Whiskey Man Releases his Magnum Opus

F. Paul Pacult blind-tastes exactly six spirits almost every morning, spending more than two hours with them. If you’re wondering why it took him 13 years to do a new edition of his spirits guide, that’s why.

The New Kindred Spirits, Pacult’s third book of more than 2000 product reviews, is out now and, as he is 72 years old, it’s likely to be his last. It’s a large tome; even in paperback, the book weighs 30.5 ounces (0.86 kg), a reader helpfully informed Pacult, who wondered if he should be charging for his reviews by the pound, “like ground beef”.

Pacult said that he re-reviewed every single product, with no holdovers from the 2008 edition.

“One of the things I’ve noticed is that products sometimes change,” Pacult told Wine-Searcher. “I think the biggest incidences of a category changing that I have found has been blended Scotch. The Scots are extremely smart. They are good marketers and they pay attention to who’s drinking their product.”

Pacult says he believes Scotch makers have increased the ratio of single malt to grain whisky in their blended Scotches in order to get more complexity. Blended Scotches are a bit of a crusade for him.

“It kind of burns me up, if I’m talking to a consumer audience about Scotch whisky, invariably a guy will get up – it’s always a man – and say: ‘You can’t tell me blended Scotch is as good as single malts’,” Pacult said. “Making a blended Scotch is far more difficult than making a single malt. There are far more moving parts. If you really pay attention to what blends are like, they’re remarkable. Chivas Regal 18 is probably the greatest blended Scotch ever made. I would put the old Johnnie Walker gold label up against any single malt. As soon as you say ‘blended with anything’, it takes [perceived] quality several notches down. But look at Cognac. The greatest Cognacs are all blends.”

Pacult doesn’t actually drink much himself; he said his favorite drink is club soda.

“I get to taste the finest spirits in the world,” Pacult said. “I don’t feel like I’m missing out.” He does enjoy a whisky sour once a week, and sometimes has a beer.

His reviews are very thorough. Here is the review for Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7, which he does not recommend: “Fulvous color; excellent clarity. First nosing passes don’t pick up much as the opening aroma is a bit muted, except for a feathery hint of corn bread; additional aeration assists in bolstering the aroma through more animated scents of sawdust, lumberyard, pine nuts, and unsweetened cornflakes – just not a lot happening here in terms of aromatic definition. Entry is sap-like, gently corn syrup-like, mildly spicy, and altogether pleasant if basic; midpalate shows more character as the taste profile turns honey-like, dried fruit-like (peas, apricot, black raisins), and lightly toasted. In all, a decent whiskey quaff that is well made but just a bit too lightweight and lacking in aromatics to be recommended.”

Whiskey is a huge focus of the book, with about 250 of its 630 pages devoted to whiskey reviews. There are just under 100 pages of reviews of brandies. There are also big sections on rum, agave spirits, vodka and gin. Pacult admits in the book that he is not a liqueur fan but there are reviews of those too.

Pacult got his start writing about spirits for the New York Times Sunday magazine in the 1980s. He was writing about wine at the time, and says nobody was writing about spirits so he saw an opportunity. He wrote about spirits for a number of publications and, for 28 years, ending in 2019, he wrote a subscription-only spirits review newsletter. He is a master blender for the American whiskey Jacob’s Pardon and he consults for spirits companies on some of their whiskeys, but he says he never reviews any products he has consulted on.

I asked him about several trends in the 13 years since his last book. He thinks high-end Bourbon prices have gotten ridiculous because “a small coterie of collectors and fanatics are interested in bragging rights. All of that trickle down hurts everybody. I’m so resentful of stuff like that because it’s false. Paying four figures for these Bourbons – none of those bottles are worth that.  Which is why I like to keep saying, if you can’t afford these prices, look at Old Grand-Dad 114, $22 a bottle for one of the best whiskies out there.”

Pacult says he has always loved Irish whiskeys and is excited about the growth of the artisan whiskey industry there.

“Across the board, just terrific quality,” Pacult said. “They’re guided by Irish whiskey regulations, and that makes a difference. Some of the new guys, Lambay and Knappogue Castle, are really coming on strong. Because they don’t have enough inventory, they have to build inventory to fulfill demand. In the late 19th Century, Irish whiskey was considered the gold standard of whiskey throughout the world. Unfortunately then a whole series of events happened: the Irish civil war, World War I, then the largest market for Irish whiskey shits on their parade by having Prohibition. All of those things combined to absolutely decimate the Irish whiskey distilling industry. For a long time there were only three functioning distilleries in Ireland. Today they’re pushing 40, with 15 more on the books.”

Though he is a rum fan, he says the lack of international standards make it a difficult spirit to buy.

“Rum is the wild west. The highs are very high. The lows are some of the worst spirits I’ve ever tasted,” Pacult said. “I tell people to zero in on particular countries. See what Jamaica is doing. Or Barbados. If you look at those particular rums from those places, you have a much better chance of being pleased.”

I asked Pacult for a whisky recommendation, because that’s what one always does with the author of a 630-page book with more than 2000 reviews: give it to me in a tweet. I told him the last two bottles of whiskey that I bought and enjoyed, and he ended up recommending Kilchoman Scotch, Evan Williams Vintage Bourbon, NIkka Coffey Grain Whisky, Glenrothes 12-year-old and Glenlivet 12-year-old. I could tell you the praise he gave to each of them, but then there would be no point in reading the book.

New Kindred Spirits by F. Paul Pacult is available now.