Angels: DENIED
A fascinating piece in the latest Malt Advocate (Q4 2008, page 18) still has me reeling and thunderstruck. It concerns efforts to thwart evaporation of whiskey, a natural part of the aging process. Evaporation is a huge expense for distillers: Conventional wisdom holds that 2 percent of a cask vanishes each year as it evaporates.…
Review: Charter 101 Bourbon
Here’s a new kid on the block from the good whiskey folks at Buffalo Trace: Charter (aka Old Charter) Bourbon, bottled at 101 proof and retro top to bottom in its gold-trmmed, angular-designed bottle. No age statement on the label, which is the norm for a $24 bottle of whiskey. In the glass, it’s very…
Bad Red vs. Bad White?
From the inimitable Kingsley Amis, in the tome Everyday Drinking: Faced with a choice between bad or untrustworthy red wine on the one hand, and ditto white on the other, pick the red. That was true back when Amis wrote those words in the early ’70s (when cheap white wine meant one thing: crudely made…
Review: Samuel Adams Hallertau Imperial Pilsner
The label of Samuel Adams Hallertau Imperial Pilsner reads “An Intense Hop Experience.” Emphasis not added: “Intense” is in italics, bold, and underlined, so you know they’re serious. Sure enough, as the bottle promises, there is an “enormous, almost reckless” amount of Noble Hallertau Mittelfrueh hops in each bottle of the Imperial Pilsner. Whatever complexity…
Tasting Report: WhiskyFest San Francisco 2008
It’s official: WhiskyFest is awesome. Bouncing around the dozens of booths and hundreds of spirits being poured was tons of fun: More intimate than the enormous wine events and studded with wall-to-wall kilts. My final tally: 24 whiskeys tasted (plus a rum and a gin). That’s more than I was expecting to sample, but as…
Review: Skyy Infusions Vodka – Citrus, Raspberry, Grape, and Cherry
Skyy is a big player in the flavored vodka market and is unique for its dedication to only using natural flavors in its concoctions. After raving about its passion fruit version, I tasted four of its classic, more versatile flavors to get a better feel for the line. All are 70 proof. Some thoughts follow.…
Review: Vampyre Vodka and Vampyre Red Vodka
Surely anything called Vampyre Vodka can’t be very good, right? Anything that preys on a pop culture joke like the undead, I mean, can’t be a serious spirit, can it? Vampyre Vodka even comes in a blood red edition — and if you need me to explain the gag to you, you are reading the…
Review: Tequila Don Julio Blanco, Reposado, 1942, and Real (2008)
Having previously expressed my love for Don Julio’s Anejo tequila, I finally got my mitts on the other four bottles in Don Julio’s line. Some additional thoughts on the products from one of the most reliable, high-quality tequila producers in operation. All are 80 proof. Tequila Don Julio Blanco (2008) – A fresh and creamy…
