Review: Wines of Lake Sonoma Winery, 2017 Releases
My hunch is that you can figure out where Lake Sonoma Winery is based — but you might not know that this under-the-radar operation makes wine from all over the county, not just near the lake. We tried six new releases from the winery, with almost unanimously impressive results. Thoughts follow. 2014 Lake Sonoma Winery…
Review: Proyecto Garnachas de Espana – Salvaje and Olvidada, 2017 Releases
Proyecto Garnachas de Espana — or the Spanish Grenache Project, if you will — is a curious series of wine releases meant to celebrate the grenache wines of the Ebro Valley. A project of Spanish wine company Vintae, the idea is to showcase different vineyards in the Aragon region, to show how terroir and microclimates…
Review: Santo Mezquila
Why would someone want to blend mezcal and tequila into the same spirit? I’m not entirely sure what the motivation was, but Sammy Hagar (Van Halen) and Adam Levine (Maroon 5) decided this might be the next big thing, and Santo — aka Santo Puro — has now arrived. The tequila used is 100% blue agave, and…
Review: A. Smith Bowman Abraham Bowman Sequential Series Bourbon
Bourbon finishing is becoming a huge trend today, and Buffalo Trace-owned A. Smith Bowman has been finishing its Virginia-made whiskeys pretty much for as long as we’ve been writing about them. Up next in the Abraham Bowman line is a duet of bourbons, both traditionally aged in new oak barrels, then finished in used…
Review: Early Times Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon
Early Times is a well-known name in American whiskey, residing on, well, if not the bottom shelf then one shelf up from the bottom. But Early Times isn’t bourbon (since some of it is aged in used barrels). Special editions have hit the market over the years — some bourbon, some not — but now there’s…
Review: Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon 2017 Edition “Al Young 50th Anniversary”
What to we have here? A special release of Four Roses’ Limited Edition Small Batch — a one-off bottling, featuring a radically revised bottle and label, that is bottled in honor of Al Young, who has been with the distillery for a full 50 years. (The regular annual release of Four Roses Small Batch, in…
Review: Single Cask Nation Girvan 10, Ardmore 8, Glentauchers 8, Glenrothes 8, Ben Nevis 8, and Ben Nevis 20
Let’s welcome a new independent Scotch whisky bottler to the scene: Single Cask Nation. Decidedly unlike the old guard of G&M, Signatory, and the like, SCN is a brand being launched exclusively for the U.S. market by the Jewish Whisky Company. Who knew? Some details: Jewish Whisky Company has announced that it will release a…
Cocktail Recipes for National Mojito Day 2017
Summertime is Mojito time for many people — and what better time to enjoy one than July 11th, National Mojito Day? We’re celebrating with these eight great recipes and want to share them with you. These include some interesting variations, including chocolate, saké, and even a few recipes for folks who don’t care for the…
