Review: Talisker 30 Years Old (2021)
Talisker has quietly dropped a 30 year old release, turned out from refill bourbon casks and bottled in late 2021 at cask strength — a whopping 48.5% abv. Only 3216 bottles were produced, with 498 available in the U.S., so if this sounds enticing, you should probably hop on it. 30 years hasn’t dampened the…
Review: Mocktails Ready-To-Drink Non-Alcoholic Cocktails
Mocktails (the beverage company) hails from the UK and has recently expanded into the U.S. with its offering of non-alcoholic ready-to-drink, well, mocktails. There are no artificial flavors nor high-fructose corn syrup in the drinks (and, of course, no alcohol), and they are certainly not shy about literally and figuratively going the distance to source…
Review: Castle & Key Restoration Rye Single Barrel and Batch 3 (2021)
Early last year, Rob covered the first two Restoration Rye releases out of Castle & Key, one of Kentucky’s newest and most talked about distilleries painstakingly resurrected from an iconic and historic site (for that backstory, see Rob’s review). In 2021, the distillery debuted three new batches of Restoration Rye in limited quantities over the…
Review: Wines of Knotty Vines, 2019 Vintage
Knotty Vines is an unabashed budget brand from Rodney Strong, standing as the third (or maybe fourth) label in its arsenal. We recently tasted a collection of four wines from the brand, the full lineup of its offerings. 2019 Knotty Vines Chardonnay California – Here’s a real surprise to kick things off: This chardonnay has had…
Tasting Kopke Port with Winemaker Carla Tiago
I recently had the chance to sample a range of Kopke Ports with winemaker Carla Tiago on her visit to Boston from Portugal. I was excited to see that she brought some well-aged white ports, which are uncommon in the U.S., as well as Colheita Port, which is single vintage Tawny Port that has been…
Recipe: Brooklynite
The Brooklynite hails from the tiki era during the middle of the 20th century, a golden time in American drinks culture when a bar anywhere could become a vacation spot unto itself, complete with Polynesian music and luau themes. I couldn’t find a specific bartender to credit for its creation, but the recipe can be…
Review: Boulder Spirits Single Malts and Bourbons 5 Years Old (2022)
Boulder Spirits — based, well, see if you can guess — produces a range of whiskeys, including at least eight bottlings primarily running to single malt and bourbon. Its whiskey continues to age in the Colorado climate, and recently Boulder hit a new milestone, with several whiskeys in barrel at 5 years of age. We…
Review: Betty Buzz Non-Alcoholic Sparkling Mixers
The new flavored seltzer, ahem… buzz, about town is Betty Buzz, a new line of sparkling mixers that are also designed to be consumed on their own (and which are brought to you by Blake Lively). These mixers boast “only clean ingredients” as the flavoring agents, are lightly sweetened, and promise nothing artificial. If that’s…
