Whisky Advocate Summer 2023

On James Street in Dublin, across from Guinness Open Gate Brewery, you stand amid the ruins of the city’s once great whiskey culture. Here the Roe family’s Thomas Street Distillery grew to become the world’s largest whiskey maker by the late 19th century. Right down the way is a quiet street called John’s Lane West, by the former home of the giant John Power & Son Distillery—whose pot stills remain there, on what’s now the campus of Ireland’s National College of Art and Design. Across the River Liffey stood John Jameson & Son, long since decamped westward to its modern home in Midleton. What’s left of it today is a visitor center. There were many more such places, all of them gone. In the towns and villages across Ireland, it…

UTAH’S RUSTY NAIL Dear Whisky Advocate, Upon reading one of [the letters to the editor] in your Winter issue that you appeared to favor scotches (my personal favorite), and that I do enjoy a Rusty Nail now and then, I decided to create a cocktail I call (in deference to my home in Salt Lake City) the Salty Nail. Okay, you likely know our state’s history and condition: a place with the nation’s lowest DUI limit at .05, a place where perhaps a single member of the Department of Alcohol Beverage Services actually imbibes liquor (the board determines which wines and whiskies can be placed in our state-run liquor stores), and a place where the many members of the Mormon church who do drink now and then are openly (and…

In the hierarchy of British cities for whisky lovers, London has not traditionally ranked very high, principally because the UK’s whisky makers were all located more than 400 miles to the north. But today Britain’s capital city has numerous nascent distilleries, including several specializing in whisky, joining a lively network of whisky bars to make this ancient city a whisky destination to rival any in Europe. As one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities, London abounds with lodging options. Choose one that has a bar you’ll want to visit anyway. Built in what was at one time the largest school in England, St. Paul’s Hotel in Hammer-smith offers 35 rooms set on three rambling floors of a neo-Gothic building. While the hotel’s entryway might seem a bit under-whelming, pride of place…

Coconut may be tough to literally crack, but pairing the fruit with whisky is a sea breeze thanks to the oak barrels used to age many styles of the spirit. “Oak imparts desirable flavors [to whisky] through the addition of soluble sugars, acids, aldehydes, tannins, and lactones,” explains Mark Mentzel, lead bartender at The Elk Room in Baltimore. “Lactones are the biggest flavor provider in oak and offer flavors of stone fruits, celery, clove, and coconut.” Adding coconut—whether in the form of flakes, milk, water, or oil—accentuates that note and can bring out others, like baking spices, vanilla, caramel, and fruits, as showcased in the cocktails below. From rich and silky to light and refreshing, these drinks may be just the thing to satisfy your wanderlust until you can get…

Cherry flavors can surface throughout the entire whisky tasting experience—from the aroma to the palate and into the finish—from the first sniff of a freshly picked ripe red cherry to the sensation of biting into the crimson flesh of a glossy black variety. When picking out descriptors, the sensations evoke more than just the flavor of individual cherries; it can be concentrated and intensified in jams, jelly, candies, and dried cherries; it can be found in cocktail cherries, sour morello cherries, and sticky glacé cherries. They are packed with dried vine fruit and nutty flavors in rich fruitcakes, nestled under a sweet pastry lattice in deep cherry pies, erupting from fresh-baked cobblers and crumbles with bubbling juices, or lying sandwiched between chocolate sponge and whipped cream in black forest gateau.…

Throughout my childhood in Montréal, summer vacations were spent in Maine. Each July, my parents would bundle us kids into the family car for the long drive to Kennebunkport, where we would spend days on the beach and nights at the self-catering School Days Inn. For my mother and father, a highlight of the trip was the opportunity to dine on lobster, an experience pretty much confined to high-end restaurants back when the Atlantic fisheries weren’t as developed as they are today. And because my siblings and I were freaked out by these odd-looking creatures, we were more than content to eat hot dogs in front of the television while my parents cracked claws by candlelight. I don’t recall what they chose to accompany their lobster back then, but I’m…