Review: The Balvenie PortWood 21 Years Old, Rum Cask 14 Years Old, and 40 Years Old (2010)
More new whiskies from Speyside’s The Balvenie are on the way in coming months, and we got a sneak preview of two of them (plus a taste of an old favorite). Thoughts (based on early bottlings) follow. The Balvenie PortWood 21 Years Old (2010) – One of the distillery’s finest expressions, finished with five months of…
Review: Ketel One Oranje Vodka
Take Ketel One‘s standard wheat-based, pot-distilled vodka from Holland and add some orange distillate. You now have Ketel One Oranje, a clear spirit at 80 proof with the Cosmo croud distinctly in mind. Ketel One Oranje is old-school orange-flavored vodka, meaning it’s more bitter than sweet. Oranje is orange peel all the way, and it’s…
Review: Wines of Deep Sea, 2010 Releases
Under its Deep Sea label, Conway Family Wines produces a passel of products. In our sampling, quality was all over the map, with a couple certainly worth a try. 2009 Deep Sea Sea Flower Dry Rose – Strawberries and perfume in this rose of Grenache (68%) and Syrah (38%), though the finish is a bit…
Review: Magners Irish Cider
I’ll admit that I’m not a great connoisseur of cider (hence sticking this in the “beer” category), so take my comments with a grain of salt — or a few apple seeds, perhaps. Basically juice for grown-ups, cider is essentially fermented apple juice. Magners hails from Ireland and weighs in at an average 4.5% alcohol…
Review: Wodka Vodka
Don’t let the rustic label fool you: Wodka is cheap-as-hell vodka. It’s $9 a bottle, that’s how inexpensive it is. And yet Wodka has pedigree. It’s imported from Poland and distilled from rye, which makes it considerably ahead in the game. The stuff is legit. Classically structured, it offers bracing yet pleasant medicinal notes, and…
Review: Voyant Chai Cream Liqueur
Voyant is not your typical Bailey’s knockoff — and there are many — nor is it another off-brand version of Kahlua. It is rather exactly what it claims to be: A liqueur designed to mimic milky chai tea. It is indeed a very credible simulacrum of boozy chai — with cinnamon, cloves, and a milky…
Review: Revel Stoke Spiced Whisky
You got your spiced rum… well now you got your spiced whiskey, too!. From Phillips Distilling in Minnesota comes Revel Stoke, a Canadian Whisky with “spice and other natural flavors” added. Relaunched after years of absence from the shelves (it was originally released in 2000 and was often written as “Revelstoke”), the cult classic (as…
Review: Tequila Espolon – Blanco and Reposado
This tequila brand, from the Jalisco Highlands, has been absent from the U.S. market after several years of exile. Now repackaged in squat bottles with wild, “Dance of the Dead”-inspired imagery depicting Mexican history on the labels, these 100% agave tequilas are being offered in both blanco and reposado expressions. The company also lays claim…
