Review: New Holland Hatter Royale Hopquila
Tequila for rabbits? No. New Holland, based not in Holland the country but rather Holland the city in Michigan, takes a double-distilled mash of 100% malted barley, then steeps Centennial hops in it. It’s not aged, but it comes out a Chardonnay-yellow from the hops Hopquila, then, is not a funky tequila but rather a…
Review: Kavalan Single Malt Whisky (2011)
Believe it or not, this is our second Taiwanese whisky review on Drinkhacker (read about Golden Pure Malt here), but I dare to say you have a better shot of actually finding Kavalan on sale somewhere (especially if you shop duty-free). A single malt whisky distilled by an outfit called the King Car Distillery and…
Review: Metaxa Greek Spirit 5 Stars and 7 Stars
And you may ask yourself: What exactly is Metaxa anyway? A staple of every liquor store in the country, it sits there untouched in its odd-shaped bottle. The stalwart shopper who picks it up finds only that it hails from Greece before setting it back down. The only hint on the bottle: “Greek Specialty Liqueur.”…
Book Review: The Quotable Drunkard
For some reason, I get a kick out of reading quotations, and I expect I’m not alone, explaining why so many books of quotes are on the market. Steven Kates turns to a natural topic – the bottle – for this themed book of musings, and for the most part it’s a solid one. Split…
Review: Simply Naked Wines, 2010 Vintage
Wine and wood go hand in hand, but Simply Naked’s experiment takes the oak out of the equation. All of these wines are fermented and aged in stainless steel. For some of these wines, like Pinot Grigio, that’s normal. Chardonnay: OK. But Merlot and Cabernet? Interesting experiments. Here’s how the wines — all budget bottlings…
Review: Bloom Gin
Bloom is a real enigma: Born from the distiller of one of the world’s first London Dry gins — parent company Greenall’s celebrates its 250th anniversary this year and is the producer of Bombay and Bombay Sapphire for Bacardi — Bloom is a brand new gin with a modern twist. It is designed for women,…
Review: Spring44 Vodka, Honey Vodka, and Gin
Spring44 (aka Spring 44) is a new line of vodka and gin out of Colorado. All are distilled five times from a multi-grain blend of wheat, rye, and corn (much like whiskey), filtered through a coconut husk filtration system, and blended with water from a 9,000-foot-high source. We checked out all three of the distillery’s…
Book Review: Exploring Wine
Every wine drinker needs one (and only one) book like this: A magnificent, encyclopedia-sized tome that tells you everything you can possibly want to know about wine in a single book. Or tries to, anyway. As such a subject is basically unmasterable, the goal with a mega-book like this is to be as comprehensive as…
