Review: 2016 Balletto Chardonnay Twin Ridges
Santa Rosa-based Balletto has a heavy focus on chardonnay, producing five varieties designed to reflect the distinct characteristics of individual vineyards it utilizes. This expression, Twin Ridges, includes grapes from two vineyards in the Sonoma Coast region, just 10 miles from the Pacific Ocean. While the nose of the wine offers a classic (if restrained)…
Review: Basil Hayden’s Bourbon 10 Years Old (2018)
Basil Hayden’s continues to pump out expression after expression, but its latest rendition comes as a late-season surprise: A 10 year old version of its standby bourbon. Standard Basil Hayden’s doesn’t have an age statement any more (as of 2014 it is just “artfully aged,”) but when we originally reviewed it it was bottled at 8…
Review: 2015 Toccata Classico Santa Barbara County
Super Tuscan wine from California? It’s a thing, sort of, courtesy of brand owner Lucas & Lewellen and winemaker Megan McGrath Gates, whose Toccata hails from L&L’s Los Alamos Vineyard and Valley View Vineyard in Santa Barbara County. This blend is 50% Sangiovese, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc, 5% Freisa, and 5% Petit Verdot.…
Review: Booker’s 30th Anniversary Edition Bourbon
Why it seems just yesterday that we were celebrating Booker’s Bourbon’s 25th anniversary. Now here the brand is back with a surprise late-season release in the form of its 30th Anniversary bottling, and as one might expect it’s a monster that is already highly prized — selling for up to $600 on the secondary market.…
Review: Martinelli’s 1868 Hard Cider
Since its inception in 1868, most of us have known Martinelli’s as the guys behind those little hand grenades of apple juice that our kids gobbled down whenever they were in reach. If you were fancy, a bottle of sparkling Martinelli’s was just the thing when you weren’t supposed to be drinking. Well, grown-ups, good…
Review: Laphroaig 10 Years Old (2018)
One of the icons of the whisky world, Islay’s Laphroaig 10 Years Old is a longstanding benchmark against which many other competing bottlings are compared. And yet the only coverage we have of this expression dates back to a brief look in 2008. When we recently got pitched by the brand, we figured we were…
Tasting the Wines of Spring Mountain, 2018 Releases
Spring Mountain can be found on the northern tip of California’s Napa Valley, and today it’s home to some of the county’s most prized vineyards. Established as an AVA in 1993, it’s not a particularly high mountain (ranging up to only 2600 feet), though the terrain can be quite rugged. Visiting here often feels like…
Review: The Glenrothes 12 Years Old (2018)
Earlier this year, The Glenrothes distillery made a massive shift in its whisky lineup. Out go the brand’s iconic vintage dates. In come traditional age statements. The hand grenade bottle shape, at least, is sticking around. The new core of the Glenrothes line is called the Soleo Collection, which color-codes its bottles in tune with…
