Review: Cocaine Energy Drink
You don’t name your beverage “Cocaine” because it’s subtle. Banned in numerous jurisdictions (despite the warning on the label that the product does not in fact include cocaine nor is it intended to be used a substitute for any street drug (“and anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot”)), Cocaine is intended to raise eyebrows…
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…
