Review: Old Forester The 117 Series – Warehouse K Barrels
Remember the hubbub over Old Forester’s 117 Series? If you don’t recall, it’s a new series of bourbons introduced earlier this year (with the High Angels’ Share expression) noteworthy for the fact that it bears OldFo Master Taster Jackie Zykan’s signature on the label — the first time a woman’s name has ever appeared on…
Review: Wines of Mouton Cadet, 2020 Vintage
A regrettable stretch of time has passed since we last touched based with the Mouton Cadet label from the Baron Philippe branch of the Rothschild family. If you’re unfamiliar with the weight of the Rothschild surname, ask the nearest conspiracy theory loving relative. They will be more than happy to regale you with Rothschild family…
Review: Booker’s Bourbon “Tagalong Batch” 2021-02
It’s time for batch 2 of Booker’s Bourbon for 2021, a bottling aged 6 years, 5 months, and 0 days. It’s call “Tagalong Batch,” not because of Booker Noe’s affinity for the Girl Scout cookies of the same name, but rather a celebration of how Noe learned the ropes of distilling from his grandfather Jim…
Book Review: At Home in The Wine Country
First, a bit of minor housekeeping: there are no wineries or wine to be found within the 240 pages of At Home In The Wine Country. Those would be found in the excellent companion volume The New Architecture of Wine: 25 Spectacular California Wineries which co-author Heather Sandy Herbert published back in 2019. So if…
Review: Diageo Orphan Barrel Project Copper Tongue Bourbon 16 Years Old
The latest round of Diageo’s Orphan Barrel releases is Copper Tongue, a 16 year old cast strength bourbon made at George Dickel’s Cascade Hollow Distilling Company. The whiskey is immediately unusual in that it spent those years in a single-story rickhouse in the Tullahoma, Tennessee facility, which likely explains the surprisingly low abv considering this…
Review: Pastis Henri Bardouin
For those requiring a brief overview: Pastis is an anise-flavored liqueur usually served as an aperitif and served with cold water. Pastis Henri Bardouin arrives from Distilleries et Domaines de Provence and features a secret proprietary blend of 65 herbs and spices. It is not an absinthe but could be considered close kin. The label…
Review: Meukow Cognac VSOP
Meukow is the Cognac with the panther on the bottle. Or rather, in the bottle, part of the bottle. There’s more to it than that, I’m sure, but I don’t know a whole lot more about it than that — except that the house dates back to 1862. This VSOP is reportedly aged for five…
Review: Whitehouse Sicilian Bitter Wine
Created in the Marsala region of Sicily, bitter wine shares some familial ties with amaro: both feature gentian root and cinchona bark as core ingredients. But that’s really where the parallels end. This blend of marsala wine and botanicals is crafted by winemaker Nicola Centonze, who also creates an amaro (called Reset) that’s worth seeking…
