Classic Rye Rides High
From the end of Prohibition in 1933, rye whiskies were in steady decline, with 150,000 cases of sold in the United States compared with 14.7 million cases of bourbon in 2006. It was the reemergence of cocktail culture in...
Saps and Resins
Textures and tastes from tree saps and resins are underacknowledged and underutilized in an industry that raves about trees in the context of provenance and type of wood used for all-important barrels. Although, for millennia the fluid that runs...
The Spirit[s] of Colorado Agriculture
Nestled in Colorado’s southeastern corner, in the shadows of the San Juan and Sangre de Cristo Mountains, barley fields in the San Luis Valley struggle to blossom. Over 7,000 feet above sea level, hot days, plenty of sun and...
A History of Rye in the US: Part 2
Between 1810 and 1840 it’s estimated 14,000 to 20,000 distilleries, licensed and otherwise, operated in the young United States. Most of its population was northerly with rail transport yet to be developed. But once railroads were built, it was...
A History of Rye in the US: Part I
Virginia lays claim to the birthplace of American distilled spirits as the first batch of whiskey, albeit from corn, was documented to have been produced as early as 1620 by English settler George Thorpe near Jamestown. Rye’s presence and...
Book Reviews
The World Atlas of Gin
by Joel Harrison and Neil Ridley
(Mitchell Beazley, 2019)
256 pages
$34.99
ISBN: 9781784725310
A dynamic duo who are no strangers to writing books on spirits, Joel Harrison and Neil Ridley have produced the previous titles Distilled and Straight Up,...
Flavoring Whiskey
It takes years of aging to make whiskey in accordance with accepted definitions, so if you’ve done it right, why would you add anything else to it?
The simple answer: Because alongside rye whiskey, which has been in a barrel...
