Review: Buffalo Trace Distillery Single Oak Project Bourbon Round Two

I won’t try to explain it again: If you missed the explanation of Buffalo Trace’s Single Oak Project the first time, you can catch up on this ambitious program spanning 192 single barrel Bourbons here. In round one, Buffalo Trace offered a dozen unique single barrel recipes for customers to consider. Now it’s back with…

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Recipe: Knob Creek Sour Ginger

In honor of Bourbon Heritage Month (you’re soaking in it, by the way), our pals at Knob Creek sent us this enticing recipe, courtesy of chef Mike Isabella. Sounds like a fun one! Knob Creek Sour Ginger 2 parts Fresh Squeezed Ruby Grapefruit Juice 1¼ parts Knob Creek Bourbon ¾ part Domaine de Canton Ginger…

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Review: 1512 Barbershop Rye

The story behind 1512 is almost more interesting than this, its first product. Salvatore Cimino is a real barber in San Francisco, and his forebears include a series of whiskey bootleggers. So Cimino put the two together, in a way: With a legally produced whiskey named after his discreet Nob Hill barbershop. Cimino spends his…

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Review: Don Q “Pasion” Passion Fruit Rum

Don Q’s latest flavor is the always crowd-pleasing Passion Fruit, an exotic treat that nonetheless has become familiar to U.S. palates. Don Q’s Pasión is bright on the nose with tropical notes, but it’s hard to peg it specifically to passion fruit. On the palate, it’s even trickier, as the rum component comes across a…

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Book Review: Matt Kramer on Wine

I like Matt Kramer and find his writing on wine to be conversational, readable, and generally lots of fun. What I don’t like is books that are anthologies of earlier, already published writing. This is ultra-common for columnists in all walks of life — Roger Ebert surely makes a fortune repackaging movie reviews every year…

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Review: 123 Tequila, Complete Lineup

123 — pronounced, of course, “Uno Dos Tres,” is a new, 100% organic tequila from David Ravandi, a 15-year veteran of the tequila business. I won’t expound on his past successes, but Ravandi knows his stuff, and he does it again with this high-quality series, which I had the fortune to try recently. Using 100%…

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Recipe: Canadian Punch

Being served at my birthday party. From The Punch Bowl, via Jerry Thomas’ Bartenders Guide: How to Mix Drinks (1862). UPDATE: This punch may have flown in 1862, but today it’s too weak and flavorless (the pineapples did nothing). I ultimately doctored it up by cutting the water back to about 1 1/2 quarts, and…

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Review: Armorik Breton Single Malt French Whisky (2011)

Cognac may be the national spirit of France, but doggone it, the Gauls make whisky, too. Single malt whisky, and a pretty good one at that, courtesy of Armorik, a distillery located in Brittany, on the far northwestern tip of the country, wedged between the English Channel to the north and the Bay of Biscay…

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