Innehållsförteckning för Spring 2023 från Whisky Advocate

While popular theory suggests that the taco was invented during the Mexican Industrial Revolution of the late 1800s, Javier Cabral, editor of the L.A. Taco website and associate producer of “Taco Chronicles” on Netflix, believes this Mexican staple predated that period by at least a couple of centuries. “My personal theory is that people were eating tacos much earlier,” he says. “The creation of nixtamal, used to make masa, goes back to at least the 1500s, and it was probably around then that people started stuffing tortillas.” Regardless of when the taco was born, it arrived in the U.S. with the first wave of Mexican immigrants around 1900, says Cabral, and evolved into the hard-shell taco a few decades later at the Mitla Café in San Bernadino, California, where they…

The boy sat at the kitchen table, unsuccessfully trying to catch his father’s eye. A transistor radio played the new David Bowie song, while the boy’s legs scissored back and forth under the table, his dancing feet just scuffing the patterned linoleum with each pass. Opposite him, a spoon hovered over a forgotten bowl of breakfast cereal as his father stared blankly out the window toward the Port Ellen ferry terminal. The boy sniffed, and scraped a knife over a slice of burnt toast. After examining the messily buttered effort with a critical eye, he noisily munched off a corner. Working there was never the same in the months following the revelation about the closure: It was the people who made this place what it was. After that, the mood…

The single barrel selection process is a treat. Barrel hunters often take a private tour of the distillery and the warehouses, and sample from a number of barrels to decide what matches their palate. The process is wildly popular nowadays, and stock sells out every year. Some distilleries cope with demand by keeping a waiting list, while others use a lottery to determine who can participate. At Four Roses, master distiller Brent Elliott and his team evaluate and select their prize barrels for the program, usually setting aside 40 to 80 total. After touring the Four Roses campus, barrel buyers taste the whiskey in one of the warehouses. “There’s a sense of ownership and pride when someone has control over the bourbon they’re purchasing,” Elliott says. “The program is more…

The Buying Guide provides ratings of whiskies from around the world with an emphasis on new releases available for purchase in the U.S. Complete tasting notes are provided for all whiskies scoring 84 points or more (on the Whisky Advocate 100-point scale). Lower-scoring whiskies are included at the discretion of the editors, and some may appear exclusively on whiskyadvocate.com. Ratings and prices Ratings are to provide a relative comparison of quality with reference to both directly competing products and whiskies in general. Price is not a consideration when arriving at ratings. Prices shown reflect the suggested retail price or a representative retail price. Actual retail prices may vary. Whiskies sold in the U.S. have prices marked in dollars; any whisky priced in other currency is not presently available in the…

#BOTTLEKILL Dear Whisky Advocate, I wanted to write to you in response to [Jonny McCormick’s] #BottleKill column in the Fall issue. First, I must confess that I neither knew this was happening, nor did I realize it had gotten so out of hand. Having been off social media for a few years, I was completely ignorant to the fact that people were posting these types of pictures. I probably wouldn’t be too offended had I known, but you bring up a great point about social media grandstanding. Secondly, and the main reason for my response, I think I’m not all that different from the folks you are describing in the article. I too enjoy the act of finishing a bottle, albeit for different reasons than social media. It gives me…

If you associate iced tea cocktails only with Long Island, it’s time to try something more sophisticated. Combining iced tea with whisky works for two reasons, says Stacie Stewart, beverage director at Nami in Louisville. “The first is that the tannins in tea provide enough structure to add depth to a drink that could otherwise be overpowered by such a strongly flavored spirit. The second is that the subtler notes of whiskies that are often hard to discern on their own can be amplified with the herbaceous flavors and aromas of the tea pairing.” Different teas pair best with different styles of whisky. “Sweeter and lighter teas can play well with spice in a whisky, while bitter black teas can balance out sweetness in a whisky,” explains Ivan Papic, beverage…

Young whiskies might not seem the most obvious quarry for whisky collectors, but they often pay dividends. For ardent flavor explorers, there are compelling reasons to chase labels with single-digit age statements. Young whiskies can deliver a more distillatedriven drinking experience than wood-influenced drams. Mid-20th century bottles of young whisky offer a chance to sample the true personality of the distillery’s whisky from back in the day. These flavors can be masked after aging and finishing. Try picking up Italian imports of 5 year old single malt scotch from the 1960s produced at Glen Grant, Glenfarclas, Glenburgie, and Tomatin. Whisky Auctioneer recently sold an Ainslie & Hebron Clynelish 5 year old from the 1970s for a hammer price of $2,563. Just imagine—you are tasting whisky made from long-forgotten barley varietals…

