet you should because they're kinda clever - I've linked to them at the bottom of this post. Wild Turkey 81 was crafted by Eddie Russell (son of long time

Oh Taste & See: Wasmund's Single Malt Whisky

2011-09-15T17:42:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I wrote about my recent visit to Copper Fox Distillery in Sperryville, VA, and today I'll taste their Wasmund's Single Malt Whisky as the third and final installment in my series of three American, craft, malt whisk(e)y's. The first two I reviewed were Edgefield Distillery's Hogshead Whiskey from Oregon and MB Roland's Malt Whiskey from Kentucky. Wasmund's is the outcast of this

Oh Taste & See: MB Roland Malt Whiskey

2011-09-08T18:54:00.000-04:00

This is the second of my three-part American craft-distilled malt whiskey tasting. My first was Edgefield Distillery's Hogshead Whiskey from Oregon, and today I'm tasting MB Roland's Malt Whiskey from Kentucky. The MB Roland distillery is just outside my hometown, and you can read about my visit there by clicking here. Their malt whiskey is a very small batch product, and is totally unique in

Oh Taste & See: Edgefield Distillery Hogshead Whiskey

2011-09-06T17:45:00.000-04:00

I noticed recently that I had accumulated a few bottles of small-batch, craft-distilled malt whiskeys, so I thought I'd taste them all, three posts in a row, and offer you a comparison. First up is Hogshead Whiskey from Oregon's Edgefield Distillery. Edgefield Distillery is part of the McMenamins empire which operates hotels, pubs, breweries, wineries, and theaters throughout Oregon and

Northern Virginia Distillery Double-Dip: Catoctin Creek & Copper Fox

2011-08-17T17:08:00.001-04:00

A couple weeks ago I was in Northern Virginia and I had the chance to stop in for a visit at two very cool micro-distilleries that are turning out some very tasty and unique whiskies. While in the area I did some camping and hiking in Shenandoah National Park which felt like real 'mountain moonshiner' territory, so I think it's appropriate that good, legal whisky is being made in the hills just

Whisk(e)y Event Season is Approaching

2011-08-17T15:36:00.000-04:00

As fall approaches so do the annual series of whisk(e)y festivals, events, and celebrations. I'm not sure why they all seem to fall during the same few months every year - at least in the Northeast - but it makes for a fun time! First up is the Whisky on the Hudson dinner cruise in New York City on September 8th. What could be better than whisky and dinner on a boat, and early September is

Oh Taste & See: Caol Ila 12 Year Old Single Malt Scotch

2011-07-29T11:00:00.000-04:00

If you read this blog frequently you know that I drink a lot more American whiskey than I do Scotch whisky, but when the stars align there's nothing that compares to a big, peaty Islay single malt. On a cold night by a smoky campfire or in celebration of any major milestone serious Scotch like Caol Ila's 12 Year Old single malt is the natural way to go. The original Caol Ila distillery was built

Oh Taste & See: Wathen's Single Barrel Bourbon

2011-07-25T10:52:00.000-04:00

Wathen's Kentucky Bourbon is one of those whiskeys that is a bit hard to figure out, at least in terms of exactly where, how, and by whom it was made. The bottle says that it was distilled in Kentucky, but it also says "Bottled By Charles Medley Distillery, San Jose, CA". To add further confusion, Wathen's website claims that the Charles Medley Distillery is in Owensboro, KY. That distillery is

Whiskey Book Review: The Social History of Bourbon

2011-07-18T10:47:00.000-04:00

Disclaimer: this book took me a long while to get through, so I apologize to the author if I forget anything from the first half. Given that The Social History of Bourbon by Gerald Carson was published in 1963, I thought it would be acceptable to take my time with it since nothing in there could be late-breaking news. Like many a well-aged bourbon, this book went down just fine as a slow and easy

Whiskey Book Review: Boozehound

2011-07-14T09:02:00.000-04:00

Over the course of a quick summer vacation I was able to breeze through a very entertaining and educational book called Boozehound by Jason Wilson. The subtitle of the book is On the Trail of the Rare, the Obscure, and the Overrated in Spirits, which sums things up very nicely and really reels you in if you're the type of person who reads blogs like mine. The author is the Spirits Columnist for

Back to Blogging

2011-07-13T14:09:00.000-04:00

After taking a few weeks vacation from blogging, with an actual vacation thrown in, I'm back to writing about whiskey, and I've got some fun things to discuss and taste over the next few days. First up I'll review a couple of books that I read over my vacation, then I'll review a few whiskeys that I picked up at the duty free shops...sounds like fun for me, hope you enjoy!

Oh Taste & See: Early Times 354 Bourbon

2011-05-23T07:22:00.000-04:00

You may have heard the buzz surrounding the release of Early Times 354 Bourbon a few months back. It's the first time since 1983 that the storied Early Times name has appeared on a bourbon available in the U.S. Early Time's only domestic-market product for the past 28 years has been labeled "Kentucky Whiskey" - a bourbon-like whiskey aged in some used barrels instead of all new ones, a minor

It's Mint Julep Time Again

2011-05-06T15:37:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow is Kentucky Derby Day, the one day a year when you just must drink bourbon, most likely in the form of a mint julep. Last year I gave you my go-to mint julep recipe which you can check out here. That recipe makes an awesome drink, but it's also a bit complicated, especially if you're trying to make juleps for a whole party full of people who are all drinking like racehorses. So this

Oh Taste & See: Pendleton Blended Canadian Whisky

2011-05-05T16:44:00.000-04:00

What makes a whisky Canadian? Well I guess if you ask the folks at Hood River Distillers, the Oregon-based bottlers of Pendleton Blended Canadian Whisky, the only requirement is for the liquid in the bottle to have been distilled and aged in Canada. Given how much I like their product, I won't argue with them at all. Pendleton is named after Oregon's Pendleton Round-Up, one of the worlds

Canadian Whisky Getting Some Respect

2011-05-05T16:23:00.001-04:00

This recent article from the New York Times gives Canadian whisky a bit of attention that it isn't used to getting. Always the backbone of cheap whisky cocktails and a go-to for old-timers everywhere, Canadian whisky is now aspiring to rival its flashier Scotch and Bourbon competitors with unique, higher-end bottlings. Some of these more sophisticated Canadian whiskys are coming from the major

Oh Taste & See: Angel's Envy Bourbon

2011-04-19T10:46:00.000-04:00

Angel's Envy Bourbon has been generating buzz in the bourbon world for a while now, and it's finally starting to become readily available in many areas nationwide. I had a chance to taste it a while back at the Philadelphia Whiskey Festival. At the time it made a great impression, and now I've had the chance to taste a bit more and I still really like it. The short back-story behind Angel's Envy

Whiskey Dinner at Percy Street Barbecue

2011-03-30T20:28:00.001-04:00

Last night I had a chance to attend an American Whiskey Dinner at Percy Street Barbecue here in Philadelphia. I had heard great reviews about this relatively new restaurant, and the whiskey dinner featured five courses paired with five different whiskeys so what better time to try it for myself! It even featured some very entertaining and educational commentary by whiskey and beer writer Lew

Bar Hopping: Longman & Eagle, Chicago

2011-03-22T17:07:00.000-04:00

The window at Longman & Eagle, the hip whiskey bar in Chicago's up-and-coming Logan Square neighborhood, says simply: "Eat Sleep Whiskey." That seems like a pretty simple slogan, but it concisely captures most of what's going on at this watering hole where I had dinner last weekend. Let's start with the drinking. Longman & Eagle has an epic selection of whiskeys behind the bar. There are so many