Review: 2019 Aperture Cellars Sonoma County Red Blend
Aperture is an ever-changing red blend from Sonoma County, and while this 2019 is a markedly different blend from 2018 — this year 40% malbec, 32% merlot, 14% cabernet sauvignon, 10% cabernet franc, and 4% petit verdot — it remains a stellar bottling. Bold currant and blackberry notes evoke the cabernet in the mix, with…
Book Review: Cheese, Beer, Wine, Cider
A more straightforward book title you won’t easily find: Cheese, Beer, Wine, Cider is as no-nonsense as it gets, and indeed, so is the book. If you’ve got questions about pairing cheese with alcohol, writers Steve Jones and Adam Lindsley aim to answer them, offering 75 “perfect pairings,” roughly a third of the book devoted to…
Review: De Nada Tequila, Blanco and Reposado
De Nada Tequila is the brainchild of Adam Millman and Danny Neeson, who met while attending Tulane University, realized they shared a love for entrepreneurship and tequila, and set about starting a brand. Considering this origin story, I didn’t have high hopes for De Nada Tequila (lots of us loved tequila in college), but De…
Review: Shiner Tex Hex Bruja’s Brew IPA
Few would associate Texas’s Shiner Beer with IPA, but public outcry has demanded the traditionally lager-based brewery to head into that direction. To that end, a new IPA franchise, called Tex Hex (aka TexHex), and its flagship offering: Bruja’s Brew. The first of three Tex Hex offerings, Bruja’s Brew is a bright and juicy beer…
Review: Corazon Tequila, Complete Lineup (2022)
While we regularly cover Corazon Tequila’s special editions — aged in a variety of rare Buffalo Trace whiskey barrels — we haven’t reviewed the core lineup of tequila since some embarrassingly primitive coverage way back in 2008, when they came packaged in breakage-prone decanters with long, fragile necks. Things have changed for Corazon since then,…
Review: 2022 Sovi Non-Alcoholic Sparkling Rose
In mid-December 2021 we had the opportunity to review the inaugural offerings from California’s Sovi line of ready-to-drink canned non-alcoholic wines. While the red blend was flavorful and well-rounded, the Sparkling Rose could have used some fine-tuning. I am pleased to report that, after receiving this year’s vintage, things have improved for the better. Before…
Review: High Plains Rye
This simply bottled whiskey, purporting to be a “blend of straight rye whiskeys” would probably be easy to gloss over were it not for what comes next on the label: “selected and blended by Jim Rutledge.” Jim, as many readers know, is the former distiller at Four Roses and is now making a name for…
Book Review: World Atlas of Beer: The Essential Guide to the Beers of the World 3rd Edition
The world is changing. Beer is changing. Everything changes and that seems to be the only certainty we have available left in our 2022 survival toolkit. So, it makes sense that Tim Webb and Stephen Beaumont would head back to the word processor and give their comprehensive World Atlas of Beer a third revision to…