I got roped into judging a Bloody Mary contest last fall, on account of I owed a guy a favor. Turned out to be outdoors in the hot sun on a 95-degree day, and what we were judging turned out to be garnishes. It started out sensibly, with glasses of unadorned Bloodies for tasting. They ran the mixological gamut from red dishwater to potions that would peel the chrome off a trailer hitch. To be fair, which I hate, most fell somewhere in between, in varying degrees of spicy, assertive, tomato-centric, jalapeño-devoted, horseradishy, sweet, sour, or mysterious. Save one, which eschewed tomatoes altogether in favor of mango juice. Call it the Bloody Leilani and put it in the same category as the Banana Daiquiri and Peanut-Butter Old Fashioned. So my fellow…

1 Find A Retail Partner Even if you want the entire bottle haul from a barrel yourself, you have to make the purchase through a retail store due to federal and state regulations. Most stores that offer their own private barrel labels have an account with major distilleries. Get acquainted with staff at a liquor store to start the process. 2 Pick A Distillery And Register For A Barrel Visit Many distilleries have waiting lists just to get an appointment for a private-barrel tasting. Book early and be patient. 3 Hone Your Palate While you’re waiting, practice tasting whiskey and identifying what flavor profiles you’re looking for from a private barrel. You want to be ready when it’s your turn to start the process. 4 Enjoy The Experience Once you’re selected to purchase a…

Around 2007, liquor store owner Ryan Maloney had a Pappy Van Winkle problem: He had too much of it. “We did TV commercials showing off our single barrel picks, including a handpicked 15-year Pappy,” Maloney recounts. “It would just sit in our store, gathering dust.” Maloney’s store, Julio’s Liquors in Westborough, Massachusetts, was among the first in the nation to work with Sazerac, producer of Pappy Van Winkle, on a single barrel program, and was subsequently offered barrels of 12, 15, 20 and 23 year old Van Winkle. “I wasn’t thrilled with the 20 or 23—too much wood spice for me,” Maloney says. “They were higher priced, too; I think the 15 was about $65 and even that was expensive for bourbon then.” Today, those apex bottles would be gone…

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Even though Jon Lillejord has been a whisky drinker since his college days, it wasn’t until fairly recently that he began delving a little deeper. “It’s been in the last five years or so that I’ve expanded my collection—Whisky Advocate has certainly enhanced my interest in trying new whiskies to add to my options at home,” he says. His home bar includes 50 bottles on the shelf that run the gamut of styles. Three more very nice bottles now join the ranks, as Lillejord is the 2022 Top 20 Sweepstakes winner. Lillejord will receive the top three whiskies of 2022: Jack Daniel’s Bonded, Redbreast Kentucky Oak Edition, and Barrell Vantage. All three are welcome additions, as he’s particularly partial to bourbon, Irish, and Tennessee whiskeys. And while he already has…

A decadent blend of raspberries, blackberries, black currants, XO cognac, Madagascan vanilla, Moroccan citrus peel, honey, and a host of aromatic spices, the French liqueur Chambord can be cloyingly sweet. And while it commonly appears in drinks like the Kir Royal, its cognac base means there’s potential for pairing with whisky, and it can be done to impressive effect. “Cognac and whisky always pair nicely together as a split base, especially when the whisky has more body to it,” says Julia Petiprin, owner of Homemakers Bar in Cincinnati and founder of the Fifty Fifty Gin Club bar. “Chambord, being rich and fruity, highlights vanilla notes that come from bourbon barrel aging, but it can bring out fruity, floral flavors in lighter whiskies as well.” Petiprin prefers pouring Chambord alongside blended scotch…

Just over a century ago, Prohibition ended Chicago’s Chapin & Gore as a business, though the name returned after 1933 as a bourbon brand. Today, the 1904 Chapin & Gore Building is part of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s downtown campus, attached to Orchestra Hall. It was “modernized” in the 1950s, when its ornamental capitals and cornice were removed. Nevertheless, it is a designated Chicago landmark. Prohibition caused widespread economic disruption, but little has been written about the loss of alcohol-related businesses as engines of economic development, a role they played in many American communities until 1920. Chapin & Gore is a prime example. Many histories incorrectly describe Chapin & Gore as distillers. They were not. Then as now, many non-distiller producers styled themselves as distillers and had the word “distiller”…

