Review: Bowmore 27 Years Old Port Cask
A trilogy is complete at last: Bowmore’s Single Malt Scotch Whisky Vintner’s Trilogy has found its third member, Bowmore 27 Year Old Port Cask. This expression joins Bowmore 18 Year Old Double Matured Manzanilla and Bowmore 26 Year Old Wine Matured, both of which were released in November 2017. (We haven’t reviewed either of the other…
Review: Wines of Gia Coppola – #selfish, #overit, and #thirsty, 2018 Releases
Don’t look now but there’s another Coppola family member making wine. This time it’s Gia Coppola (Francis’s granddaughter), who’s turning out three millennial-friendly bottlings with hashtags baked right into the names of the wines. Each is bottled in one liter containers, bears an artsy photograph on the front label, and is sealed not with a…
Review: Highland Park Valknut
Highland Park’s second release in its Viking Legend series is here: Valknut. (Rhymes with hoot, not nut. The Valknut is a ) As a refresher, HP’s Valkyrie hit in summer 2017. Like Valkyrie, Valknut is a non-age statement single malt. The twist here: The whisky is aged in sherry-seasoned American oak casks, and finds “the addition…
Review: 2016 Mercer Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon
So your first question must be: What or where is Horse Heaven Hills? Check the fine print (or Google) and you’ll learn that it’s in southeastern Washington, part of the state’s huge Columbia Valley. Mercer Family Vineyards makes a huge selection of wines across five different quality tiers. These two from the HHH AVA fall roughly…
Review: Playa Real Tequila – Silver, Mandarin, and Pineapple
Austin-based importer Davis Spirits brings Playa Real into our fair nation. Made at the busy Distillery La Cofradia, where Lowlands agave is the norm, Playa Real is distinctive for two reasons. First, it is triple distilled instead of the usual double distilled — a process that results in a cleaner, more neutral finished product but…
Review: 2018 Tio Pepe Fino En Rama
“Tio Pepe En Rama” is a special version of Tio Pepe’s Fino bottling, released once in a year (this is the 9th time), bottled unclarified and unfiltered. For 2018, En Rama is drawn from 62 casks, pulled from its “dense veil of flor” to showcase fino sherry at its finoest sherriest. If fino sherry is…
All About Dusties: 1970s vs. 2018 Bourbon Tasted Side by Side
Were things really better “back in the old days?” Whether you’re talking about music, politics, movies, or your ability to sleep with your doors unlocked, nostalgia is invariably a force to be reckoned with. Everyone loves to pine for days gone by, but few do it with the enthusiasm of the whiskey fanatic. It’s natural…
Cigar Review: Jose L. Piedra Cazadores
The good folks at Montefortuna Cigars have been gracious enough to supply us with a sampling of Cuban cigars to pair some of our favorite drinks in preparation for the forthcoming autumnal season. Think we should keep reviewing cigars? Let us know in the comments! Jose L. Piedra Cazadores – Piedra has an unfair reputation…
