Review: St. Mayhem Craft Wine Cooler – Ginger Loves Company
It’s hard to hear “wine cooler” without thinking back to the 1980s when virtually every major liquor company mixed cheap wine with fruit juice to make a party alternative to inexpensive beer. St. Mayhem’s newest wine cooler bears virtually no relation to the earlier beverages with which it shares a name. Ginger Loves Company is…
Review: Throttle 2 Bottle Canadian Whisky
Throttle 2 Bottle is one of the most patriotic whiskeys I’ve had in months, not to mention the most manly. The front label alone has a motorcycle, an ATV, a snowmobile, and a stunt plane — all decked out in red, white, and blue, of course. There’s a lot of text about living extreme, the…
Review: Woodford Reserve Distillery Series – Toasted Oak Rye
We reviewed the last entry into Woodford Reserve’s Distillery Series only in June — and as promised, the second of three special edition ryes to be released this year is already here. Toasted Oak Rye is made from a mash of 53% rye, 33% corn, and 14% malted barley mash, matured in used Woodford Reserve…
Review: Q Drinks Mixers – Complete Lineup
Q is a leading name in the artisan mixer space, and recently the company fairly radically revamped its lineup, jettisoning a few products, adding at least one, and most importantly, dropping its bottle size from 9 ounces to 6.7 ounces — more in line with “single serving” size and, more importantly, allowing them to reduce…
Review: Barefoot Sangria
Here’s a cold hard truth: Bottled sangria is almost always better than you think, and Barefoot, which is hardly renowned for its luxe bottles of standard wine, produces a perfectly drinkable one here, a fruit-forward wine made even fruitier through the addition of extra citrus flavors (featuring lots of lime), plus hints of tropical fruits…
Review: Ferdinand’s Saar Dry Vermouth, Dry Gin, and Quince
Newly available in the U.S. is this collection of products from Germany’s Avadis Dsitllery. Bottled under the Ferdinand’s label, these products all involve a unique ingredient: Riesling wine from the Mosel region, where the distillery is based. Some additional details from the company: Ferdinand’s Saar Dry Gin is crafted from grain to bottle at Avadis…
Review: 2014 Invivo Pinot Noir Central Otago
New Zealand pinot noir can be hit and miss, often landing too heavily on a meaty note, but this bottling from Invivo fires on all fronts: Lightly peppery, loaded with dusky cherries, blueberries, and some raspberries, fading into notes of tea leaf and baking spices. A classic New World pinot, you wouldn’t be out of…
Tasting Report: Wines of Addendum, 2014 Vintage
Addendum is a brand new (and standalone) wine label from the team at Fess Parker. The winemaking operation is in Santa Barbara, but unlike Parker’s main label bottlings, these grapes come from Napa up north. The goal of this unique project: To make high-end, Bordeaux varietal wines from California fruit… though you’ll find a little syrah…
