Tasting the Carmenere Wines of Casa Silva, 2012 Releases
Frequently confused in Chile with Merlot due to its strikingly similar appearance on the vine, Carmenere is actually a classic wine of Bordeaux — where it was once the sixth grape used for this most classic of wines. (Carmenere is still permitted in blends there, but no one, to my knowledge, actually uses it.) Today…
Review: Bai and Bai5 Antioxidant Infusions Beverages
The world of health-focused juice blends is an ever-expanding one, and quality is all over the map. One of the better ones out there is Bai, and we tasted a sampling of juices including both Bai (traditionally sweetened with organic cane juice) and Bai5 (sweetened with low-cal erythritol) products. All Bai products are spiked with…
Review: Vikingfjord Vodka
This vodka hails from Norway where it is distilled from potatoes and made with “pure glacial water” from up there in Scandinavia. Mild nose, much less powerful than you’d expect from a potato spirit, which is typically more of a bruiser in the aroma department. That follows through to the body, which offers quite a…
Book Review: Never Cook Sober Cookbook
I’m the first one to agree with the concept of using alcohol — beer, wine, spirits — in your cooking, but a standalone cookbook devoted to boozing up otherwise average recipes is just a mistake from the start. This slim volume goes for kitsch, with dishes like “Sassy Salmon in Champagne Sauce,” “Vini Vidi Vici…
Review: Vino Innovations Vino Freeze Mix
Do you like wine? Do you like Kool-Aid? Do you like Slurpees? If you said yes to all three, you’re in for a real treat (ahem): Vino Freeze Mix, which gives you the triple threat of ultra-sugary powder plus the buzz of cheap wine in a slushy frozen package. It sounds like a joke but…
Recipe for the Mars Landing: Red Planet Curiosity
Our friends at Campari sent us this cocktail recipe in honor of today’s Mars landing. Enjoy with your beanie on! Red Planet Curiosity 0.75 oz Campari 0.75 oz Skyy Infusions Citrus 0.5 oz Cointreau 0.5 oz Fresh Blood Orange Puree 1 oz Fresh Lemon Sour (2 parts Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice and 1 part Simple…
Central Italian Wine Review: 2009 Fratelli Barba and 2008 Saladini Pilastri
First, a note on Montepulciano, which is both a region (where Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is mode) and a grape. Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is made from (mostly) Sangiovese. Second, a bit of geography. Abruzzo is a region in central Italy, east of Rome. Le Marche is right next door, directly north of Abruzzo. The…
Book Review: Brewed Awakening
Joshua M. Bernstein is a fountain of beer-centric knowledge, and if you found yourself sitting next to him at the bar you’d probably get your ears filled with talk of saisons, cask ales, and Berliner weisses. Brewed Awakening, subtitled Behind the Beers and Brewers Leading the World’s Craft Brewing Revolution, is well-written in an engaging…
