Review: Deschutes Brewery Black Butte XXVIII 28th Birthday Reserve
Deschutes keeps having birthdays and it keeps putting out experimental porter to commemorate it. This year’s Black Butte is less outright wacky than some of the recent releases, brewed with cocoa, vanilla, peated malt, and sweet orange peel. Half of the batch, as always, is aged in barrels — this time used bourbon and Scotch…
Review: Elijah Craig Small Batch Bourbon (2016)
Earlier this year, Elijah Craig became the latest Kentucky bourbon to lose its age statement. Formerly a 12 year old release, it is now NAS, though Heaven Hill says the product will be composed of stock aged from 8 to 12 years old (200 barrels at a time) and, of course, assures us that quality…
Review: Stone Enjoy By 10.31.16 Tangerine IPA
It’s another tangerine-infused IPA in Stone’s “Enjoy By” series, this one “expiring” in just a few weeks on Halloween. Thought the bottle is festooned in appropriately ghoulish decor, the recipe doesn’t seem to be any different than the last Enjoy By we covered, including 12 different hop varieties plus pureed tangerines in the mix. This time, for…
Review: Greenbar Slow Hand Six Woods Malt Whiskey (2016)
The Greenbar Collective in Los Angeles is home to Slow Hand, a white whiskey and this, an aged whiskey made of 100% malted barley. The company calls it “a new kind of whiskey that… has never been tasted before,” and the production description doesn’t falter on that front. Says Greenbar: “After fermenting and distilling a…
Review: Johnnie Walker Blue Label (2016)
It’s been a solid six years since we spent any serious time with Johnnie Walker’s flagship bottling, Blue Label. The House of Walker doesn’t talk much about whether or how the recipe for Blue Label has evolved over the years, but in 2010 it was said that there were nine single malts in the blend,…
Review: Attems 2015 Pinot Grigio and 2014 Pinot Grigio Ramato
Two wines from Attems, located in the Venezia region of Italy. Both in fact are made from the same grape — pinot grigio — but one is made in the traditional dry white style, the other as a ramato, or orange style. Let’s taste both. 2015 Attems Pinot Grigio – Surprisingly buttery, to the…
Review: Humboldt Distillery Humboldt’s Finest Hemp Vodka
Humboldt’s finest? We’re talking about redwood trees, amirite people? OK then, we’re really talking about cannabis sativa, good old hemp seed, and here’s another entry into the burgeoning market of hemp-flavored (and THC-free, of course) vodka. There’s no real production info here, except that the vodka includes natural flavors and, oddly, certified color (it is…
Review: 2005 vs. 2007 Rioja Bordon Gran Reserva
Bodegas Franco Espanolas, a Rioja winery dating back to 1890, recently released a three-pack of old Gran Reserva wines, including vintages from 1999, 2005, and 2007. The three-pack costs $125, but rarity of the ’99 is making it tough to come by. We did however get a look at both the ’05 and ’07, which…
