Review: 2021 Sebastiani Pinot Grigio and Rose
I always associate Sebastiani with hearty reds, but here’s proof that you can find summery whites in its lineup too. Digging in to two fresher, paler offerings: 2021 Sebastiani Pinot Grigio Russian River Valley – A classic blend of peach and apple notes, melded with aromatic florals and a bracing minerality. Pinot grigio always brings…
Review: Hell House American Whiskey
In Clay County, Florida, along the swampy banks of the St. John River, exists a little bitty city known as Green Cove Springs, population 9,784. During the late ’60s, the members of Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, unable to practice in their hometown of Jacksonville, Florida due to noise complaints, would drive 20 miles down…
Review: Parker’s Heritage Collection Cask Strength Rye 10 Years Old (2023)
We’re 17 years in on one of the most unicorny of whiskey unicorns, the Parker’s Heritage Collection. For 2023, you’re getting a 10 year old rye at cask strength, a vatting of distillate barreled in August, October, and December 2012, made from a mash of 51% rye, 35% corn, and 14% malted barley. Like the…
Review: 2019 DeLille Cellars Four Flags Cabernet Sauvignon
DeLille Cellars primarily produces Bordeaux style blends, but today we are trying one of their 100% cabernet sauvignon wines, and it’s an exciting one. The grapes for Four Flags Cabernet Sauvignon are drawn from four vineyards in the Red Mountains region in southeastern Washington state. If you haven’t heard of the Red Mountains wine region…
Review: Bruichladdich Bere Barley 2013, Black Art 11.1, Port Charlotte PMC:01, and Octomore 14
Another fall is upon us, and that means Islay’s Bruichladdich is pushing out its biggest releases of the year. Normally we’d see these trickle out in bits and bobs, but for 2023, the distillery dropped a bomb on us all at once, with Bere Barley, Black Art, a new Port Charlotte, and the three Octomore…
Review: Westward Two Malts Rye (2023)
Last fall we sampled our first special release from Westward’s Whiskey Club, an elaborate single malt that showcased a variety of elements unique to the distillery’s home in the Pacific Northwest. For its second club release of 2023, Westward continues to focus on provenance with the re-release if its Two Malts Rye, part of the…
Review: Crown Royal Golden Apple 23 Years Old
Is the world ready to try a high-end, 23-year-old flavored whiskey? One brand is banking on the answer being “yes,” and thus Crown Royal Golden Apple was born. As the newest entry in Crown Royal’s Master Series, Golden Apple is a blend of Canadian whiskies aged for 23 long years that is flavored with golden…
Review: St. George Botanivore Gin
Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to interview St. George Master Distiller, Lance Winters. I learned that whiskey got him into distilling back in the 1990s, but gin has since become a real passion, as much as any other spirit in his distillery’s wide-ranging portfolio. St. George offers not one, not two, but a…
