Blog of the Month: Signde Drinks

I've gotten lazy about my once regular Blog of the Month feature.  There are just so many whiskey blogs, it's hard to keep up, and there are a lot that deserve recognition. So I'll try to dive back in this month; we'll see if I can keep it up.

One blog I've been meaning to feature for a while is Ryan Oberleitner's signde drinks. Ryan was a regular whiskey reviewer on Reddit's very active r/bourbon forum, and his blog seems to have grown out of those reviews. He's a very good writer who doesn't pull any punches. Check out his recent review of Jefferson's Ocean which begins:

What is this? Well it’s a bourbon that supposedly spent time in barrels on a boat at sea. How much time? Fuck you. Okay, well who made it? Not us, fuck you. Hmm, how old is it? No idea, fuck you. Alright then, how much does it cost? A lot, fuck you.

Now that's my kind of review! That being said, that kind of snark is a bit out of character for his reviews, which tend to be straight forward and to the point with succinct, well written notes and no grade inflation.

Check it out!

Blog of the Month: Whisky Israel

This month's Blog of the Month is Gal Granov's Whisky Israel.  Since late 2009, Whisky Israel has been consistently posting several reviews per week, mostly of single malt Scotch but occasionally of other whiskeys or other spirits.  Granov's reviews are thoughtful and succinct and his scores are uninflated.  He's been blogging for long enough now that Whisky Israel has quite the library of reviews, including 27 BenRiach reviews, 31 Ardbeg reviews and many more.

Check it out!

Forum of the Month: Reddit r/Bourbon

In place of this month's blog of the month, I wanted to recognize a forum of the month: Reddit's r/Bourbon.  The Reddit r/Bourbon site may be the most active whiskey forum on the web right now, with vibrant discussions of everything bourbon, tasting notes and even barrel purchases. Traditionalists may prefer Straightbourbon.com which probably has more veterans in the mix, but there's no denying that Reddit has huge energy and a good mix of novices and more experienced folks. I'm not active on the site, but I'm a regular lurker, and it's a great way to gauge what folks are thinking about in the bourbon world.

Check it out!

Blog of the Month: Whisky Lassie

Canadian whisky blogger Johanne McInnis started Whisky Lassie in 2012 and has been posting at a solid clip ever since. Whisky Lassie tends to focus on Scotch (especially Tomatin) and Canadian Whisky and brings a unique voice to everything she discusses. The thing I like most about the blog is that it almost never repeats things seen on other blogs. Both feisty and unpredictable, Whisky Lassie isn't afraid to be contrarian, defending NAS whiskies at a time when they are under attack, and she has little use for anything she perceives as snobbishness on the part of whisky geeks. While I don't always agree with her, I always enjoy reading her opinions and the stories she tells.  Check it out!

Blog of the Month: Breaking Bourbon

The March Blog of the Month, Breaking Bourbon, started about a year ago and is written by the trio of Eric, Nick and Jordan. The blog includes reviews (rated on a scale of zero to five barrels), a calendar of new releases and various articles.  One of the most exciting things they are working on is a bourbon storage experiment.  Regular readers might remember that I did my own very small scale experiment on how oxygen impacts open bottles of whiskey.  Breaking Bourbon is taking it to a whole new level with experiments on how bourbon at different fill levels is impacted in different environments, including direct sunlight, a dark closet and a refrigerator.  They plan on testing the samples at six, twelve and twenty-four months.  I'll be excited to see how it turns out.  Meanwhile, I'll be reading their regular reviews and articles.

Check it out!

Blog of the Month: The Whiskey Jug

This month's Blog of the Month is the Whiskey Jug.  The Whisky Jug started back in 2010 but really got going in 2013.  LA whiskey lover Josh Peters is a tireless taster, posting new reviews nearly every weekday. Josh tastes the entire spectrum of whiskey and his reviews are concise and to the point. Every whiskey gets both a number and letter grade and reviews are accompanied by his stylized photos which are much more interesting than the typical generic bottle pix. I also really like that most of the whiskeys he reviews are both accessible and affordable. As a bonus, he also has guest posts from the very knowledgeable LA whiskey distributor Chris Uhde.

Check it out!

Blog of the Month: Diving for Pearls

While it's been dormant for a few months, the Blog of the Month is a feature in which I pick one of the over 550 whiskey blogs that I think deserves more attention.

Michael Kravitz of Long Beach, California started Diving for Pearls as a sort of general blog back in 2007 but has been writing mostly about whiskey since 2011. While he tastes a variety of whiskeys, Kravitz' blog is mostly Scotch focused. He does lots of reviews and has some great in depth stories. Recently, he posted a very detailed, three part economic analysis of the Scotch whisky boom.  But it's not all tables and graphs. Kravitz also does fun stuff like a comparison of the notoriously terrible black whiskeys: Loch Dhu and Cu Dhub.