The following distilleries all have private barrel programs in place. Brown-Forman Old Forester, Woodford Reserve, Jack Daniel’s (also Glenglassaugh, Benriach, and GlenDronach scotches); the wait list to taste through offerings and buy a private barrel of Woodford Reserve or Old Forester is currently more than a year. privatebarrelselections.com Four Roses Visit the website and select “Contact.” Complete the form in the “Department” field, then select “Private Barrel Selections” from the drop-down menu. fourrosesbourbon.com Sazerac Buffalo Trace, 1792, Blantons, E.H. Taylor, Eagle Rare, Bowman Brothers, W.L. Weller, Stagg Jr., Sazerac rye (also Last Drop Distillers 1971 blended scotch, Caribou Crossing Canadian, Paul John Indian) singlebarrelselect.com Heaven Hill Elijah Craig bourbon, Rittenhouse rye elijahcraig.com heavenhilldistillery.com *You must go through a licensed retailer to start the process. Maker’s Mark makersmark.com *You must go…

Shawn Kim 120 West 58th St. Wine and Liquor Four Roses OESK “This is their most popular recipe and I loved my pick. It was 119 proof, 9.5 years old; just delicious. We put an Al Young sticker on there, but also Mandy [Vance, the head of their private barrel program]. Everyone loved it.” Eagle Rare Batman 1 and 2 “I did two Eagle Rare picks, both were 12 years old instead of the usual 10. I stickered them with Batman Lego logos, and they sold out instantly. I later heard from an insider at Buffalo Trace that these barrels would’ve aged into George T. Stagg.” Rob Bralow Blue Streak Wines Old Forester Barrel Proof “This was a great whiskey, from the top of the warehouse…It really went through some…

Rye is an exceptionally food-friendly whiskey. Whether the mashbill is 100% rye or just over the 51% threshold, the spice and structure that it lends the finished product allow it to work alongside a wide range of foods, from sweet (as a counterpoint) to spicy (as a complement). To make the most of rye at the table, we enlisted the help of the team at The Charter Oak in St. Helena, Napa Valley. This beloved restaurant is helmed by chef Christopher Kostow, who was the driving force behind The Restaurant at Meadowood, a revered Michelin three-star destination that was destroyed by wildfire in 2020. At The Charter Oak, Kostow and his team bring the same level of attention to detail and exceptional flavor to more casual yet no less accomplished…

Best Values Whiskies with solid scores, modest prices, and wide availability. BOURBON 89 Burnside Oregon Oaked Blended, 46%, $30 Finished in garryana oak. A wood-forward and tight nose has notes of fresh oak, vanilla-almond ice cream, salted peanuts, and yogurt-covered pretzel. With water, some fruitiness emerges in the form of banana pudding with Nilla wafers, yet it remains soft and shy. The creamy palate delivers more nuttiness along with fresh raspberries, Bartlett pears, cherry blossom, and black pepper. The finish is balanced yet short. Overall it’s simple and easy on the palate.—TS RYE 89 FEW Bottled In Bond, 50%, $50 Cherry lemonade, lime Popsicles, Lemonheads candies, and shortbread cookies on the nose. Water brings out spicier notes: a light pepperiness, fennel, and honey cake, accented by slight hints of damp wood.…

Bordered by Ukraine, Moldova, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Hungary, Romania is better known for wine than whisky, but that could be changing. Nawaf Salameh founded Carpathian Distillery in 2017, and appointed Allan Anderson as master distiller. Anderson was employed at Loch Lomond Distillery for nearly 20 years before working at Invergordon, Aberargie, Slane, and Great Northern Distilleries. Carpathian’s single malt is made from Romanian-grown barley, and their cellars include whisky maturing in a wide variety of cask types including bourbon, Romanian wine from their sister winery, Spanish sherry, cognac, madeira, and French wine casks. 91 Carpathian Single Malt Romanian Wine Cask Collection Fetească Neagră Cask, 46%, $50 Fetească Neagră is a grape variety grown in Romania used to make a deep ruby red wine. Master distiller Allan Anderson used European oak…