Review: Highland Park Cask Strength Release No. 5
What initially felt like a one-off is now onto its fifth annual release: Highland Park, no age statement, at Cask Strength. HP has always been a little cagey about what goes into this undiluted bottling, but that’s in part because there’s so much going on. It also changes a little each year. For Release No.…
Review: Green River 1885 Bourbon
One thing the bourbon world needs more of right now are value pours. Not slow sipping bourbons with quality surpassing their MSRP (a real rarity these days) but bourbon that was always intended to be someone’s daily drinker or mixer and priced accordingly. Once upon a time, the industry catered almost exclusively to those customers.…
Review: Cierto Tequila Reserve Collection, Complete Lineup
Last year we encountered Cierto’s Private Collection tequilas and came away impressed. The price points are high, but from the blanco to the extra añejo, the tequilas showed a beautiful, bold character and complexity, and one of them made it onto our top tequila list for the year. This year, we are back with the…
Review: 2022 Damaris Reserve Chardonnay Sonoma Coast
A sub-label of Landmark Vineyards, Damaris produces just one wine — a chardonnay sourced from the Flocchini Vineyard in the Petaluma Gap AVA and the Kiser Vineyard in the Western Sonoma Carneros AVA. Damaris, incidentally, is the first name of the winery’s late founder, Damaris Deere Ford, the great-great-granddaughter of John Deere. We received a sample…
Review: Laws Bonded Bourbon, Rye, and Wheat Whiskey 7 Years Old (2024)
Denver’s Laws Whiskey House releases bonded versions of three whiskeys each year, and, interestingly, Laws has continued to let them get older and older. Our last encounter, in 2021, was a 6 year old bonded bourbon. Now the trio of whiskeys is up to 7 years of age. When will it end? Who knows? While…
Drinkhacker 2024 Wine Cheat Sheet / Vintage Chart
Peak wine season is upon us, and with it come some questions: Is the 2021 or the 2020 the better buy? We got you covered: Our annually updated “Vintage Chart Cheat Sheet” is back for your reading (and drinking) pleasure. In case you’ve missed the sheet’s prior iterations, the concept is simple: Refer to this…
Review: Mommenpop Seville Orange Citrus Aperitif
I’m a sucker for a Spritz, but can anyone outdo Aperol? California-based Mommenpop recently hit the scene with an enticing pitch: Its aperitifs are made from Northern California wines fortified with Napa-made grape neutral spirit, to which real, whole, organic California citrus is added alongside “select botanicals.” Mommenpop’s aperitifs are as natural as you can…
Review: Michter’s US-1 Toasted Barrel Finish Bourbon 2024
While they occasionally tweak the release calendar for some specialty, age-stated expressions, Michter’s limited release Toasted Barrel Finish line hasn’t skipped a beat in recent years, delivering a toasted edition of either rye, bourbon, or sour mash whiskey at a steady three-year interval. For 2024, we’re getting another US-1 Toasted Barrel Finish Bourbon. It’s something…
