Review: Garnish Island Gin
Garnish Island sounds like an amazing place where Maraschino cherries, cocktail olives, and lemons (peels only) grow freely. Alas, it’s actually a tiny island off the south coast of Ireland, and it’s the namesake for this new gin from West Cork Distillers (producers of the West Cork Irish Whiskey line). A lovely (based on the…
The Top 10 Wines for Winter 2020
It may still be hot out, but rest assured, winter is coming, and sooner than you’d think. For this inaugural edition of Drinkhacker’s Top 10 Wines for Winter, 2020 edition, we’ve dug into the last year’s worth of wine reviews – along with a few wines we didn’t formally review – to pull out a…
Review: Wines of Balletto, Late 2019 Releases
This is our second go-round with Balletto this year, following on our review of its heartier wines back in March. Today we look at some lighter fare: three whites, all made with fruit from the Russian River Valley. Thoughts follow. 2018 Balletto Pinot Gris Russian River Valley – Boldly fruit-forward with lemon and sharp tangerine…
Review: Oak & Eden Finished Whiskey – Rye & Rumba
Finishing whiskey doesn’t just have to mean taking aged spirit and putting it in a second barrel before proofing and bottling. You can also finish whiskey in the decanter, and various entrepreneurs have been trying to engineer ways for the consumer enthusiast to do this at home, courtesy of little staves of wood you drop…
Review: Sun King Brewery 10th Anniversary Collaboration 4-Pack
Indianapolis-based Sun King Brewery did a pretty cool thing recently: For its 10th anniversary, the brewery created not one but four collaboration beers, and packaged them all together in a four-pack of 16 oz. cans. The 10th Anniversary Collaboration Pack offers a range of beers, some quite unique. We tried all four. Thoughts follow. Sun…
Drink Sweet Wines Like a Pro
ADVERTISEMENT There’s a first time for everything, even wine drinking! If you’re a wine admirer and tempted to introduce someone to the awesome world of wine, this can be a daunting task since there are thousands of wines and you have only one mouth. I love wine, and it’s no secret. But how does one…
Review: Basil Hayden’s Caribbean Reserve Rye
The latest installment in the suddenly expansive and increasingly far-ranging Basil Hayden’s collection is this rye, Caribbean Reserve, which features a blend of 8 year old Kentucky straight rye whiskey and 4 year old Canadian rye whisky which is then finished with the addition of blackstrap rum. (Note, it isn’t finished in a blackstrap rum…
Review: Gonzalez Byass Vermouth La Copa – Extra Seco and Rojo
The Gonzalez Byass winery’s La Copa vermouth brand originally dates back to the late 1800s, but only recently has the brand been revived, with the original recipes and label design as a guide. These two vermouths — one dry, one sweet — are definitively designed for the high end. The Rojo bottling is made from…
