Drinking and Dining with Tandem Wines’ Greg La Follette
Greg La Follette has a long history in winemaking (De Loach and Flowers are two labels you might recognize that he’s worked on) — on a global scale — and a passion for both his family (six kids, “Brady Bunch” style, as he puts it) and his leather pants. But get La Follette talking about…
World’s [not quite] Most Expensive Whisky Sells for $19,741
That’s what a bottle of 50-year-old Macallan Anniversary Edition cost one buyer today, after successfully winning a Glasgow auction for the ultra-rare bottle. Macallan Anniversary was bottled in 1978 and is a blend of three casks distilled in the late 1920s. Sounds delish! As one commenter notes below, this is hardly the most expensive whiskey…
Review: Zaya Gran Reserva Rum
For a rum that bills itself as “the world’s finest sipping rum,” Zaya is awfully easy to come by. They even sell it at my local Safeway, for a little over $20, which is less than most widely-available aged rums. Yet, with 12 years of age, Zaya’s one of the oldest and darkest aged rums…
Is It OK To Keep Champagne in the Refrigerator?
Recently a reader left a comment regarding something I said in my review of Nicolas Feuillatte’s Palmes d’Or Champagne that gave me pause. I said I’d left the bottle in the fridge for some months, and the commenter claimed that the “vibrations of a commercial fridge” would essentially kill the bottle. That was news to…
Tasting Report: Patz & Hall Wines, 2009 Releases
A few miles south of Napa, located in a nondescript corporate office park, you’ll find Patz & Hall‘s tasting salon. And yes, it’s open to the public and no, you don’t need an appointment. (Though, if you have one, you’ll get even more personalized service.) We had a fun 45 minutes (at least) talking wine…
Review: Brinley Gold Flavored Rums
Operating out of St. Kitts in the Virgin Islands [er, apparently not], Brinley Gold offers a lineup of five rums, all flavored with natural ingredients and all bottled at 72 proof. The focus at Brinley is clearly more on the flavor than on the rum — all of these spirits are designed for mixing (sometimes…
Review: Powers Gold Label Irish Whiskey (2009)
Now appearing with a new (and really, only modestly different) label design (pictured above), today we turn our attentions to Powers Gold Label Irish Whiskey, a surprisingly big brand in the Irish business that is a standard in Ireland but less commonly known stateside. Very traditional, this light-bodied whiskey (the recipe inside is the same…
Review: Jose Cuervo 250 Aniversario Tequila
Folks, I had to work my way up to writing this one. It’s not every day you get to try a tequila with such a pedigree… and I hope you’ll get the chance to sample it eventually for yourself. But first, some history: Jose Cuervo is the world’s oldest maker of tequila, with 10 generations…
