Review: Gray Whale Gin
Gray Whale Gin is a Sonoma, California-made spirit designed to celebrate the California gray whale. Per the producer, Golden State Distillery, “the spirit takes the drinker on a gustatory journey up the Pacific coastline along the gray whales’ 12,000-mile migration pattern from Baja California through Mendocino (terminating in the Arctic).” The company donates 1% of…
Review: 2017 La Crema Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast
This pinot noir hails from always-on-the-wine-list-by-the-glass La Crema, though you don’t often see the winery’s Sonoma Coast appellation, a slightly elevated bottling. This 2017 acquits itself fine, offering an appropriately cool climate construction that offers notes of brambly blackberry, blueberry reduction, and cola. The finish has grip, its tannic bite suggesting hints of clove and…
Review: Wines of Tasca d’Almerita Tenuta Regaleali, 2020 Releases
Tasca d’Almerita’s wines show up here on Drinkhacker fairly regularly, the Sicilian operation dropping a wide range of styles beyond the expected nero d’avola (though they make that, as well). Dating back to 1830 Tasca’s Tenuta Regaleali winery is one of its biggest and most noteworthy, and today we look at four wines from this…
Review: Belfour Rye Whiskeys and Pecan Finished Bourbon
Belfour sounds like a ritzy, old-school name from the deep south, and I was surprised to find that the brand was founded and is operated by Ed Belfour, a legendary Canadian hockey player who’s now making whiskey in Louisville, Kentucky. Belfour and his two children spent years taking classes in whiskeymaking, and rather than source…
Review: Dominio Fournier Ribera del Duero 2016 Crianza and 2014 Reserva
Up next we have a pair of deep reds from Dominio Fournier in Spain’s Ribera del Duero region. Located in Burgos, the Fournier winery was built in 1979 and is made up of 80 hectares, 50 of which are vineyards with an average age of between 30 and 70 years old. The wines, made from…
Review: Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Mon Chéri Stout (2019)
We were able to get our hands on several of this year’s Goose Island Bourbon House line (Bourbon Barrel, Wheatwine, and Café de Olla). Our luck continued with their Mon Chéri Stout, a beer described by the brewery as “a love letter” from the brewer to his wife, who apparently really likes cherries. To that…
Review: Frey Ranch Bourbon
It doesn’t get much more craft than this: Nevada’s Frey Ranch Bourbon is grown, malted, distilled, matured, and bottled all on property, a ranch based in the Lake Tahoe/Sierra Mountains watershed. The whiskey is made from an odd four-grain mash: 66.6% non-GMO corn, 11.4% winter cereal rye, 10% winter wheat, and 12% two-row barley. It’s…
Review: 2019 Seven Hills Sauvignon Blanc and Dry Rose
Here’s a duo of summertime wines from Seven Hills, which can be found in Washington’s Walla Walla Valley. 2019 Seven Hills Sauvignon Blanc Columbia Valley – Straightforward and pale as a ghost, this Washington sauvignon blanc is innocuous and inoffensive, an exploration of grassy, lightly spicy apples and lemon curd, with a tinge of sauvi-centric…
