Review: Nashville Barrel Company Small Batch Rye Whiskey (Batch 2)
Nashville Barrel Company is a new brand, and as with many upstarts, they’re relying on sourced products to get the company up and running. Unlike some other upstarts, they don’t seem to have immediate aspirations of opening their own distillery (at least for now). Instead, they’re focusing efforts on a brick-and-mortar tasting room, bottling center,…
Review: Wines of Bonny Doon, 2021 Releases
Ever looking for a way to delight its customers, California’s Bonny Doon has priced all of its 2021 main-line releases at $15. Today we look at the quartet of releases, including three blends and one solo varietal, a picpoul. 2020 Bonny Doon Picpoul Monterey County Beeswax Vineyard – Salty and sharp up front, this wine…
Review: Milagro Tequila, Core Lineup (2021)
The Milagro line of tequilas has expanded, but its original, core lineup continues to be a popular, affordable, and widely available option that we last reviewed in 2015. Let’s try the most recent bottlings and see how they compare to earlier ones. All expressions continue to be 100% blue agave and 80 proof. Milagro Tequila…
Review: Stellum Bourbon and Rye
It already seemed like Barrell was sitting on a large supply of whiskey, what with its rapid-fire bourbon releases and frequent special editions, but now comes an entirely new whiskey line from Barrell Craft Spirits, dubbed Stellum. What does Stellum mean? Apparently, it’s a derivative of the latin word for star. So, there’s that. The…
Review: Runamok Maple Syrups and Bitters
Runamok is a producer of traditional maple syrup in Vermont, and the company recently branched out into cocktail ingredients, where maple has long been popular. Today we take a look at six different Runamok products — four syrups and two types of bitters — all made with glorious tree juice at their core (and no…
Review: 2020 Gaia Pinot Noir Rose Organic
The Gaia collection hails from Domaine Bousquet’s estate vineyards in Tupungato, named after one of the highest mountains in the Americas near the Argentina-Chile border. Let’s go to the press release for a more formal introduction: “…[Gaia] references the ancient Greek goddess of the earth, and an inspiration for the Bousquet family from the outset,…
Review: Belfour Special Edition Straight Rye Whiskey
Belfour Spirits — founded by hockey player Ed Belfour — has launched a fourth expression of whiskey, a custom version of Belfour Rye which pays homage to the Fighting Sioux, which is the former name of the hockey team of the University of North Dakota. (After a controversy over the name of the team and…
Original Recipe: Wramble
When Bombay sent its new Bombay Bramble blackberry and raspberry flavored gin our way (review coming soon!), I promptly set out to figure out a solid cocktail for it. I’ve long been a fan of the sloe gin-based Wibble and figured Bombay Bramble could easily sub in for sloe gin in the recipe, ultimately melding…
