Review: Deko Bottled Cocktails, Complete Lineup
In recent years, bottled ready-to-drink cocktails have transformed how we enjoy our favorite beverages. Seamlessly merging convenience with quality, it feels like the golden era is here. Once relegated to standard mixers or overly sweet concoctions, the category has grown dramatically in recent years, with a diverse array of premium offerings crafted by skilled mixologists.…
Review: World Whiskey Society Wyatt Earp Hazmat Edition 13 Years Old
A relative newcomer to the spirits scene, World Whiskey Society was started in 2020 with a mission to procure, bottle, and sell “an ultra-premium collection of rare expressions previously unavailable to even the most sophisticated whiskey enthusiasts.” Their offerings thus far have been primarily American whiskeys — many with secondary cask finishes — though bottlings…
Review: Mine Hill Bourbon, Gin, and Amaro
Mine Hill Distillery can be found in the hills of Connecticut, where in 2018 it was seen fit to turn an old cigar factory into a distillery cranking out all manner of spirits, including bourbon, rye, vodka, gin, and even amaro. In 2023, the operation was purchased by Zachary Karabell and an investor group, and…
Review: 2022 Three Sticks Castenada Rose
Don’t let the squat bottle fool you. This is a still, rose wine, made by the Three Sticks Winery and given a special name and bottling to honor the Vallejo-Casteñada Adobe, one of the few remaining Mexican-era residences still standing in downtown Sonoma and a building which now serves as Three Sticks’ tasting room. A bright…
Review: Hamer Bourbons – Cask Strength, Single Barrel, and Double Oaked
Located in the Indianapolis area, West Fork Whiskey is a rapidly expanding distillery. West Fork is actively distilling and bottling whiskey under the West Fork brand, but it entered the scene with sourced Old Hamer line. The Hamer name is new to most, but Hugh Hamer is a significant name in the history of Indiana…
Review: Wheel Horse Double Oak Bourbon 5 Years Old
Non-distilling producers are extremely common in the current American whiskey landscape. Only a few years ago, it was relatively easy to use deductive reasoning to determine the origin of sourced whiskey. But with the bloom of contract distillation programs, copycat mashbills, and distillers producing whiskey with unique mashbills for brokers, it’s suddenly much more difficult…
Review: 2021 Booker Wines Perl Paso Robles
Perl is a venerable programming language, and now it’s also a wine from our friends at Booker Wines, whom we’ve covered on many occasions. This 2021 is the inaugural vintage of Perl, a 90% syrah, 10% grenache blend that comes predominantly from the Booker estate, with contributions from Catapult and Moonsprings vineyards. Per the company,…
Review: Ardnahoe Inaugural Release 5 Years Old
Ardnahoe Distillery was established in 2016 on a rugged hillside near Port Askaig in the comparatively remote and impossibly beautiful northeast corner of Islay. Until Port Ellen revived distilling operations this summer, it was the youngest distillery on the island. Seemingly from its inception, it was a buzzy operation due in no small part to…
