Smoke

Branch & Barrel Plumwood

Branch & Barrel Distilling was founded in 2015 by friends Ryan Morgan, Scott Freund and Tom Sielaff after years of aging new make whiskey with different woods. One of them was wood from a plum tree, and was perhaps the one that finally pushed them into getting the distillery off the ground for real. The base spirit is a bourbon mash with high barley but some of their offerings are not aged in virgin oak barrels and thus do not meet the regulatory requirements to call it bourbon. The Branch & Barrel Plumwood is matured entirely in plum wood barrels and made in very small batches.

By Adam | August 10, 2022 | Foreign | No Comments |

This was first released during in 2015 to celebrate the distillery’s 200th anniversary but has now become an occasional release. Nothing extra is done to this offering except taking the base spirit and aging it a few years beyond the normal. Oh, Laphroaig! How polarizing are your scotches. Some say you taste like diesel fuel. Others, adore your peaty, smoky, medicinal qualities. Who is the most medicinal of them all? Even the Kilbride Stream adds an extra peaty layer to your whisky. Where shall Laphroaig 16 fall on this spectrum? Find out what we thought and share your thoughts, too.

By Adam | June 10, 2022 | Islay | No Comments |

Benromach is a Speyside distillery founded in 1898 by Duncan McCallum and F.W. Brickman and currently owned by Gordon & MacPhail, a brand perhaps more known for their independent bottlings. Benromach makes their whisky using all of their senses: sight, smell, taste, feel. Using only first-filled casks, water from the Chapelton Spring in the Romach Hills they make a subtly smoky scotch that is only lightly peated. The Benromach 15 Year was then finished in ex-sherry casks. We often love a good sherry cask finish. Do you?

By Adam | March 30, 2022 | Speyside | No Comments |