Diving for Pearls is always a good read.  Check it out!

Blog of the Month: Sipology

There is something to be said for doing one thing, doing it well, and doing it consistently.  Josh Wright has been reviewing wine and spirits (mostly, but not exclusively whiskey) on his no-frills Sipology Blog since 2010. The entire site consists of reviews. His reviewing style is crisp and to the point with very effective descriptions followed by a short and informative summary (with no numerical rating). While he certainly reviews some higher end stuff, most of the bottles he reviews are refreshingly affordable. His most recent review is a comparison of Black Velvet and Black Velvet Reserve. 

If you're not reading Sipology, you definitely should be!

Blog of the Month: The Whiskey Reviewer

This month's Blog of the Month (well, technically blog of last month...I'm running a bit late) is The Whiskey Reviewer. This is a group blog, but it's mostly the project of Richard Thomas, a Kentuckian who lives in Europe and writes Civil War fiction in his spare time. The blog, which has been around for a few years now, is sleek looking with tons of well written content. Having a team of writers means there are new posts almost every weekday.

The site runs the gamut from general news to commentary to reviews.  The reviews are fair and even handed without much in the way of grade inflation (though purists might cringe at the flavored whiskeys and other novelties that they sometimes enjoy).

Thomas has a particular affinity for Irish Whiskey, and does a  nice job of covering an area that doesn't always get the publicity it deserves.  Check out this well done wrap up of new Irish distilleries.

On issues of American whiskey, the blog does tend to be a bit too pro-industry for my tastes, especially on questions of sourcing.  That being said, they are running a new series on deceptive practices in American whiskey which began with a very fair evaluation of Templeton Rye and its critics.  I'll look forward to more from that series, even though I'm sure there will be some I'll disagree with.

Check it out!

Blog of the Month: Bourbonr Blog

This month's Blog of the Month is the Bourbonr Blog by Blake Riber.  If you're a fan of useful information delivered in a pleasing way, Bourbonr is a fun blog to follow.  Check out their guides to Elijah Craig Barrel Proof releases, Heaven Hill mashbills, and the history of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection. I'm a fan of the crisp, minimalist graphics paired with useful lists.

The only downside of the blog is that he's a little Pappy obsessed.  For a while, practically every other post was something about Pappy.  I get it, Pappy gets hits (and he advertises, so that matters), but most of us in the bourbon geek world are pretty done with endless Pappy chatter.  Thankfully, though, he seems to be moving away from that.

Check it out!

Blog of the Month: The Coopered Tot

Josh Feldman, the blogger who writes The Coopered Tot, is a true whiskey enthusiast, with the emphasis on enthusiast.  The guy is enthusiastic about nearly everything.  He loves whiskey, the people who make it, bottle it and sell it.  In the whiskey blogosphere, he's the guy who's president of the PTA and chairman of the neighborhood welcome wagon, bringing the whiskey equivalent of a basket of cookies to new readers and bloggers. He's gracious and always willing to look at other points of view. 

It's not just enthusiasm though, Josh writes some great stuff, including a recent post looking at representations of race, gender and  sexuality in old whiskey ads.  He's done some fun treasure hunting, digging into obscure old whiskeys, and looking into the downfall of a once great label. He's thorough and creative.  He zeroes in on his subjects like a dog with a particularly meaty bone that he won't let go of until he's done.

I've joked that The Coopered Tot is the Moby Dick of whiskey blogs, because the posts are really long and tend to go off on long tangents, and sometimes I worry that Josh gets too cozy with the industry he's writing about (a weakness that he himself has acknowledged), but his blog is always an interesting read, providing you can put aside the time to read it.

Blog of the Month: Chemistry of the Cocktail

This month's Blog of the Month is Chemistry of the Cocktail. Back in 2010, Oregon based chemistry graduate student Jordan Devereaux started to blog about cocktails, but over the years, the blog has evolved into a whiskey blog as the vast majority of his entries are now about whiskey (funny how that can happen - even to food blogs).  As a chemist, Devereaux is very good at laying down some whiskey science in a way that a lay person like me can (mostly) understand as in this post about the importance of long fermentation times. He also has some good commentary, like this piece on Bruichladdich under the Remy regime, lots of reviews (mostly of Scotch) and a monthly post on innovative cocktails.  Plus, he uses the most awesomely cool blog layout!

Check it out!

