Review: Writers’ Tears Cask Strength Irish Whiskey 2020
Writers’ Tears is rightfully renowned as one of the most approachable yet effusive Irish whiskeys on the market. So… what if we took the gentle Writers’ Tears and bottled it at cask strength. What then? This vintage dated expression — 2020 in this tasting — of Writers’ Tears (which now formally features proper punctuation in…
Review: 2018 Sarah’s Vineyard Estate Chardonnay
Sarah’s Vineyard can be found not in Napa or Sonoma but in Gilroy, where it was one of the first wineries in the county of Santa Clara. The 1982 vintage of this wine was served in the White House. Now we’re trying it at Drinkhacker HQ. Initially a bit doughy and heavy with nutty almond…
Review: Cafe Infinity Coffee Subscription Kit
Café Infinity bears similar attributes to other coffee subscription services on the home delivery market: promising to liberate coffee drinkers from the shackles of choice limitation, leading them to sweet green pastures of coffee freedom. Could this signal the end of specialized barista service or single source options, thereby ushering in a new era of…
Review: Old Forester The 117 Series – High Angels’ Share
Old Forester’s latest whiskey has a unique claim to fame: It’s the first whiskey from the brand (or Brown-Forman in general) to feature a woman’s signature on the label. That woman, of course, is Jackie Zykan, Old Forester’s Master Taster and a veteran of its sister brand, Woodford Reserve. Zykan’s autograph can be found on…
Review: Hunt & Gather Lot #1 Bourbon 15 Years Old
Recently reader JJ wrote in response to our review of Doc Swinson’s mysterious 15 year old bourbons to ask if we’d ever tried Hunt & Gather Lot #1, another sourced 15 year old Kentucky bourbon with a secretive origin story. The stated mashbill of 79% corn, 13% rye, and 8% malted barley is a rounding…
Review: Ardbeg Arrrrrrrdbeg!
After 13 years, Ardbeg Distillery Manager Mickey Heads has retired, and in classic style the distillery is putting out this year’s Committee Release in Heads’s honor. Wholly matured in former rye whiskey casks (albeit sans age statement), it includes a kitschy label that features Heads as a “salty seadog,” hitting the sea in search of,…
Recipe: Dreamsicle Sour
If “whiskey sour crossed with a Dreamsicle” gets your mind racing, you’ve come to the right place. Florida-based mixologist and author Sailor Guevara set out to combine one of her favorite whiskey cocktails with the now-classic (and decadently creamy) popsicle flavor. The result is her Dreamsicle Sour, a cocktail that smooths out the sharpness of…
Review: Sandeman Port – Founder’s Reserve, 20 Year Tawny, and 30 Year Tawny (2021)
We’ve reviewed the Port wines of Sandeman on several occasions, the most recent in 2016. Today we look at a smattering of offerings from the iconic house on the Douro river, including a fresh look at Founder’s Reserve — which now has an apostrophe in it! — and two well-aged tawny offerings. Sandeman Founder’s Reserve…
