Review: Knappogue Castle 1993
Amazing aromas of fresh banana and bubble gum punctuate this vintage single malt Irish whiskey (a rarity from Ireland), its malt playing against the fruit like you’d get in a malted milk ice cream sundae. Chocolate is surprisingly strong as well, coming up to tease you after the initial spicy fruit notes fade away. And…
Review: 2006 Dos Cabezas WineWorks Red
Dos Cabezas stands as the only wine brand I’ve consumed to hail from the great state of Arizona. No, really: They grow grapes and bottle wine in every state in the U.S., so why not sweltering Arizona, too? Dos Cabezas is based in Sonoita, a mountainous region (nearly a mile high, where it gets awfully…
Review: Four Compass Box Whiskies – Peat Monster, Peat Monster Reserve, Oak Cross, and Hedonism Maximus
Happy St. Andrew’s Day! Here’s a little Scotch coverage to honor the occasion. Many critics and distilleries use the phrase “peat monster” to describe their heavily-peated malts. Compass Box, which hails from the Islay area, actually gave the term to a couple of its products. Here’s how the two real Peat Monsters, plus two more…
Happy St. Andrew’s Day
St. Patrick gets all the press, but Scotland has its own patron saint: Saint Andrew (who else?), and he has his own day of celebration, too: November 30. Pick up a glass of your finest single malt and raise it toward our neighbors across the pond. Even if you aren’t Scottish, good old Andrew is…
Review: La Clandestine Absinthe
Part of the rare but growing segment of “blanche” (aka “la Bleue”) absinthe, La Clandestine is a Swiss absinthe with a recipe that dates back to 1935. The main difference: Blanches are clear, without the traditional yellow/green tint that has earned absinthe its noteriety and its famed “green fairy.” (The reasoning dates back to absinthe’s…
Review: Nouvelle Orleans Absinthe
The folks that make the widely available Lucid are expanding their line of absinthes with two new bottlings. At the top of the line is Nouvelle Orleans,a 136-proof traditional absinthe with a yellow-green color straight from the bottle. Fragrant but not overpowering, uncut Nouvelle Orleans offers light, sweetish notes but is far too blazingly alcoholic…
Drinkhacker’s 2008 Holiday Gift Guide – Best Alcohol/Spirits for Christmas
What better gift is there than a bottle of booze? Not only will your giftee think you’re incredibly sophisticated, chances are he’ll let you drink a good amount of it before he realizes his terrible mistake. What’s the best booze to put under the tree this Christmas season? Of course you want to offer something…
Review: Inniskillin Ice Wines, 2008 Releases
Rarely have dessert wines vanished from Drinkhacker HQ so quickly as Inniskillin’s Ice Wines (or Icewines). Traditionally made icewine from Canada, these low-alcohol, high-sugar, high-addiction-level wines vanished in days. Icewine is a very sweet and flavorful wine made from grapes that are left on the vine until winter’s frost arrives, freezing the grapes only after…
