Silky and sweet up front, with English toffee and lush, bright, honeyed fruit.  But similar to the “Rye 90” release, leather and oak resin dominate the back end of the palate through the finish. More balance is needed to warrant a higher rating. Price is per 375 ml.

Reviewed by: John Hansell (Summer 2014)

The second craft rye I’m revisiting. Mosby’s is still 100% organic rye and unaged, but the nose is more fun: some green pear and melon esters in there with the grassy rye spice. It’s nicely smooth on the tongue, delivers exactly what the nose promised, plus a shot of fresh-cracked black pepper…and a much longer finish these days. Greatly improved; a good white whiskey.

Reviewed by: Lew Bryson (Summer 2014)

Sharp nose of fresh, wet grain, hot honey, a little butterscotch, crushed boxwood leaves, and a touch of linseed; an herbal smell. Mouth is roundly sweet, with honey and pie crust notes that meet the oak and pretty it up. There’s mint here, which surprised me; maybe from the wood? This one’s dainty, delicate, and maybe a bit too sweet, but it maintains an edge of oak that keeps it serious. Price is per 375 ml.

Reviewed by: Lew Bryson (Summer 2014)

Naming your blend “Sherry Cask” retains an air of ambiguity to it. Theoretically, it could be the maturation or finishing vessel for all or some of the constituents. The whisky is light-bodied and the sweet sherry is evident, though a nip of bitterness interrupts. Smoother on the palate than the 12 year old, there’s strawberry, raspberry, and background spice, with a blackberry note late in the finish. Overall, there’s less flavor development, but it’s an old-school kind of blend.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Summer 2014)

Malt whiskey with a mashbill similar to a craft-brewed stout—think dark roasted malts—and then aged in new charred oak with an addition of toasted French oak. The nose is sweet young malt touched with chocolate. There’s an additional hit of cocoa at first taste, then heat, oak, vanilla, and more sweet malt, followed by a finish that’s increasingly chocolatey and dry. Young, and could use more complexity and maturing, but full of good flavors. Price is per 375 ml.

Reviewed by: Lew Bryson (Summer 2014)

William Grant’s answer to Drambuie is a much less sweet and higher proof Irish whiskey-based liqueur. Monster caramel leaps out of the glass with an undercurrent of cola. Caramel leads to chocolate on the palate before malt and grain whiskey undertones emerge. Mid-palate is a little hot, but it helps cut through the underlying sweetness and also features some botanicals like juniper and black pepper. Clearly a mixing spirit and probably best thrown into a cola or ginger ale.

Reviewed by: Geoffrey Kleinman (Summer 2014)

Following in the footsteps of Bushmills Irish Honey, Castle Brands tries their hand at a light and sweet Irish whiskey-based liqueur. Strong clover honey dominates with caramel, vanilla bean, cinnamon, and a little ginger spice. Hard to get to the base whiskey through all the sweet notes, but that seems to be the point. Just short of cloying, this is a whiskey-based liqueur for those more interested in the liqueur than the whiskey.

Reviewed by: Geoffrey Kleinman (Summer 2014)

Full port maturation has been tried by distilleries great and small. What does the cask contribute to the spirit beyond being soaked in port? Empress plums and bramble jelly meet smoke in the form of snuffed candlewicks and smoldering cedar sticks. At cask strength, it’s sharp and puckering but after the plummy opener fades there is rosehip, licorice, zested lime, and a squirt of lemon. Water keeps the licorice, but bottoms out the sweetness for a mouth-filling dram. £82

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Summer 2014)

Continuing progress on Jack Daniel’s rye whiskey; this one is 2 years old and labeled “straight.” Pale amber. New make sharpness, sawn oak, hard candy, and a flip of cinnamon bark: driven, simple, insistent nose. Thin on the palate: sweet, with an oily overlay of bitter grass and grainy flatness. A dry, contracting finish. Not flawed, but not particularly pleasant, either. Someone tell Jack; craft distillers get $50 for young rye because they’re small. JD should be half that.

