Tasting the Wines of Authentique with Sommsation, 2023 Releases
Sommsation is a wine shop as well as an experience — an online store which doesn’t just sell you the wines you’re drinking but can also guide you through the tasting process if you’re so inclined. While you can fill up your cart with individual bottles, Sommsation — not “Sommstation,” as I often call it…
The Top 10 Wines for Winter 2024
Are temperatures starting to dip in your neck of the woods? While winter still seems to be a far-away dream, the days of daily heat advisories and rolling blackouts seem to be behind us for another year. So let’s celebrate: With one (or more) of these 10 top bottlings that we’ve hand-selected as perfectly paired with the cooler weather ahead.
Review: Tequila Don Ramon Tamarindo
Tequila Don Ramon makes high-end tequilas so fancy that Pierce Brosnan is a spokesman for them. It also makes this: A 100% agave blanco that is artificially flavored with tamarind flavor. It smells nice enough — sweet, with clear tamarind notes, both spicy and earthy — but the flavor is another animal. Charitably, it is…
Sustainability and Scotch: Old Pulteney Distillery Manager Malcolm Waring
Malcolm Waring has spent years thinking about water. Waring started with Pulteney Distillery in 1990, and after working his way up the production ladder, he became Distiller Manager, a title he’s held for 15 years. As the leader of the team behind Old Pulteney’s core and limited expressions, his responsibilities focus on production capacity and…
Review: Meletti Coffee
The Meletti Family has been producing spirits since the 1870s, and they are one of Europe’s largest makers of Sambuca and Anisette. More recently, their amaro with its grapefruit and honey profile has become one of the darlings of the modern American cocktail scene. Now another Meletti expression has arrived stateside, Meletti Coffee. Coffee liqueurs…
Review: Jack Daniel’s American Single Malt
The famed Tennessee Whiskey company has been on a tear of late, dropping three different ryes in the last three months alone. Now it’s setting its sites on something entirely new: its first permanent edition American single malt — finished in oloroso sherry casks, no less. Ready for the back story? Here’s the details from…
Review: 2021 Yalumba Y Series Viognier
A viognier from Australia’s Barossa Valley, this presents as a slightly subdued expression of the normally powerfully perfumed wine, its apricot notes buried under a shot of cream, white flowers adding a touch of the garden to a finish that rolls into vanilla and elderflower notes. Simple, but at this price, don’t even blink. B+…
Review: Smokehead Tequila Cask Terminado, Sherry Cask Blast, and Rum Cask Rebel
We kicked off our exploration of Smokehead earlier this summer with a look at the flagship offering and its bolder, cask strength sibling. Those bottles are joined in the Smokehead lineup by a trio of unique cask finished expressions (with a fourth, stout-finished offering on the way). Thoughts follow. Smokehead Tequila Cask Terminado – Finished…
