December was sherried whisky month, January was un-sherried whisky month, and February is going to have a theme too: American whiskey month. Yes, that’s right, expect a full month’s worth of even more uninformed than usual posts about bourbons, ryes and some experimental American whiskies. (And apologies, yet again, to reader Ol’ Jas to whom I’ve promised a review of Springbank’s Claret Wood for nigh on twenty seven years now—it’s coming in March. For real.)

I’m doing this American whiskey month for two reasons: first to clear out a backlog of samples; and secondly, to try and get a better handle on the broad genre. While I’ve not had a negligible amount of bourbon etc. in my time—and I’ve reviewed more than a handful too—I’ve never really paid American whiskey sustained attention; I mostly drink it as a change-up from my regular diet of single malts. I’m hoping that drinking a number of these in close proximity to each other will better develop my ability to make distinctions between them and to tease out the qualities that come from particular types of mashbills, ages etc. Please feel free to mock me as I go along.

Here’s the long list:

Balcones, True Blue
Breckenridge Bourbon
Charbay 12, LAWS Edition 1
Elijah Craig 18
George Dickel 9 (for Ace Spirits)
George Dickel 14 (for Park Avenue Liquor)
George T. Stagg, 2013 Release
E.H. Taylor, Small Batch, Bottled in Bond
Faultline Bourbon (Smooth Ambler for K&L)
Four Roses Small Batch Ltd. Ed. 2014 Release
High West, A Midwinter Night’s Dram
Maker’s Mark
Old Taylor 6 yo, 1985 Release
Parker’s Heritage 2012, Master Distiller’s Blend of Mashbills
Rittenhouse Rye
Russell’s Reserve 10 yo
Smooth Ambler Old Scout 8 yo (“Doug Dogz”)
Whipnose Whiskey
Whistlepig Boss Hog 12, Spice Dancer
Wild Turkey Old No. 8, 1996 Release
Willett 8 yo, Wheated
Willett 2 yo, Rye
Willett 11 yo, Family Estate (for the Wine and Cheese Place)

There will not be a week of recipes in February and so the odds of my getting to more than half of these are quite good. If you’d like to nominate some for definite reviewing please write in below.