Review: Shakmat Armenian Brandy 23 Years Old
As origin stories go, I’ve heard stranger. Shakmat is the brainchild of Alexis Ohanian, who is best known as the founder of Reddit and which is being produced and sold in conjunction with Flaviar/Caskers, our main retail partner. In Armenia, brandy is known as “konyak,” and while it’s made in much the same way as…
Review: Amaro Cinpatrazzo
Beverage hobbyists tend to tinker in wine, beer, even gin. A mom-and-pop amaro creator? That’s a new one. Pat Magner and Cindy Tegtmeyer are the producers of Amaro Cinpatrazzo — a portmanteau of their names — a labor of love inspired by trips to Italy and some heavy experimentation in their kitchen over the course…
Review: Monkey 47 Distiller’s Cut Gin 2019
“Highly anticipated” and “gin” are terms that we rarely see together, but if ever a product merited the combination it’s this: Monkey 47 Distiller’s Cut. For those unfamiliar, Monkey 47 is a storied German gin that includes 47 ingredients in its botanical bill. (It’s also bottled at 47% alcohol.) It’s a dazzlingly complex product, and…
Review: Haus Bitter Clove Aperitif
Let’s hear it again for innovation, eh? What the heck is Haus? Haus is described as “the first direct-to-consumer alcohol brand that’s redefining the liquor industry to deliver what today’s generation of drinkers want.” Now let’s put aside the fact that wineries have been selling directly to consumers for decades. Haus is something entirely different.…
Review: Fleurette Gins and Fylleangst Aquavit
New Alchemy Distilling is a craft producer based in the El Dorado Hills of California, where, with nary a barrel in sight, it focuses on (mostly) white spirits — vodka, gin, white whiskey, and even aquavit. The company produces a collection of six different spirits, three of which we look at here. Let’s dig in!…
Review: 2015 Allegrini Palazzo Della Torre Veronese IGT
Allegrini’s Palazzo Della Torre bottling is one of its budget expressions, an IGT-denominated wine made in part using the ripasso technique, in which grapes are dried before being fermented and vinified. The wine is composed of 40% corvina Veronese, 30% corvinone, 25% rondinella, and 5% sangiovese. Somewhat soft at first, but with a tannic grip…
Review: Laphroaig 16 Years Old
Islay’s Laphroaig continues to pump out the expressions, the latest of which is a 16 year old single malt, a spiritual successor to the delightful 15 year old it released in 2015. The whisky spends its entire aging time in ex-bourbon barrels, typical for most mainline Laphroaig releases. What a surprise then that this expression…
Review: Norden Aquavit
Norden Aquavit hails not from Denmark but from Detroit, where founder Robyn Cleveland crafts this Scandinavia-inspired spirit with 10 botanicals, heavy on the caraway. We received a sample and collected some thoughts. First off, the nose is an iconic example of Scandinavian aquavit, heavy with the caraway essence of rye bread as well as a…
