Review: Indi Distilled Botanical Mixers
Made in Puerto de la Santa Maria, Spain, Indi lays claim to being the world’s first line of distilled botanical mixers. Made with 100 percent natural ingredients, with no artificial colorings or preservatives — including real quinine bark and local herbs, lemons, and oranges — Indi’s sodas and tonics are clearly labors of love. To produce…
Review: Wines of Francis Ford Coppola, Late 2016 Releases
A septet of new releases from our friends at FFC. Quality on this round is literally all over the place… 2014 Francis Ford Coppola Sofia Blanc de Blancs Monterey County – The cellophane wrapper should connote luxury, but to me it always comes across as scary. This wine — vintage blanc de blancs! — smells…
Review: Devils Backbone Bravo Four Point and Pumpkin Hunter
Virginia’s Devils Backbone is back with two new beers, a session IPA and a seasonal pumpkin brew. Let’s dig in. Devils Backbone Bravo Four Point Session IPA – Expectations are always low when session beers are involved, but Bravo Four Point manages to avoid hitting even those tempered hopes and dreams. This IPA starts with…
Review: Painted Stave Distilling Double TroubleD
Painted Stave Distilling (see reviews of their gins here) in Smyrna, Delaware, is part of a growing group of craft distilleries making whiskey out of (actual) beer. In the case of Double TroubleD, the beer is Double D Imperial IPA from Dominion Brewing Company in Dover, Delaware. Double D is distilled to under 160 proof,…
Review: Hermitage Brewing Company Sour Cherry Sour Ale
The name doesn’t lie. This orange-pink, wine-barrel-aged, ultra-fizzy sour from San Jose’s Hermitage Brewing is overwhelming with cherry notes up front, intensely sour from start to finish. The ale takes a turn for the earthy late in the game, which isn’t a poor match for the up-front cherry character, but the monumental sourness of the entire…
Review: Chapters of Ampersand Et No. 1 Limited Edition Cognac
Chapters of Ampersand is a new Swedish company that wants to bring the absolute finest in Cognac to the world. This isn’t going to be inexpensive, to say the least. For its first ultra-limited expression, called Et No. 1, the company is blending three Cognacs in collaboration with Tiffon Cognac: a Grande Champagne Cognac distilled in 1974,…
Tasting the Wines of Lambert Bridge and Quivira, 2016
A recent trip to Dry Creek Valley took us to two of the region’s most noteworthy wineries, Lambert Bridge and Quivira, both well-regarded operations that make a wide variety of wines largely using local and estate fruit. We tasted through the current releases (and some library wines) at both venues — which are both well…
Review: Viniq Glow Shimmery Liqueur
Google “Viniq” and you’ll see that Google has a helpful section called “People also ask.” The first question that people ask about Viniq is: “What is Viniq made of?” The answer: “A delicious combination of Premium Vodka, Moscato, Natural Fruit Flavors, and a one-of-a-kind shimmer, Viniq is the perfect fusion of style and taste.” Well, that…
