Review: Faretti Biscotti Famosi Liqueur
You can take the Italians away from their amaro but you just can’t get the amaro out of the Italians. Faretti is one of those crazy niche ideas: a liqueur intended to taste like biscotti cookies. But stick your nose in a freshly-poured glass of the stuff and you’ll swear up and down you’re getting…
Review: Blackwell Jamaican Rum
Chris Blackwell made music (he founded Island Records in 1959 and exposed the world to reggae). Now he makes rum. Dark, dark rum, hailing from Jamaica. Distilled at Appleton Estate, this is rum the color of cola, deep and dark. (Aging isn’t disclosed.) On the nose there’s that telltale scent of molasses, fresh and sugary,…
Review: 2009 Pine Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
Another new release from our friends at Pine Ridge, the 2009 release of the winery’s flagship Cabernet. This expression is a very jammy, fruit-forward wine, in keeping with the house style and along the lines of 2008 release. Big blueberry notes like this are a touch out of place in a Napa Cab, but the…
Review: 2007 Chateau La Nerthe Chateauneuf-du-Pape
Certified organic in 1998, the 90 hectares of Chateau La Nerthe are part of the Chateauneuf-du-Pape region’s oldest estates. This 2007 vintage is composed of 48% Grenache, 29% Syrah, 22% Mourvedre, and 1% Cinsault. Deep and rich currant aromas on the nose hint at a really big wine, but it’s surprisingly lively on the tongue,…
Review: Marquis de Montesquiou Armagnac VSOP and XO Imperial
Montesquiou… man, that is a lot of vowels. It is also the producer of a lot of Armagnacs. Formerly part of the Pernod family, it’s now being imported by ImpEx, repackaged, and expanding into broader U.S. distribution. We tasted both the VSOP and XO bottlings. Both are 80 proof and made from eaux de vie…
Review: 2009 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon Calistoga
Chateau Montelena is a winery that probably needs no introduction to most wine drinkers, but in case you’re a newb, it’s the winery made the Chardonnay that beat out all of Burgundy in the famed Paris Tasting of 1976. Today, Montelena is probably better known for its Cabernet Sauvignon, and we recently snagged the 2009…
Tasting Report: Wines of the Santa Rita Hills 2012
Santa Rita Hills, located in Santa Barbara County and immortalized by the movie Sideways, is perhaps the preeminent location for Pinot Noir production in all of California. Tasting 30 or so of these Pinots together is tough work: I could drink almost any of them with dinner, and grading them competitively almost feels unfair. That…
Book Review: Champagne Cocktails
I’m on record as saying that sparkling wine is perhaps the most underused cocktail ingredient around (the other: Damiana Liqueur), so I was really pleased to get A.J. Rathbun’s book, Champagne Cocktails: 50 Cork-Popping Concoctions and Scintillating Sparklers. It’s a slim, hardbound tome, with just 50 recipes included, spanning both classic and original cocktails, and…
