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…
Review: Root Out Root Beer Flavored Whisky
Hey, though it may sound weird, this actually isn’t the first root beer flavored whiskey we’ve reviewed; we gave Uncle Bob’s version the once over way back in 2015. Root Out gets its start as four year old Canadian whisky, to which vanilla and various root beer flavorings have been added. The finished product is…
Book Review: The Connoisseur’s Guide to Worldwide Spirits
Like Fred Minnick, Richard Carleton Hacker is one of those names you eventually start to see everywhere when you spend much time in the booze business. He writes for a bunch of magazines about wine and spirits and has branded himself a “cigar czar” and “the most politically incorrect author in America,” which is tough…
Review: Old Rip Van Winkle 10 Years Old (2018)
It has been many years since Drinkhacker reviewed anything with Winkle in its name. With Pappy hysteria season fast approaching, I thought I’d take a look at last year’s release of the entry level Pappy, Old Rip Van Winkle 10 Years Old. Purists may not think of this as Pappy, per se, because of the…
Review: 2017 Day Owl Rose California
Day Owl is an oddly named but quite approachable wine from O’Neill Vintners, a purveyor of bulk wines as well as its own branded offerings. Targeted at “women who get sh*t done,” Day Owl is made from mystery varietals but offers a fruit-forward experience that’s a mix of grapefruit, lemon, and green apple, with a…
Review: Golden Moon Kummel
I was going to say that we rarely see a bottle of kummel for review here at Drinkhacker, the the truth is we never see one. I’ve made more kummel at home than I’ve ever seen in commercial production, and that obviously creates its own challenge: I have very little to compare Golden Moon’s expression against.…
Review: 2017 Line 39 Sauvignon Blanc California
Here’s a perfectly approachable and crazy cheap sauvignon blanc from Line 39, an operation which produces a half-dozen California varietal bottlings, all priced at $12.99 — and as little as $8.99 if you shop around. (This one’s from Lake County.) Fresh and fruity, this is a grapefruit bomb that’s dusted just so with white sugar,…
