Review: Beers of Pike Brewing, 2023 Releases
Seattle’s Pike Brewing loves its IPAs. Today we look at three of them, alongside a solid pilsner. While some are seasonal, all offerings are available in cans — and all recently repackaged and rebranded. Pike Brewing Seattle Freeze Cold IPA – The cold IPA trend — IPA fermented at lower temperatures than normal — never…
Review: GlenAllachie Single Casks – Marsala Cask 12 Years Old and Languedoc 9 Years Old
The GlenAllachie continues to periodically add to its single cask collection with distillery exclusive bottlings as well as limited releases selected and bottled just for the states by ImpEx. We received a small sample of a 2021 U.S.-only release and picked up a more recent example on a trip to Scotland last year. Thoughts follow.…
Review: 2019 Scattered Peaks Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
Here’s the softer side of Napa cabernet, a dry but fruity wine from producer Derek Benham. The garnet rim of the wine offers the only hint of lightness before you dive in, where notes of baking spice, milk chocolate, and maraschino cherry quickly emerge before segueing into a light touch of tannin. The finish offers…
Review: Oxley Gin (2023)
We took our first look at Oxley Gin back in 2011 when it was subtitled Classic English Dry Gin. More than a decade later, the overall packaging has been tweaked quite a bit with the most obvious label change being a new focus on Cold Distilled, this gin’s unique method of production, instead of the…
Review: Monita Tequila Blanco
Monita is a new tequila launched by Black entrepreneur Serita Braxton, and it promises a “unique, smooth taste” and a “flavor-filled profile.” It’s 100% agave, but there’s not much additional information available about agave sourcing or pina ages. While the three traditional expressions are available, we received only the blanco for review. Let’s give it…
Review: Smooth Ambler Founders’ Cask Strength Series – Bourbon 2022 and Rye 2021
Smooth Ambler is one of the OG craft distilleries, and like many it started with sourced stock while it got its own in-house production up and running. The company is one of the few that has successfully finished that transition in total, and while it still offers sourced products — they call them “procured whiskeys”…
Review: 2019 Rombauer Merlot Napa Valley
Merlot gets a bad rap — sometimes deserved — but Napa’s Rombauer effectively showcases the best qualities of the style with this 2019 bottling… albeit in a roundabout fashion. Notes of fresh cherries, mint tea, and mixed florals all come to bear on a palate that offers ample complexity, though never much comes across in…
Review: GlenDronach Cask Strength Batch 11
It’s been three years since we saw one of Highlands-based GlenDronach’s Cask Strength bottlings — not to be confused with its Cask Bottlings — with Batch 11 of the lineup now on the market. This release draws on both Pedro Ximénez and oloroso sherry casks and is bottled at full proof — though it carries…
