Recipe: Lake George
I don’t know about you, but winter has always been Rusty Nail season for me. I like my whiskey cocktails year-round, but colder weather seams to require a less high-toned or excessively herbal concoction. To that end, it’s hard to beat the sweet and soothing simplicity of a good Scotch and some Drambuie. The classics,…
Review: 2017 Luce della Vite Lucente
Luce’s second wine — a blend of sangiovese and merlot — remains a knockout for the price. The Tuscan offering is bittersweet but balanced for 2017, and the wine offers notes of cranberry and black cherry up front, filtered through hints of tea leaf, cola, and white pepper. Some licorice emerges on the finish, as…
Review: Pappy Van Winkle Bourbons – 15, 20, and 23 Years Old (2020)
In 2020, a review of the Van Winkle lineup is mildly comical: opinions or fanfare surrounding one of the spirit world’s largest cult of personalities will absolutely not be swayed with any velocity or traction, and will likely be met with a curiosity and a shrug before clicking onwards. But seeing as we recently reviewed…
Review: 2018 Cameron Hughes Lot 729, Lot 735, and Lot 730
A trio of new Cameron Hughes releases, all California reds from the 2018 vintage: 2018 Cameron Hughes Lot 729 Pinot Noir Russian River Valley – Tart with notes of cranberry and red raspberry, this is gentler than the typical Russian River pinot, and that’s not inherently a bad thing. Some licorice and a layer of…
Review: The Balvenie Tun 1509, Batch 7
The Balvenie’s Tun 1509 series is finally getting its long-awaited seventh release. For those unfamiliar, the series is designed to bring to life master distiller David Stewart’s 58 years of distilling and blending experience “through an expression of exemplary quality and character.” Here’s some detail: To produce Batch 7 of Tun 1509, Stewart continued his…
Review: Rabbit Hole Founder’s Collection Boxergrail Cask Strength Rye (2020)
We’ve been following Louisville’s Rabbit Hole Distillery since they first hit the crowded American whiskey scene a few years back. The original core lineup included a rye whiskey, dubbed Boxergrail, and now a select few barrels (just seven, in fact) have been chosen for bottling as the distillery’s first ultra-rare Founder’s Collection release. The standard…
Review: Wines of Tussock Jumper, 2020 Releases
Last year we were introduced to Tussock Jumper wines and found they offer good-quality wines at affordable prices. There are now two new 2020 releases. Let’s give them a try. 2020 Tussock Jumper Chenin Blanc South Africa – I didn’t admit it last year when I reviewed this wine, but I will now: I am…
Review: King of Kentucky Straight Bourbon 14 Years Old (2020)
It’s round three for Brown-Forman’s King of Kentucky brand, which has been cranking out limited edition Kentucky bourbons since 2018. As with the last two editions, it’s a single barrel release, this time composed of 32 barrels which will all be bottled individually at cask strength (proof ranging from roughly 125 to 135). It’s got…
