Review: Craft Distillers Millard Fillmore U.S. Brandy
Some of the best American brandy you can buy is coming from Ukiah, California-based Craft Distillers, but said brandy can often cost a pretty penny, if you can find it. A few years ago, the company decided to see if it could produce a more affordable product that still offered high quality, and 3 1/2…
Review: Purity Vodka (2016)
So a funny story about Purity Vodka. I was all set to review Purity in 2010, and then the sample bottle disappeared. My housekeeper stole it, a testament to how pretty the bottle is. I ended up firing her, and forgot all about the Purity review… until now, when at last a new bottle of…
Review: South Hollow Spirits Dry Line Gin
Massachusetts-based South Hollow Spirits focuses on rum, but it also makes gin, particularly this bottling, which is, like its rum, made from 100% sugar cane. More specifically, here’s the full process: Dry Line Cape Cod Gin is a small batch, twice-distilled spirit made from organic sugar cane juice. The sugar cane juice is fermented for three…
Review: Jim Beam Double Oak Twice Barreled Bourbon
Take a four year old Jim Beam and put it into a newly charred barrel (for indeterminate time) and what do you get? Jim Beam Double Oak, a twice-barreled bourbon that attempts to up the ante on the aging process through another spin through the rinse cycle. This of course isn’t a new idea. Maker’s…
Review: The Exceptional Blend – Blended Scotch Whisky
First there was The Exceptional Grain. Then came The Exceptional Malt. Now, of course, the trilogy is complete: The Exceptional Blend, which combines the best of both the grain and malt worlds. For those unfamiliar, The Exceptional is a line of small batch Scotch whiskies from Don Sutcliffe, managing director of Craft Distillers, and Willie…
Review: Pasote Tequila, Complete Lineup (2016)
Sonoma-based August Sebastiani’s 3 Badge Beverage Corp. (the new name behind Kirk & Sweeney rums, Uncle Val’s gins, and others) has launched its first tequila: Pasote, which is made by Felipe Camerena in the Los Altos region of Jalisco. Made in part with rainwater instead of just spring water, it’s made using traditional methods and…
Review: The Glenrothes Bourbon Cask Reserve, Sherry Cask Reserve (2016), Vintage Reserve, and Peated Cask Reserve
It’s a quartet of Glenrothes single malts today… all part of the new Reserve Collection that Glenrothes formally launched in 2015. These all arrive as new Malt Master Gordon Motion takes over from the venerable John Ramsay. The first three whiskies reviewed here — Bourbon Cask Reserve, Sherry Cask Reserve, and Vintage Reserve — are each available…
Review: Stillhouse Moonshine
It is either incredibly ballsy or impossibly stupid to package your new moonshine in the same type of stainless steel container that paint thinner comes in, but whatever the case I’m giving Stillhouse Spirits (which recently relocated to Columbia, Tennessee) credit for taking a huge risk and doing something unique. This 100% unaged corn whiskey…
