Review: Clyde May’s Conecuh Ridge Whiskey (2013)
1) Who is Clyde May? An Alabama farmer and WWII veteran who turned to illegal whiskeymaking to supplement his income… and learn a thing or two about craft distilling. In 2002 Clyde’s son Kenny May decided to revive the family business and open a distillery. 2) Where is Conecuh Ridge? Southern Alabama, near the Florida…
Book Review: Beam, Straight Up
The secondary title of Fred Noe’s memoir could serve as ammunition for contentious debate among scholars and devotees of bourbon culture. “The Bold Story Of The First Family of Bourbon” is a hefty declaration when considering the many families of Kentucky whose heritage calls back several generations — some right down to the Commonwealth’s pioneering…
Review: Caliche Rum
This white rum is produced in the traditional Puerto Rican style — aged (at least a year, by law), then filtered back to white before bottling. Caliche is quite old even for a Puerto Rican style white rum, a blend of 3-, 4-, and 5-year old rums, plus a portion of solera-aged rum which has…
Book Review: Drinkology Wine
With the verdicts on the previous editions of the Drinkology series split right down the middle, I was curious which way the words would sway in this third Drinkology treatise, devoted to all things involving the almighty grape. Thankfully, it falls under the same category as its beer sibling: an engaging, educational guide about the wine…
Review: Milano Green Vodka
Italy seems to be a hotbed these days — not for wine, but rather for vodka. Milano Green is made from wheat in the north of Italy and blended with spring water from the Italian alps. Production methods are sustainable, per the company, but the producer does not claim that the product is organic. This…
Tasting the Wines of Sardinia’s Sella & Mosca, 2013 Releases
Sardinia is an island I know little about, so the opportunity to taste the wines of its premier producer, Sella & Mosca, was something I jumped at. Founded in 1899, Sella & Mosca is a big operation that sells 650,000 cases of wine a year, half of it on its home island of Sardinia. This…
Tasting the Liqueurs and C2 Cognac/Liqueur Blends of Merlet (2013)
We covered Merlet’s new Cognac a few weeks ago, but the company is arguably best known for its fruit liqueurs, which we’re finally getting around to covering them. All of them, actually. Thoughts on these high-end liqueurs and two unique Cognac/liqueur blends follow. Merlet Triple Sec – Triple sec is perhaps the toughest liqueur there…
Review: Buffalo Trace Distillery Single Oak Project Bourbon Round Eight
Another quarter, another installment of the Buffalo Trace “Single Oak Project” experiment. This month we look at the eighth round of these unique, single-barrel Bourbons as we help analyze what recipes and formulas make for the very best Bourbon. Previous rounds can be found here: Round One (including all the basics of the approach to…
