Review: Bowmore x Aston Martin 18 Years Old
Our slow march through Bowmore’s travel retail, Aston Martin-inspired selections continues. As a reminder, these hit airport duty free shops in 2021 as 10-year, 15-year, and 18-year bottlings under the Bowmore x Aston Martin label. They mirror the existing travel retail line in age but are drawn from special cask selections, each commemorating a specific…
Review: 2019 Hardys Tintara Reserve Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon
Don’t call it “Hardy’s”: This Australian winery named in honor of Thomas Hardy, who inaugurated grape-growing in the McLaren Vale region in 1861, launching winemaking in the country, forgoes the apostrophe altogether. His Upper Tintara vineyard became one of the most prominent in the country. Today, Hardys is 171 years old and still putting out…
Review: Indri Dru Indian Single Malt
Last year we had our first taste of Piccadilly Distilleries’ whisky when we reviewed Indri Trini, followed by its 2023 Diwali Edition. Today we sample a new release. Indri Dru is a cask strength single malt whisky that has been aged exclusively in ex-bourbon barrels. This makes it quite different from Trini, which was aged…
Review: Lost Lantern Spring 2024 Single Cask Releases
Independent bottler Lost Lantern‘s spring collection has a name: The Midwest Collection, with a focus on bourbon and rye whiskeys (plus one wheat whiskey) from the center cut of the country. Seven total whiskeys are in this as-always tiny release, including one blend made out of rye sourced five of the six distilleries represented here.…
Review: Michter’s US-1 Barrel Strength Straight Rye 2024
Last year saw the return of a full slate of Michter’s 10-year-old bottlings (bourbon and rye) plus a new Toasted Barrel Finish Rye and some other unicorns we unfortunately didn’t get a chance to sample. Missing from the 2023 release calendar was a Barrel Strength Straight Rye (which seems to happen when a toasted offering…
Review: NON5 Lemon Marmalade & Hibiscus Non-Alcoholic Cocktail
Another NA option from Australia-based NON, NON5 is a blend of hops, lemon verbena, lemongrass, hibiscus, lemon myrtle, licorice root, peppermint, preserved lemon, Murray River salt, verjus, and sugar. That’s a lot of lemon and lemon-adjacent ingredients, but the palate somehow avoids becoming a lemon bomb (and, in fact, the cocktail is a bright shade…
Review: Dragon’s Milk Origin Small Batch Bourbon
New Holland and its flagship Dragon’s Milk bourbon barrel-aged stout is, and was, a beer that always felt a step or two behind its pseudo-mass market, craft contemporaries in Founders’ KBS and Goose Island’s Bourbon County. Despite a mid-2010s distribution deal with Pabst, KBS and Bourbon County won the races in accessibility, visibility, accolades, and…
Review: Wines of Avaline (2024)
A partnership between actress Cameron Diaz and entrepreneur Katherine Power, Avaline is a wine brand positioning itself as a clean, transparent option offering a full range of wines including white wines and rosé, most of which are being re-reviewed here with their slightly updated branding. Throughout their website and marketing campaign, Avaline emphasizes organic farming…
