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Susannah SB

@whattastesgood.bsky.social
843 followers 474 following 465 posts

Tasting and writing about whisky and all things spirituous since 2012. she/her susannahskiverbarton.com

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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 18h
I am middle AGED but I'm pretty sure this will still hit (and also I can share it with my niblings)
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
My first @nytimes.com byline! About English whisky and the backlash it's facing from the King in the North (scotch). Gift link www.nytimes.com/2026/10/02/d...
nytimes.com
English Whisky Gets a Boost from the U.K., and Scots Are Not Amused (Gift Article)
A growing cadre of English distillers have won protected status for their liquor. But Scotch producers fear that they’ll lose prestige.
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rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
there should be no such thing as ‘elite journalists’ incentives are ass backwards that way. a journalist should be a grubby and suspicious little fuck
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Andrew Bohrer @andrewbohrer.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Happy #negroniweek to all those who celebrate
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
New favorite way to get distracted while doing research: the Hansard website, which archives UK Parliamentary debates and has reports going back 200 years (!) hansard.parliament.uk
hansard.parliament.uk
Hansard - UK Parliament
The official report of all Parliamentary debates. Find Members, their contributions, debates, petitions and divisions from published Hansard reports dating bac
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Brian's Malt Musings 🥃 @maltmusings.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Each September I complete a survey, recording the prices of a distillery's 18yo - a standard bottle which you might buy for a special occasion like a birthday. This year's results are in - let's see how things have changed. malt-musings.blogspot.com/2026/09/whis...
malt-musings.blogspot.com
Whisky Prices 2026 - 18yo
A blog about malt whisky
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Drew Starr @thedrewstarr.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
LOL I forgot about that. Just who I want to buy my bourbon from, a British sketch comedy team.
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Looks like Texans will be insulated from the shenanigans after all www.marketwatch.com/story/canadi...
marketwatch.com
Canadian whisky on the rocks? Crown Royal is set to avoid Trump’s new ban.
Canada’s top liquor brand looks on track for a reprieve because it’s bottled in the U.S. for American customers.
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Trump banning Crown Royal is not going to go down the way he thinks it is
Clip from Whisky Magazine reading "Texas could accommodate eight Scotlands or 17 Kentucksy in its 269,000 square miles and still have room for a ranch the size of Rhode Island. And nowhere do people love Canadian whisky more than they do in Texas. Their favourite? By a long shot, it's Crown Royal. Texans drink more Crown Royal than they do Jack Daniel's, Jim Beam, Johnnie Walker or any other whisky of any style or type.
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Seabird @seabirdreader.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
From @whattastesgood.bsky.social at @vinepair.com, it's the newest officially recognized category of American whiskey, but it's not yet flying off American liquor shelves. vinepair.com/articles/dis...
vinepair.com
Two Years After American Single Malt's Ratification, the Category Is Still Finding Its Way
It’s been nearly two years since the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) ratified a standard of identity for American single malt. The milestone was hailed as a victory by distillers across...
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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 02/09/2026
Now on The Fingers Podcast, it's @whattastesgood.bsky.social to discuss how the Trump administration’s damage to America’s “brand” abroad has hurt American whiskey brands here at home.
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
not me avoiding my work by watching videos of my now-1-year-old child back when he was tiny and tractable 😭
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
We heard for years how TTB recognition would boost the fortunes of the fledgling American single malt category. That happened a year and a half ago, so for @vinepair.com I checked in to find out: Did it move the needle? vinepair.com/articles/dis...
vinepair.com
Two Years After American Single Malt's Ratification, the Category Is Still Findings Its Way
It’s been nearly two years since the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) ratified a standard of identity for American single malt. The milestone was hailed as a victory by distillers across...
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Whiskey executives make for a different kind of interview than distillers and blenders, but when they're as long-serving and articulate as Max Shapira, they're no less fascinating. My latest for Unicorn: www.unicornauctions.com/unicorn-revi...
unicornauctions.com
Heaven Hill Chairman Max Shapira on Pre-Fire Whiskey, Not Chasing Trends, and More Than 50 Years in the Bourbon Business
The leader of America’s largest family-owned bourbon business talks trends, acquisition, and whether there will ever be a whiskey named after him.
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Aer Lingus sponsors a college football tournament in Dublin. Why? Who knows. What's salient here is that there's a bottle of Teeling with the UNC logo and I need to obtain it. teelingdistillery.com/product/teel...
teelingdistillery.com
Teeling Whiskey Aer Lingus College Football Batch 2026
Grab Your Game Day Spirit with our Teeling Whiskey Aer Lingus College Football Classic Bottle! Available at Teeling Whiskey Distillery online and in store!
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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 20/08/2026
nuke from orbit www.adweek.com/media/arena-...
On Monday, the publicly traded media company The Arena Group, which owns a stable of editorial brands including Parade, Men’s Journal, and The Street, made a series of startling announcements in conjunction with its second-quarter earnings.

