Review: 2010 Robert Mondavi Fume Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon
Robert Mondavi is a name, and a winery, that should need no introduction, yet Mondavi has so many sub-labels you can forgiven if you can’t keep them all straight. The “Napa Valley” label is exactly what it sounds like, a mid-range blend made from 100% Napa Valley fruit. Widely available and consistent from year to…
Review: 666 Vodka
666 Vodka has a name to live up to — even invoking “pure evil” on the front of the label. Made in Tasmania, Australia, this vodka is triple pot-distilled from Tasmanian barley, blended with water sourced from the pristine region here called Cape Grim. The finished product is charcoal filtered before bottling. For all its…
Book Review: Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey: An American Heritage
Historian Mike Veach is no stranger to bourbon history. He got his start fresh out of college at Louisville’s Filson Historical Society, archiving the papers of the famous Stitzel-Weller distillery. Over the last few decades, he has dedicated his career to preserving, documenting, and researching the stories of Kentucky’s greatest exports. He’s won numerous awards…
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…