Reviewed by: Lew Bryson (Summer 2014)

Light in body, with soft fruit, graham cracker, and delicate honey. Oak tannin, leather, and prickly spice kick in mid-palate, but there’s not enough body and sweet notes to balance it.  Warm, spicy finish. Price is per 375 ml.

Reviewed by: John Hansell (Summer 2014)

Simple nose of corn, oak, cinnamon candy, and ash. Candy sweet, grainy, still simple, and a bit thin; increasingly hot at the end. Needs more breadth and depth, but there’s nothing seriously flawed. I’d characterize this as a good flyweight boxer caught in a cruiserweight bout; nice footwork, solid performance, and dealing some good hits, but the bigger, older bourbons give it a palate-pounding. Price is per 375 ml.

Reviewed by: Lew Bryson (Summer 2014)

This 3 year old whisky comes from Denmark’s smallest distillery, where Jens-Erik Jørgensen has invested in a bulbous pot still from Forsyths, Scotland. I found barley sugar, mashing malt, risen loaves, vanilla, and fruity esters reminiscent of boiled sweets. The warming flavors begin with orange candies and clove, but it bucks like a wild stallion before settling to divulge a hint of licorice and cayenne pepper. A dry and sudden finish. Promising, but needs time to mellow. €200

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Summer 2014)

The most intense of the Orphan Barrel initial release.  Very robust, with leather, tobacco, and roasted nuts. Quite spicy and resinous too. Toffee, maple syrup, and caramel struggle to soothe all this robustness, but the oak maintains the upper hand.  A digestif, perhaps, after a large meal? Unless you are purchasing for a piece of bourbon history, my advice would be to try it before you buy because, while complex, it is also quite woody.

Reviewed by: John Hansell (Summer 2014)

Furniture polish, red raspberries, popovers, a vigorous nose, going in several directions. Hot grainy mouth, not overwhelmed by wood; a simple grain finish like twice-baked biscuits, with a light wreathing of meadow mint. The character of the grain comes through quite clearly, and it’s distinctly different from the Myer Rye. But what’s here is not particularly interesting or well-integrated.

Reviewed by: Lew Bryson (Summer 2014)

This is the latest in an ongoing series of organic, single-field white whiskies from Toronto distillery. In 2013, summer rains imbued Ontario spring wheat with softer, nuttier, and more complex flavors than 2012. These show here on the nose as lemon oil, fragrant spring violets, and newly harvested grain. A sweet, spicy palate is alive with real lemons, yellow plums, fresh straw, and sweet, lingering white pepper. Mouth coating and big. (Ontario only) C$40/375 ml.

Reviewed by: Davin de Kergommeaux (Summer 2014)

A straightforward bourbon that takes few risks but also offers few rewards. You’ll find a mélange of orange, apricot, sweet corn, vanilla, soft spice and honey. Light, youthful finish, with a kiss of oak. Sourced whiskey.

Reviewed by: John Hansell (Summer 2014)

The Braunstein craft distillery and brewery lies southwest of Copenhagen at Køge Harbor. This one uses barley peated to a phenolic content of 60 ppm and boy, do you know it! Any balance of character is resoundingly bested by acrid aromas of charcoal sticks, sooty fireplaces, and blackened toast. The oily mouthfeel oozes cherry soda, bubblegum, maraschino, Ama’r Stang, and Band-Aids, with chicory on the finish. This needs better balance; at present, it’s like a pyroclastic cloud erupting from the glass. 795kr

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Summer 2014)

Distilled from an oatmeal stout with a shot of peat, this intrigued even before the cap popped. It does smell like an oatmeal stout: cocoa, grains, fresh bread, restrained smoke, mixed with small-barrel oak. The smoke blows up in the mouth, much more evident, and the chocolaty, honey-sweet base rolls underneath…but it’s shallow, without the richness of a properly-aged scotch. Craft whiskeys want to grow up so fast, but this is like a kid in his dad’s clothes. (400 bottles only) Price is per 375 ml.

Reviewed by: Lew Bryson (Summer 2014)