Review: Wines of Robert Mondavi, 2018 Releases
A trio of wines from Robert Mondavi: Two whites from its Napa Valley line, and the latest release of Maestro, an upscale Bordeaux-style blend in a special bottle. Let’s taste. 2015 Robert Mondavi Chardonnay Napa Valley – Bright with lemon on the nose, the palate offers notes of vanilla wafers, a touch of grapefruit, and…
Review: Clyde May’s Alabama Style Whiskey (2018) and Alabama Style Whiskey Cask Strength 10 Years Old
If any American distillery makes things confusing — not on purpose, mind you — it’s Alabama’s Clyde May’s. The distillery played down the “Conecuh Ridge” branding years ago, and its labels have changed design many times in the 2010s. A variety of special editions have hit the market, including a straight bourbon, which is not…
Review: Stone I’m Peach Double IPA
With current political discourse reaching contentious temperatures, it can be enough for even the most hardened political wonk to just disconnect and move out to the country. Not one to shy away from stance or fight (a spat with brewing giant MillerCoors being a recent example), Stone’s moniker for this peach-heavy IPA speaks to its…
Review: Weihenstephaner/Sierra Nevada Braupakt
The world’s oldest brewery, Weihenstephan, recently collaborated with one of the oldest American craft brewers, Sierra Nevada, on the production of a limited edition Hefe Weissbier called Braupakt (Brewery Pact). According to the company, this beer uses Hallertauer Tradition hops as well as Amarillo and Chinook hops from the American West coast to create a…
Review: The Glenrothes 2004
2004 marks the first vintage release from The Glenrothes since 2001, which continues the every-three-years tradition that dates back to at least 1992. The distillery puts it best, perhaps: “During the same year that Facebook launched, the long-running sitcom F.R.I.E.N.D.S came to a close and Martha Stewart turned in her apron for an orange jumpsuit, The Glenrothes…
A Visit to Berkeley’s Broc Cellars
All Photography by Leila Seppa. Chris Brockway, originally a Philosophy major from Nebraska, has built a chic city winery, complete with spacious tasting room, in the industrial lands of West Berkeley. One side of Broc Cellars is filled with tanks, barrels, and wine being made with fruit sourced from twelve different California vineyards. The other…
Tasting Chardonnay with Wente Vineyards, 2018
In honor of the recent National Chardonnay Day (May 24), our friends at Wente organized an interesting tasting: A horizontal lineup of five of its chardonnay wines, all from the 2016 vintage. It’s difficult to overstate the importance of Wente — which is the oldest continuously-operating winery in the state — to the California winemaking…
Review: Hine Rare, Homage, Antique, and H by Hine (2018)
While we’ve previously looked at a couple of special bottlings from Cognac’s Hine — the Domaines Hine single-vintage 2005 and 2006 releases — we haven’t done a deep dive into its more readily available expressions. This includes three brandies in the “great classics” line, plus the forward-looking “H by Hine,” a VSOP brandy designed primarily to…
