Review: Woodford Reserve Master’s Collection Very Fine Rare Bourbon
It’s 2020, and everything you know about the Woodford Reserve’s Master’s Collection has been upended. Woodford Master Distiller Chris Morris once described the series as an ongoing experiment looking at the “five sources of flavor” in whiskey: water, grain, fermentation, distillation, and maturation. With 2020 — 17 years after Morris took the reins at Woodford…
Review: 2018 Wente Cabernet Sauvignon Wetmore Vineyard
There’s an immediate kick of licorice candy in this upscale bottling of cabernet sauvignon from Wente’s Wetmore Vineyard in the Livermore Valley. Seductive and silky, its tannins are nicely integrated with notes of fresh raspberry and blueberry, with hints of vanilla and milk chocolate emerging later in the experience. Slightly sweet with a punch of…
Review: 2018 Double Diamond Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville
This label, part of Napa’s Schrader Cellars, is about as classic as Napa cabernet gets: Intense with chocolate both milk and dark, rosemary and sage, and a dense and silky body dominated by currants with some raspberry mixed in. Opulent and encompassing, Napa cab fans will find this drinking exactly to expectations, its tannins beautifully…
Review: Porter’s Imitation Peanut Butter Flavored Whiskey
So you want to get on the Skrewball bandwagon and drink peanut butter whiskey… but you’re allergic to peanuts! What then? Why, check out Porter’s peanut butter-flavored hooch, unabashedly marketed right on the label as an Imitation Peanut Butter Flavored Whiskey. That’s intentional, Utah-based producer Ogden’s Own says, so as to inform the 1.2% of the…
Review: Atlas Brew Works Giant Flaming Zombie Polar Bear Double IPA
Giant Flaming Zombie Polar Bear — GFZPB if you prefer — is Washington, DC-based Atlas Brew Works’ seasonal for winter 2020. It’s a fitting name for a fitting year — and a fitting beer, a double IPA featuring a blend of Bravo, Mandarina Bavaria, Chinook, Centennial, and Cascade hops. Aggressive with a classically creamy, resinous…
Review: NV Hey French 1st Edition
Ready for something off the beaten path? “Hey French” is a white wine, not from France. It’s actually an multi-vintage “super-Bianco” from northeast Italy’s Veneto region, produced by Famiglia Pasqua and made from 60% garganega grapes, plus pinot bianco and sauvignon blanc, “sourced from several parcels of vineyard on the Veronese side of Monte Calvarina in…
Review: Huling Station Bourbon, Wheat Whiskey, and Blended Whiskey
Memphis-based Old Dominick Distillery makes gin, vodka, and other goodies, but it’s arguably best known as the producer of Huling Station, a line of whiskeys that began with bourbon and expanded to wheat whiskey and a blended whiskey earlier this year. Old Dominick sources all of these whiskeys from MGP, but they’re all made in…
Review: Still Austin Straight Bourbon “The Musician”
As a former resident of Austin, I can fully understand why a craft distillery in the Texas capital would dub its new flagship whiskey “The Musician” — and clearly the company behind the brand would love to have you singing the whiskey’s praises. Still Austin got started in 2014, and its first homegrown bourbon is…
