Review: Bully Boy Distillers The Old Fashioned
This is the second bottled cocktail we’ve seen from Boston-based Bully Boy, after its Hub Punch release from last year. (See also Bully Boy’s straight spirits, reviewed in 2012.) The company promises this is a mix of Bully Boy American Straight Whiskey (akin to a young bourbon), Angostura Bitters, and sugar. For the fruit component of…
Review: White Wines of Murphy-Goode, 2014 Vintage
Murphy-Goode hits with a collection of three white wines, spanning the gamut of major California styles. All 2014 vintages, let’s dig in to these affordable bottlings. 2014 Murphy-Goode Pinot Grigio California – Lightly tropical and lightly aromatic — emphasis on “light.” This is a simple wine for simple time — summer sipping, barbecues, bar mitzvahs, you…
Review: Hochstadter’s Vatted Straight Rye Whiskey
Cooper’s Spirits’ Hochstadter’s brand has been gaining notoriety for its Slow & Low “rock and rye” product, but the company makes more whiskey than just this. Witness Hochstadter’s Vatted Straight Rye (also known as Hochstadter’s Vatted Rye and Hochstadter’s Straight Rye), a beautiful blend of five straight ryes sourced from various stills in the U.S. and…
Review: Cynar 70 Liqueur
Cynar’s a highly-regarded classic of the amaro world. So why produce a new version of this vibrantly bitter, artichoke-infused concoction? Because they can. Cynar 70 is designed to put the liqueur into a category alongside Jagermeister and Fernet, both bitter aperitifs but bottled at a much higher proof than Cynar or Campari, which have the same…
Review: WhistlePig Straight Rye Whiskey 15 Years Old 2016
At this point, it seems like WhistlePig is just going to age its rye forever, releasing a new whiskey each year until the earth burns up and all the whiskey evaporates. I’m OK with that, as long as the results keep turning out as well as WhistlePig’s generally do. With this 15 year old spirit,…
Tasting Report: Wines of Mendocino, 2016
It had been too long since we trekked to Mendocino, so a few weeks back we loaded up the car and hit the windy, Redwood-strewn trail to the rocky California coast, and hit up some of the star wineries of the region along the way. The Anderson Valley and Mendocino County continue to raise the…
Review: Cambria Benchbreak 2014 Chardonnay and 2013 Pinot Noir
Two new wines from Cambria and its Benchbreak series, a line of sustainably grown wines from the Santa Maria Valley. Thoughts follow. 2014 Cambria Benchbreak Chardonnay Santa Maria Valley – Intensely oaky and meaty on the nose, this chardonnay — which is otherwise lightly bodied and quite fruity — takes the butter and pushes it…
Review: Jackson Morgan Southern Cream Salted Caramel
Cream liqueurs are on the rise — and here’s a new one that’s made from Tennessee whiskey… in Kentucky! No, irony isn’t one of the six flavors available — which include Whipped Orange Cream and Bread Pudding(!) — but we did get a taste of the Salted Caramel expression of Jackson Morgan (named after the two…
