Whiskey Face

It's our season finale, so we decided to learn some history. Before there was Jack Daniel's, there was Nearest Green. Nathan "Nearest" Green was enslaved on a farm near Lynchburg, Tennessee, where a young Jack Daniel learned to distill whiskey — from him. For over 150 years, Nearest received no credit. Fawn Weaver researched the story and in 2017 founded Uncle Nearest Premium Whi...

This week on Whiskey Face , we pour Redbreast 12 y/o — a Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey from Midleton Distillery in Cork, Ireland, and perhaps the most interesting glass of the season so far. Single pot still is the most traditional Irish style, and it's genuinely different from anything else on the show: a mix of malted and unmalted barley in the same mash, triple distilled, with a spicy, cre...

What if someone smoked whiskey with mesquite instead of peat? That's exactly what Santa Fe Spirits did with Colkegan Single Malt — an American single malt that drinks like a Scotch but smells like a Texas brisket. Thom breaks down the 70/30 smoked-to-unsmoked malt ratio and what high desert aging does to a barrel, then Patsy finds out what BBQ whiskey tastes like whether she wants to or not. T...

Before collectors were hunting bottles, before allocated releases became a contact sport, before the phrase "single barrel" meant anything to anyone — Elmer T. Lee made it mean something. This week on Whiskey Face , we pour the bourbon that bears his name. Elmer T. Lee spent decades at what is now Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky, rising to Master Distiller and eventually...

The Willett Pot Still Reserve comes in a bottle shaped like a pot still. It's distinctive. It's elegant. It represents the craft of batch-making bourbon in a copper pot still. It also looks exactly like the kind of thing Patsy is going to be suspicious of before she even smells it. Thom gets buttered biscuits and honey on the nose, cinnamon and honey butter on the palate, with a creamy fin...

Scotland did not ask to be involved in this. The Macallan 12 is aged twelve years in sherry oak casks from Jerez, Spain — which, yes, means Scotland went all the way to Spain to teach its barrels how to taste more Scottish. The result is one of the most recognized Scotch whiskies on the planet: rich and dark, layered with dried fruit, orange peel, and chocolate. None of the peat. None of the smoke...

The grenade bottle. The horse and jockey stopper. The collectors' shelves. Blanton's Single Barrel is one of the most coveted, most photographed, most allocated bottles in American whiskey. It's the original single barrel. By every measure whiskey people care about, it is the good stuff. This week, Thom pours Patsy a glass of bourbon royalty and asks the only question that actually mat...

After two episodes easing Patsy into the world of American whiskey — a gentle wheated bourbon, a Derby Day classic — Episode 3 takes a different turn. This week: New Riff Distilling's Single Barrel Rye from Newport, Kentucky. It's a 100% rye mash bill — 95% rye, 5% malted rye — non-chill filtered, no coloring added, pulled directly from a single barrel. What came out of that barrel is exac...

It's Kentucky Derby weekend, and Thom is bringing out something special — Woodford Reserve's 2023 Distillery Series Release, a Toasted Oak Four Grain Whiskey selected by Master Distiller Elizabeth McCall. Woodford is the official whiskey of the Derby, and this bottle, like the Derby, is special. Patsy might agree--but probably not with the same meaning as Thom. Thom walks through what make...

She doesn't like whiskey. She's never liked whiskey. And yet here we are. In our very first episode, host Thom walks his sister Patsy through a bottle of Maker's Mark — one of the most approachable wheated bourbons on the market, and the bourbon that lives inside one of the most beautiful distilleries in the world, thanks to a stunning Chihuly glass installation on the grounds. Patsy loves Chihuly...