Review: Citadelle Gin (2009) and Citadelle Reserve Gin 2008 Vintage
One occasionally gets in the mood for gin, and when one does, said mood hits hard. Citadelle is a relative newcomer to the scene… with not one but two gins for your drinking pleasure. These gins hail, unusually, from France, and both are 88 proof, distilled from wheat. Up first is standard Citadelle Gin (2009),…
Review: Fighting Cock Bourbon
One approaches a spirit called “Fighting Cock” with tempered expectations. The name does not suggest smoothness or elegance, but rather an old-school saloon bourbon that will probably encourage you to get into a situation in which you end up bleeding before the night is out. Fighting Cock is not as scary as it sounds —…
Review: Springbank 21 Years Old
Dug up this old bottle at a friend’s house last night… one whiff and I knew I’d found something special. Springbank isn’t a big name in Scotch whisky in America, but if its younger (and less expensive) bottlings are anything like this one, it really deserves to be. Located in Campbeltown (on the little peninsula…
Review: McCarthy’s Oregon Single Malt 3 Years Old (2009)
One sip — heck, one sniff — of McCarthy’s whiskey and you’d swear it was fresh off the boat from a foggy distillery on the shores of Islay instead of in Portland, Oregon. The only hint that you’re drinking something different is the pale gold color, a signal of a relatively short time in cask…
Buy Some Wine, Do Something Good
Benefiting The Young School in St. Helena, California… some pretty impressive auction items, including: 2005 3L Harlan Napa Valley Red Wine 1.5L horizontal collection of 2005 Bond (Melbury, Vecina, St. Eden, Pluribus) 1.5L Levy & McClellan 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon 1.5L Sloan Red Wine vertical collection (2003, 2004, 2005) Check out the full catalog at the…
Review: Amarula Marula Fruit Cream Liqueur
“This natural fruit cream is produced from fresh cream and the unique fruit of the marula tree.” That pretty much means nothing to me, but that’s not going to stop anyone from drinking Amarula, a cream liqueur that hails from South Africa. You can functionally replace Irish Cream in any drink with Amarula, but the…
February 22 Is National Margarita Day
Most people don’t need an official pronouncement to drink margaritas, but every little bit helps, I guess. Tomorrow is National Margarita Day (for real), Did you know? In honor, our friends at Tequila Herradura — which claims to have been the first tequila ever used in a margarita cocktail — offers some fun facts for…
Review: Lagavulin Distillers Edition 2008 – Distilled 1992
Check out the Malts.com “Flavour Map” and look in the top right corner. Yep, that’s Lagavulin Distillers Edition, the whisky we’re drinking here, pegged to the limits of “smoky” and “rich.” There’s nothing subtle in Lagavulin’s 16-year-old special bottling (released in 2008), which is finished in Pedro Ximenez casks to finish off the whisky. This…