Blog of the Month: Sipp'n Corn

Sipp'n Corn is a blog that caters to my twin loves of law and history; the tag line is "Blogging about bourbon as told through the rich history of American lawsuits..."   Kentucky lawyer Brian Haara has done some great research and presented some fascinating reports on old legal cases about bourbon.  You can learn a lot of history through court cases, and Haara uses published decisions to tell an interesting history of the Labrot & Graham Distillery (now Woodford Reserve) and demonstrate how, a century ago, sourcing whiskey and not disclosing the distiller was considered by one court to be "a fraud on the public."

If you have an interest in whiskey history, Sipp'n Corn is a must-read.

Blog of the Month: Red White & Bourbon

One of the good niches for a whiskey blog is covering the local whiskey scene.  Red White & Bourbon is a Colorado based blog that has lots of general whiskey coverage but specializes in Colorado whiskey reviews and news.  Blogger Josh Chinn highlights the Colorado craft scene, which is substantial, and even his reviews of standard whiskeys tend to focus on their availability at local bars and stores.

I particularly liked his post on the newly released Tin Cup Whiskey, a sourced product from Stranahan's.  Despite the misleading press, he nicely breaks down that this is likely MGP whiskey, probably a blend of two of their mashbills. He also does some good explanatory posts, like this guide to the Jefferson's line. 

If you're a Coloradan or at all interested in the Colorado whiskey scene, Red White & Bourbon is a great place to start.

Blog of the Month: Cheap Bourbon Whiskey & Pearlsnap Shirts

November's Blog of the Month is Cheap Bourbon Whiskey & Pearlsnap Shirts.  I can't really do it justice; just check it out (you've got to love a blog where most of the photos are empty bottles - and be sure to go to the second page to see the shirts).

Blog of the Month: Danish Whisky Blog

Steffen Bräuner started his Danish Whisky Blog back in 2010 and has been doing a phenomenal job of consistently providing fresh, interesting commentary.  Unlike most European whiskey bloggers, Steffen has a taste for and knowledge of American whiskey as well as Scotch.

In a world of sometimes insanely long lists of whiskies to try before you die, Steffen's Seven Whiskies to Taste Before you Die nailed it. Another great list was his 10 facts about Japanese Distilleries.  Combine these with a discerning and experienced palate and a low tolerance for BS, and you've got a creative blog that just keeps getting better.  If you don't know it already, check it out!

Blog of the Month: Last Call

This month's blog of the month is not a whiskey blog per se, but a legal blog about alcohol.  Bone McAllester Norton is a large Tennessee law firm that has a specialty in alcoholic beverage law.  The firm's blog, Last Call, is written by William T. Cheek III who leads the firm's alcoholic beverage legal team.

I first came across the blog while researching the State of Tennessee's efforts to define the term Tennessee Whiskey, but I soon added it to my regular reading list.  While the blog mostly deals with state law issues, it's a fascinating look at the complicated legal framework, both state and federal, regulating the production and sale of spirits.

And fear not non-lawyers, the blog doesn't read like a brief.  The writing is succinct and devoid of legalese, and Cheek has a penchant for quoting song lyrics in his posts.  If you're both a legal geek and a whiskey geek, this is definitely a blog you should be following.

Blog of the Month: Bourbon Truth

Our blog of the month for August is the Bourbon Truth Tumblr.  Let's start out by acknowledging that this blog is on the weird side.  It's written in a half-crazed, spelling and grammar-be-damned style featuring massive run-on sentences that makes you wonder if this is what Ted Kaczynski does during the one hour of computer access he gets every other day.  But if you can make it past that, your reward is a blog by an anonymous author who has three things that make for a great blog: a lot of knowledge of the whiskey industry, strong opinions and a wicked sense of humor.  Is it over the top?  Hell, it's over the top of the top, but it's highly entertaining.

Check out this post about a dog tasting test and see if you're not laughing out loud by the end of it.

Blog of the Month: My Annoying Opinions

My Complete List of Whiskey Blogs now numbers over 400...yes there are more than 400 people who are writing (or have written in case of the dormant blogs) about whiskey on-line.  And I seem to find more on almost a daily basis.

As I've mentioned before, these blogs run from the brilliant to the bizarre.  Since I've got this list, I figured I'd dedicate one post a month to highlighting a whiskey blog that I find interesting or amusing or bizarre or all three.

I'll kick off this month with a new but high quality blog:  My Annoying Opinions.  MAO is written by an anonymous, Minnesota teacher who goes only by "Snookums" on the blog, but he's been known to post frequently on Scotch forums under a different moniker.

The blog mostly consists of Scotch reviews with occasional posts about food or other things.  The writing is pithy and occasionally sarcastic...and not really that annoying, and the ratings are refreshingly uninflated.  It's a refreshing read from someone who knows his (or her) stuff.  Check it out!