Review: Sourland Mountain Gin
New Jersey-based Sourland Mountain makes a wide range of spirits, ranging from vodka to bourbon to coffee liqueur. Today we look at a standby, Sourland’s “flagship” Gin (so called to distinguish it from its barrel-aged expression). There’s not a lot of data about what’s in the bottle, though the distillery notes that it uses 12…
Review: NV Steenberg Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc
Here’s a twist: Take sauvignon blanc and fizz it up so that it sparkles like Champagne. That’s the M.O. of South Africa’s Steenberg, which has crafted a no-frills bottling that is best enjoyed in these dying days of summer. Let’s start with the fruit, which is substantial here: Boldly tropical with notes of pineapple and…
Review: 2016 True Myth Cabernet Sauvignon Paso Robles
Our final look at the offerings of Baileyana Winery takes us to True Myth, which focuses on chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, and a handful of blends. Here’s a look at the 2016 cab, which is aged half in new oak, half in used. This is a surprisingly sweet — and moderately flabby — expression of cabernet,…
Review: Wild Turkey Rare Breed Rye
Rare Breed has long been one of Wild Turkey’s premium bourbon bottlings, the big selling point being that it’s bottled uncut, at barrel proof. Now the Rare Breed brand is extending to that other American hallmark: Rye. It’s the same concept — uncut, non-chillfiltered, and full proof — only this one’s blended from ryes aged…
Review: Method + Standard Vodka – Original and Raspberry
Our final look at the spirits of Madison, NC-based Piedmont Distillers takes us to the world of vodka. Method + Standard is a line of vodkas which are made via “a quadruple distillation of American-grown corn.” It’s available as a straight, unflavored vodka and in three infused versions. We look at two of them below. Method…
Review: Convite Mezcal – Esencial and Tobala
Convite — Spanish for invitation — is a new(ish) brand in the U.S. with a substantial range of expressions already under its belt. The Oaxaca-based brand launched with three varieties and now markets at least seven in total, many made from single species of agave. We received two of Convite’s product line to check out. Thoughts…
Review: 2017 Trapiche Medalla Malbec Mendoza
Trapiche’s Argentina-born wines are invariably built around value, and this Mendoza malbec is no exception. Pushy up front with extracted, densely black fruit, this wine can be initially off-putting, so give it some time to evolve in the glass. Over time, a brambly character, laced with baking spices, emerges, but there’s so much tannin here…
Book Review: Making Bourbon: A Geographical History of Distilling in Nineteenth-Century Kentucky
A few months ago, we reviewed Karl Raitz’s Bourbon’s Backroads: A Journey through Kentucky’s Distilling Landscape, which provides a thoroughly detailed and data-intensive look at the context during which bourbon came to fruition. Raitz made the hard stuff look effortless: weaving together a narrative involving transportation, government affairs, topography, geography, engineering, architecture, and nearly every…
