Review: The Arran Malt 15th Anniversary
In the world of Scotch whisky, Arran is a wee babe. The distillery has no ancient heritage to tout to the world. It started from scratch in 1995. To celebrate 15 years in business, Arran is releasing this special-edition whisky, distilled in 1999 (making it not 15 years old, as you might expect, but rather…
Review: 2006 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley
Silver Oak’s 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley was a minor revelation. The 2006 is something different. Much tighter on release, this year’s release is showing much more herbal character, with a distinct lavender bent, atop a moderately tannic core. An hour in the glass and it isn’t really opening up much. I do have a…
Review: Jarritos Mexican Sodas
If you spend as much time in taquerias as I do, you know Jarritos, the colorful sodas that come only in bottles, courtesy of our friends south of the border. Jarritos, like most Mexican sodas, are sweetened with natural sugar. They’re generally lightly carbonated, and they contain no caffeine. Flavors are predominantly a mix of…
Drinkhacker 2010 Wine Cheat Sheet / Vintage Chart
For four years running we’ve provided a little “cheat sheet” about the arcane world of wine vintages, our goal being to give you something you can stick in your wallet or purse and whip out (or check out discreetly) when faced with an overwhelming wine list. As always, here’s how to use the cheat sheet:…
Drinking Bourbon with Four Roses Master Distiller Jim Rutledge
Having reviewed nearly a dozen different expressions of Four Roses bourbon, I’m well familiar with its famed “10 recipes” claims… but I’ve never really stopped to think about what that really means. Why would you need 10 recipes of your whiskey? Jim Rutledge, Master Distiller at Four Roses for 40 years, stopped by San Francisco…
Review: GlenDronach 12, 15, and 18 Years Old (2010)
The GlenDronach distillery in the Scottish Highlands had been dark for years, but the Scotch boom of the 1990s led to it being restarted in 2002 in order to take obvious advantage of the trend. Now part of the Chivas empire, the distillery’s first new-era products are now live, with 12, 15, and 18 Year…
Review: The Black Grouse Blended Scotch
A move is afoot, and if you’ve been reading the whiskey pages here at Drinkhacker over the last few months, you’ve probably got a whiff of it: Wood. Wood is in in a major way. More wood. Stronger wood. Stranger wood. Every whiskeymaker from California to Kyoto seems to be experimenting with extra or unique…
Review: Fuzzy’s Vodka
One of the biggest names in the golf world is expanding his vast empire into spirits. That’s right, we’re talking about Frank Urban “Fuzzy” Zoeller. Admittedly, today’s club kids may not be familiar with Zoeller, a golfer whose heyday was from the late-1970s to mid-1980s. If they do know the name, it may have something…
