Review: Virginia Distillery Cider Barrel Matured Virginia Highland Malt Whisky
If Virginia Distillery Co.’s flagship product — a Scottish single malt imported to the U.S. and finished in Virginia Port wine casks — wasn’t wacky enough for you, now comes its first line extension, which sees that first product finished not in Port barrels but instead in locally-sourced cider barrels (specifically barrels from Potter’s Craft…
Review: Four Provence Roses, 2015 Vintage
Just because it’s cold outside doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a good rose with dinner tonight. Here are four rose wines from France’s Provence, all 2015 vintages, worth a look. 2015 Domaine de la Sangliere Cuvee Speciale Cotes de Provence – Lightly grassy and herbal on the nose, this wine exhibits a bold berry profile…
Recipes: Two Cocktails from the Facundo Rum Collection’s ‘Art of Rum’
Facundo Rum comes from a long Bacardi tradition for distilling rum. However these rums in the Facundo Rum Collection are high quality sipping rums, rather than the kind thrown into a Piña Colada at the local tiki bar. The story goes that Don Facundo Bacardí Massó brought out premium rums from the family collection to…
Review: Booker’s Bourbon “Off Your Rocker” 2016-05 and “Noe Hard Times” 2016-06
In December of 2016, Beam Suntory informed the public that enjoying a bottle of Booker’s batches in 2017 will come affixed with a price increase of an additional $40 over suggested retail, resulting in a $99 price tag. The explanation included the customary press release rhetoric of supply/demand and a reduction in release schedule from…
Book Review: Home Brew Recipe Bible
Now that I’ve got my first homebrew under my belt, what’s next? Perhaps a spin through the Home Brew Recipe Bible: An Incredible Array of 101 Craft Beer Recipes, From Classic Styles to Experimental Wilds, will spur some ideas? Chris Colby’s tome isn’t so much a bible as it is an encyclopedia, a straightforward cookbook for…
Now Shipping: 2017 L.A. Burdick Robert Burns Chocolates
We all drink whisky on Robert Burns’ birthday (January 25), but if you really want to wow folks, get your hands on a box of L.A. Burdicks’ Robert Burns Chocolate collection, which is available only during this time of the year. Each box of about 36 bonbons (1/2 a pound) includes multiples of seven different…
Recipes: Dessert Drinks with Kerrygold Irish Cream
Kerrygold Irish Cream is the latest Irish cream liqueur on the market, and these two cocktails presented by the company are both delightful and worth checking out. The Macchiato Martini will please those chocolate lovers among us. We like the idea of chocolate syrup because you can customize the chocolate to the imbiber — milk chocolate…
Review: Clyde May’s Straight Bourbon Whiskey (2017)
Alabama-based Clyde May’s recently added two new straight bourbons to its lineup. Unlike its prior whiskey releases, these are unfinished and unflavored with apple (or other seasonings) and thus represent a more traditional bourbon style. Which is, I suppose, what they really are. Both of the new whiskeys are sourced from an unknown supplier in…
