Review: Westland Outpost Range – Colere 3 (2023)
Seattle’s Westland has dropped a series of new whiskeys over the last few years, focusing on local woods, peat, and barley strains. Colere is the single malt that explores an ever-changing series of barley varieties “bred outside the commodity system.” We somehow missed Colore 2 last year but are working overtime to see what the…
Review: McCarthy’s Oregon Single Malt Whiskey PX Cask Finished and Oloroso Cask Finished
McCarthy’s Oregon Single Malt, famously the first American single malt ever produced, was bottled at just three-years-old for decades. Recently, however, the distillery appears to have started leaning hard into older stocks, releasing a six-year-old expression last year and then following that up this year with two higher proof, limited edition finished expressions, a first…
Review: Mount Gay Single Estate Series 23_01
Mount Gay has been dropping its luxe Master Blender releases at a steady clip for years now, but this fall the Barbados-based rum operation is doing something new: Launching a new annual release called the Single Estate Series, a first of its kind rum that will feature sugar cane farmed by Mount Gay itself. In…
Review: Drinkmate Instafizz
On-demand carbonated drinks… for one? While at-home carbonation machines have been around for years, Drinkmate’s latest product, Instafizz, is the first I’ve seen that carbonates on a single-serving basis, right in the container you drink it from. The device looks largely like a typical aluminum water bottle, albeit with a larger than normal lid and…
Review: Jefferson’s Tropics Aged in Humidity Bourbon
Tired yet of the gimmicks from Jefferson’s? Me neither. Because the brand continues to pump out quality bourbons, I’ve been able to forgive the not infrequent “motion of the ocean” marketing backstory, but the tall tales behind this latest release may be a bit more challenging to ignore. Read for yourself: Jefferson’s is constantly experimenting…
Review: Frey Ranch Farm Strength Uncut Bourbon
Nevada-based Frey Ranch has been on a tear with new releases of both bourbon and rye, including limited edition single barrel offerings of both. This new expression is an overproof but permanent addition to the Frey Ranch lineup, a cask strength (62.15% abv) version of its classic bourbon (45% abv), which it refers to as…
Review: Crystal Head Onyx and Bone Bottle Vodkas
Crystal Head Vodka got its start as a wacky Dan Aykroyd-designed vodka that was packaged in a see-through skull. Since those early days some 15 years ago, the brand has surprised everyone by continuing to succeed through the sheer power of its novelty. Different skulls with different vodka distillates have followed, including everything from Pride-themed…
Review: Rossville Union Straight Rye 6 Years Old
You know Ross and Squibb even though the name may not quite ring a bell. It’s the new name for MGP which followed after the merger with Luxco. Ross and Squibb remains a workhorse contract distiller for a lot of names that ring lots of bells. They recently launched Rossville Union as one of their…