First, the company declared that it was rebranding to Paradium.AI, a nod to both its marquee editorial brand, Parade, as well as its intent to stylize itself as an artificial intelligence firm. It also announced that it had refinanced its debt obligations, acquired the AI-content generator InfoSentience, and launched Cutter Studios, a proprietary AI-assisted video and article generation platform.

Taken together, the news is striking. To start, reframing a constellation of digital brands as an AI company will likely rank, alongside Allbirds’ AI rebrand in March and Long Island Iced Tea Corp. ‘s 2017 pivot to blockchain, as one of the more implausible corporate reinventions in recent history.
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Commentary from moi
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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 12/08/2026
Featuring the brilliant @whattastesgood.bsky.social:
Notwithstanding the press release full of paeans to legacy and quality from Stetson and BBC execs, all this “earned media” (which poured forth after a recent media dinner at the high-end Keens Steakhouse in Manhattan, naturally) is the point of Stetson’s foray into bourbon. “They're piggybacking on the cultural cachet of whiskey or aiming to drum up engagement or maybe just intended for a special event,” longtime spirits journalist Susannah Skiver Barton told me via email. Much like Arby’s curly-fry vodka and other Facebook-brained alco-llaborations of yore, this crossover is likely produced at “limited volume that's intended to sell out,” she added. The primary target here is still eyeballs, not throats.
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Tag yourself I’m this guy
Purple BuzzBallz that has been rendered into AI slop
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
When I'm listening to an interview recording and realize that those baby screams in the background were also audible to my subject 🫠
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
In case you’re wondering the original music video still slaps
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
A celebrity booze collaboration I did not see coming www.thespiritsbusiness.com/2026/07/beef...
thespiritsbusiness.com
Beefeater taps Jamiroquai for 0.0% campaign - The Spirits Business
Gin brand Beefeater has teamed up with Jamiroquai to reimagine the British band's Virtual Insanity video with its non-alcoholic expression.
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
New from me: an interview with Drew Kulsveen of Willett, who dgaf what the haters say about Pot Still (and who is importing something very surprising that is definitely not like bourbon) www.unicornauctions.com/unicorn-revi...
unicornauctions.com
Master Distiller Drew Kulsveen Is Planning a Long Future for Willett
We spoke to the master distiller for Kentucky’s biggest “it” bourbon about legendary bottles, growth during an industry downturn, and how hospitality ...
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Important piece by Jason Wilson and Caroline Lamb about the Sysco-ification of wine and how the three-tier distribution system not only incentivizes crappy wine lists but also makes fools of so many people who "drink what they like." www.everydaydrinking.com/p/the-sysco-...
everydaydrinking.com
The Sysco-ification of Wine
How wine culture's lazy "drink what you like" ethos has failed, and why it's time to break out the pitchforks.
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 01/07/2026
#OtD 1 Jul 1919 prohibition of alcoholic drinks in the US was due to come into force. Workers in New York and New Jersey voted to strike if the law was enforced, wearing "No beer no work" pins. We've reproduced the graphics to help fund our work: shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/...
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Samuel Pepys @samuelpepys.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Upon this discourse, Sir J. Mennes and Mr. Batten both say that buggery is now almost grown as common among our gallants as in Italy, and that the very pages of the town begin to complain of their masters for it.
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Rich Delorme @richardelm.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
I think it's a photo studio or a prop spot for vacation photos that reflects the time period. Saying the quiet part out loud.
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David Wondrich @davidwondrich.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
A dude drink was anything fancier that what the bar knew how to make or what its patrons customarily drank. It could be anything from a Ramos Gin Fizz to a Manhattan, or even a Scotch and Soda. It was priced like that to punish you for ordering it.
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Need to know what a Dude Drink was and why it was so expensive. A joke menu item maybe? @davidwondrich.bsky.social any intel?
