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On the ryes: Canadian whisky gains respect

Michelle Locke
Feature Stories
3 min read
Canadian whisky has always had respectable sales in the U.S. It just hasn’t always gotten a lot of respect. That’s changed. Take the Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye whisky that was named World Whisky of the Year by expert Jim Murray in his 2016 Whisky Bible.  Other brands of note

Best of 2015: Irish spirit

Michelle Locke
Feature Stories
4 min read
Michelle Locke has picked up some of the Palate Press spirits beat, and this year her pursuit of spirits for this publication has taken her to Mexico, Scotland, Ireland, and France. Her Irish travel piece, though, stands out since it has one of the best ledes we've ever run. “Business or pleasure?” asked

Old fashioned virtues

Michelle Locke
Features
3 min read
Spirits, sugar, drop of water, bitters, twist – there’s nothing very complicated about the old fashioned. But those five ingredients -- along with a few dashes of over-the-top kitsch -- have added up to an action-packed history. A few cocktail details: Glass Act The old fashioned is one of the

Irish spirit

Michelle Locke
Feature Stories
4 min read
“Business or pleasure?” asked the garda at Dublin airport immigration control. “ I’m not sure,” I replied. “I’m here to learn about Irish whiskey.” “That can only be pleasure,” he said with a smile as he stamped my passport with a thump. He was right. My tour of Irish whiskey

Going clear: Appreciating vodka

W. Blake Gray
Features
5 min read
I wasn't always a wine drinker. The first thing I liked to drink was vodka: vodka with cranberry juice, or a Black Russian with a slice of lime. Now, though, I am entirely too hip to drink vodka. I sneer at vodka, and at people who drink vodka. If I

Catching up with Cognac

Michelle Locke
Feature Stories
4 min read
You know you’re going old school when your guide opens a cellar door in Cognac and a bat comes flying at you. True story. And don’t get me started on the spiders. But while there’s beaucoup de history, heritage and cobwebby verisimilitude to be found in the home of France’s premium brown

For the love of peat: 200 years of Laphroaig

Michelle Locke
Features
3 min read
There are whiskies that seduce, whiskies that inflame, whiskies that captivate. And then there are whiskies like Laphroaig, a big, briny, smoky punch in the gullet that has been winning friends, or not, for 200 years. Peat is the secret to the distinctive, love-it-or-hate-it medicinal, seaweedy character of Laphroaig (la-FRYOG,