Review: Heavensake Junmai Ginjo and Junmai Daiginjo
Champagne and Sake are two beverages that you’d think wouldn’t have much in common, but Heavensake proves otherwise. Founded by Piper-Heidsieck cellar master, Regis Camus, Heavensake fuses Champagne’s art of blending, and penchant for marketing flair, with the Japanese craft of sake brewing. The result aims to solve one of sake’s biggest hurdles in the…
Review: Michter’s Single Barrel Straight Rye 10 Years Old 2019
Michter’s 2019 edition of its 10 year old single barrel rye is here, and the company says this is going to be it for the year, due to shortages. For those that tasted the 2018 and 2017 bottlings, note that this release is going to be a bit different, at least in theory: This is…
Review: Cocalero Clasico Liqueur
Cocaleros are South American coca leaf farmers, and it may surprise you to know that Cocalero Clasico is not the first liqueur to be bottled in their honor. That distinction falls to Agwa de Bolivia, which appears to still be on the market. Cocalero is every bit as green and scary looking as Agwa, but…
Review: Charbay R5 Hop-Flavored Whiskey Lot 5 (2019)
Ukiah, California-based Charbay has long produced (since 2013) a unique whiskey made from Bear Republic’s Racer 5 IPA. The beer is distilled, aged (for how long isn’t specified), and bottled. For this release, 10 barrels were produced. Lot 5 of R5 has also been released to raise money for Stand for Kindness and survivors of…
Review: Blue Moon Iced Coffee Blonde
Coffee infused beers are popping up everywhere. It started with stouts, but now coffee is being used in other styles as well. Blue Moon takes the next step in this progression with the first nationally available blonde coffee beer. It is a wheat beer made with fair trade decaffeinated coffee beans and a touch of…
Review: Westland Garryana Native Oak Series 2019 Edition 4|1
Garryana #4 from Seattle’s Westland is on us, marking the fourth year this unusual single malt, aged partly in Garryana oak barrels that are sourced from the Pacific Northwest, has been produced. For 2019, Westland has released more than twice as many bottles while dropping the abv, and the total amount of production information is…
Drinkhacker 2019 Wine Cheat Sheet / Vintage Chart
The wine list can be a daunting thing, in no small part because of the litany of years that appear next to all the wineries, regions, and grape varieties printed in languages you probably don’t speak. Should you opt for a 2016 cabernet over a 2015? What about this 2008 Chateauneuf-du-Pape on deep discount? Go…
Review: Koval Bourbon and Rye
Chicago-based Koval is one of the old guard of American craft distilling, but we’ve actually had limited hands on experience with their products, namely limited to a collection of reviews way back in 2011 (check out those labels!) when most of the whiskeys were unaged and some didn’t even carry the Koval name. Today we’re…
