Review: Bomani Cold Buzz and Vanilla Cold Buzz
Alcohol-infused coffee is increasingly a thing these days, with Bomani the latest to hit the scene. These 325ml cans come in two varieties: regular and vanilla, both made from cold brew coffee and “alcohol from sugar” — though they do not include added sugar in the mix. Let’s give them a try. Both are canned at 5.7%…
Review: Coalition Rye Margaux Barriques
Coalition Whiskey is an unusual outfit making not just high-test rye but also a variety of renditions of the spirit, each aged in a different type of Bordeaux wine barrel — Sauternes, Margaux, and Pauillac being the three varieties available. This is 100% rye made from local Kentucky grains, aged five years before bottling. We…
Review: Lawson’s Finest Liquids Hopcelot and Super Session #8
These two brews from Vermont’s Lawson’s Finest Liquids can be tough to find, with Hopcelot often selling out within weeks of its distribution to beer stores across the northeast. (2020 marked the first year it appeared in cans.) Another fan-favorite called Super Session #8, brewed with Mosaic hops and canned at a low abv, is…
Review: The ImpEx Collection Edition One – Glen Elgin 2006, Orkney 1999, Caol Ila 2008, and Springbank 1993
Folks, there’s a new independent spirits bottler in town… sort of. ImpEx has been importing whisky for as long as I’ve been writing about it, but for the first time it is starting an indie bottling label under its own name, fittingly called The ImpEx Collection. The ImpEx Collection (alongside Single Malts of Scotland) fills…
Visiting and Tasting the Wines of Chalk Hill, 2021
We review pretty much everything Chalk Hill puts out, so it may seem redundant to take a visit to this prized winemaker in person. But on a warm summer day before Covid mask requirements were about to begin again, I couldn’t imagine a more bucolic and pleasant way to spend a couple of hours than…
Review: Mathilde Poire, Framboise, and Cassis Liqueurs (2021)
It’s been almost a decade since we last reviewed several of Mathilde’s liqueurs — and at the time our thoughts weren’t overwhelmingly favorable. The situation appears to have been improving based on Mathilde’s showing in our peach liqueur roundup, so we figured it was time to check out some of the other entries in the…
Review: 2017 Les Cadrans de Lassegue Saint-Emilion Grand Cru
The 2017 of this affordable Bordeaux is a dramatic step up from the 2012 vintage, the last expression we saw of this wine. The second label of Lassegue, its damp, earthy character remains intense, but it finds balance in notes of brambly blackberry, semi-sweet licorice candy, and milk chocolate notes on the finish. The vegetal…
Review: Armagnacs of Castarede, 2021 Releases
Castarede isn’t a household name in the U.S., but it actually lays claim to being the oldest Armagnac in existence, dating back to 1832. The house makes the full range of standard expressions, from blanche to XO, as well as various reserve bottlings and single vintage expressions of its spirits — the oldest dating back…
