Review: Firestone Walker Parabola 2022
Parabola, the flagship in Firestone Walker’s Proprietor’s Vintage Series, is changing things up once again for 2022. While last year’s release saw aging, for the first time ever, in a mix of bourbon, rye, and wheat whiskey barrels, the latest edition is a much simpler, all ex-bourbon-aged creation with one catch; the barrels used were…
Review: Nine Banded Bourbon, Wheated Bourbon, and Wheated Bourbon Cask Strength
Nine Banded hit the scene in 2019 with a blended whiskey, made from Kentucky stock and mixed up in Austin, Texas. Now we’re back with three new releases from the brand. They’re all made from Indiana-based MGP stock now, but again they’re all proofed with local, limestone-heavy water (which may explain one commenter’s note about…
Review: Flora Springs 2020 Soliloquy and 2019 Trilogy
Flora Springs’s first wines for 2022 have arrived — two of its most iconic bottlings. Let’s dig in. 2020 Flora Springs Soliloquy Napa Valley – A blend of sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, and malvasia. Tart and acidic, with notes of green herbs and ample sauvignon blanc-driven ammonia notes really driving the experience. Fruit is in full…
Review: Kinsey Straight Wheat Whiskey and Chardonnay Cask Whiskey
New Liberty Distillery in Philadelphia, which launched in 2014, bottles a variety of spirits under numerous brand names, but arguably it is best known for the Kinsey brand of whiskey, which comprises bourbon, rye, and a few more limited-release oddities, like the whiskeys we’re tucking into today. Let’s give them a try. Bottles are individually numbered.…
Review: Innis & Gunn Irish Whiskey Cask Scottish Oatmeal Stout
The last time we took a look at Scottish brewers Innis & Gunn, they had just collaborated across the pond with Tullamore Dew to age their stout in the distillery’s Irish whiskey casks. While that bottling, dubbed Kindred Spirits, was a rare partnership with a particular distillery, it wasn’t the first time Innis & Gunn had…
Review: Limavady Single Malt Irish Whiskey
Limavady is a new whiskey brand from Northern Ireland — 60 miles north of Belfast — where it makes a single product: A single barrel, single malt whiskey that is triple distilled from Irish barley, then finished in ex-bourbon and PX sherry casks — that lattermost bit a particularly unusual move for Ireland. Bottles are…
Book Review: The Official Guinness Cookbook
According to the introduction to The Official Guinness Cookbook the iconic stout has been around for over 250 years, and chances are folks have been cooking with Guinness for nearly just as long. There’s validity to the notion it should not have taken this long for the brewery to furnish an official cookbook: a quick…
Review: Finlandia Botanical Vodkas – Cucumber & Mint and Wildberry & Rose
We haven’t written anything about Finlandia since it launched its Fusion flavored line — over a decade ago. Now, like every vodka maker under the sun, it’s back with a new approach to flavored vodka, offering two infused vodkas that contain no artificial flavors, sweeteners, or sugars. These don’t claim to be “all natural” infusions…
