Review: Blue Run Bourbon 13 Years Old
Jim Rutledge, the former master distiller of Four Roses, has treated the concept of “retirement” awfully loosely. In 2016 he attempted to crowdfund a new distillery, a campaign that flopped spectacularly in less than a week. At some point Jim got his hands on some old Kentucky bourbon and acquired a long-defunct brand called Cream…
Review: 2019 Sosie White Blend Rossi Ranch
Sosie Wines is back with another new white, its inaugural Rhône-style White Blend, a blend of roussanne (52 percent), grenache blanc (27 percent), and marsanne (21 percent) from Rossi Ranch in Sonoma Valley, California. This is an exotic, lovely, and perfumed wine that offers immediate notes of white flowers, jasmine, and honeysuckle, all layered atop…
Review: Tempus Fugit Gran Classico (2020)
It’s been 9 years since we last took a look at Tempus Fugit Gran Classico. At the time we put it up (perhaps naively) in an impromptu amaro battle against Campari, a spirit with which it doesn’t share much DNA. A better analogy would be Cynar, as the two spirits have a lot closer resemblance…
Review: Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Special Release 2020 – Barrel Proof Rye
A new Single Barrel Special Release has arrived from Jack Daniel’s, and this 2020 offering is a little different than what JD usually puts out. Namely, it’s not a Tennessee Whiskey but rather a rye, bottled straight from the cask in a single barrel format. A previous version of the Heritage Barrel Release series hinted…
Recipe: Red Hook
The Red Hook, considered a contemporary classic cocktail, was created in 2003 by Vincenzo Errico at the infamous Milk & Honey in New York. It was Errico’s take on the old school classic Brooklyn cocktail, hence the reason he named it after a Brooklyn neighborhood. The Red Hook is rye-forward, like any respectable descendant of…
Review: 2018 Hahn SLH Chardonnay and Pinot Noir
Hahn’s annual SLH releases — affordable bottlings celebrating the Santa Lucia Highlands — are here. Let’s taste. 2018 Hahn SLH Chardonnay Santa Lucia Highlands – Lots of lemon peel character gives this wine a lively freshness up front, its oaky vanilla elements taking a back seat to plenty of fruit. Notes of melon and guava…
Review: Thomas S. Moore Bourbons – Chardonnay, Port, and Cabernet Sauvignon Cask Finished
Buffalo Trace’s Barton 1792 Distillery is launching (today) a new line of bourbons named in honor of Thomas S. Moore, the man who originally built the Barton distillery back in 1889. The trick with this lineup is that they will all feature extended finishing in a variety of cask types. The first three expressions, arriving…
Review: KO Distilling Distiller’s Reserve Bourbon Bottled-in-Bond
Even smaller craft producers are getting in on the special release action this bourbon season. Virginia’s KO Distilling, whose core line and single barrel whiskey expressions we reviewed last year, recently announced the launch of their Bottled-in-Bond Distiller’s Reserve Straight Bourbon Whiskey. Per the folks at KO: Hand-crafted from local Virginia corn, wheat and malted…
