It is GOOD to hear from you again.

Just so you understand, I am a true Western Conservative with a capital “C” with both the political and economic viewpoints to match. And, like any good western conservative, I pride myself in telling things as I see them. That is why in the review, I did not allow my concerns about brand messaging to blind me to the fact that (inside the bottle) the Writer’s Tears is a truly great whiskey. (I said so in the review.)

But, my reviews have always been about more than the whisky (or the rum) inside the bottle. From the beginning I have made my thought on packaging known and allowed those thoughts to impact my scores. Packaging is important, and so is the message a product is projecting. In this case, I found the message troublesome, and it tainted my enjoyment of what was otherwise a great whisky. For me not to mention and quantify this fact would be dishonest, and certainly would not be consistent with the conservative ideal of “telling things as I see them”.

Cheers Russ, your comments are always welcome here!