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Co-sign
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
European and UK friends, in case you haven’t seen this advice already—a bowl of ice in front of a fan is a pretty good a/c dupe in a small space, at least for as long as the ice lasts.
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
In other news, got pitched on a distillery I profiled last fall for @thefoodsection.bsky.social. I don't expect publicists to know everything I've ever written but I do think they should be on top of the existing, recent coverage of their client, either by asking the client or just, y'know, googling
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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 23/06/2026
Everybody listen to @whattastesgood.bsky.social, who knows ball (wherein "ball" = "the bourbon beat," which she's been owning for years!)
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Four Roses hasn't done barrel finishing because it doesn't need to. Finishes are a way to diversify the flavors of your whiskey, by layering different flavors on top after maturation. Four Roses famously makes ten different recipes and can create new flavors simply by varying the combinations.
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Fresh off Gallo's acquisition closing, Four Roses—a brand that has never, I think, flirted with barrel finishing—is releasing a mizunara finish. I fear where this is going.
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
I have more subscriptions than time to read but I literally do not miss an issue of Fingers. @dinfontay.com does the reporting (and quipping) I wish I could. He pulls no punches and calls out all the bullshit. I’m proud to pay full freight but damn this is a good discount for new subscribers
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Canned vodka water, can we not?
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Note the distinction between creepy Billy and cousin fucker Billy
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
This is one of my favorite questions to ask people I don’t know but have to talk to (eg fellow dinner party guests). For me it’s India, Mexico, and Japan in that order, but I’m very willing to have my mind changed through experience
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
This is why I spend so much time on the nose portion of whiskey tasting. It gives me so much more information than the palate and finish!
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Been on hiatus due to moving (an event considered as stressful as having a child, and since I've done both multiple times, I can confirm) so here comes a slew of links to recent articles, for anyone who's interested!
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
LIES
Still from the tv show Bodkin saying “Whiskey’s a thing. It’s not a hobby.”
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
I was always this intense, exhibit A.
Child’s diary entry reading “Dec 26 1993 I broke my Walkman. OH NO! I’m in deep trouble. I’m going to kill myself. Love, Susannah”
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
The assignment: Find out if and when the whiskey glut will result in lower shelf prices. The result: My latest article for @vinepair.com. If you buy or sell whiskey, you're going to want to read this. vinepair.com/articles/wha...
vinepair.com
The Whiskey Glut Won't Lower Prices, but It Will Mean Older, Better Bottles
Whiskey has an oversupply problem. In both bourbon and Scotch, stocks are way up, consumption is flat to down, and many producers are responding by slowing or pausing production, temporarily closing d...
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Fuck these guys
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Someone tell me why the ABC store won't let me take empty boxes off their hands. Couldn't give me a reason when I asked, just said no!
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Glutwatch right-sizing continues: Balvenie is offering DoubleWood 12 in a Father's Day gift pack w coasters and a Caribbean Cask mini for $60. That's about 20% under the avg U.S. price for DoubleWood alone.
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Coming out of social media hibernation to drop a link to my latest for @vinepair.com, which I pitched as "Bourbon's Worst Case Scenario." An unlikely, but not impossible, one. vinepair.com/articles/int...
vinepair.com
What Will a Global Trade Meltdown Mean For Bourbon’s Protected Status?
No matter where you are in the world, if you ask for bourbon, you’re going to get a whiskey produced in the United States under specific rules. Bourbon is guaranteed to be bourbon, made only in Americ...
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Susannah SB @whattastesgood.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
The more things change etc
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