Review: Laphroaig Cairdeas 200th Anniversary Edition 2015
This year’s limited edition Cairdeas bottling from Laphroaig commemorates the distillery’s 200th anniversary. This year, the distillery eschews avant garde wood finishes and goes with a decidedly traditional approach: “The 2015 is produced from our finest malting floor’s malt, distilled using only the smaller stills, and fully matured in our famous No. 1 warehouse, right…
Review: 2013 Trapiche Broquel Malbec Mendoza
Trapiche’s Broquel bottling is a widely available malbec and a solid introduction to the style if you’re unfamiliar. Here a nose of dark fruits and modest balsamic notes leads into a rather dense body (though not overly so for Argentine malbec) loaded with notes of grilled plums, red pepper, coffee, and dark chocolate. Lightly bitter…
Review: Compass Box Flaming Heart 2015 and This Is Not a Luxury Whisky
Compass Box is probably the most exciting whisky blender in Scotland right now, and these two new limited releases, if nothing else, show just how avant garde the company can be. Let’s take a dip into the blending pool, shall we? Compass Box Flaming Heart 2015 Limited Edition – Flaming Heart is a semi-regular blend,…
Review: 2013 Fortress Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County
Solid effort here from this Sonoma producer, with a layered wine that offers notes of currants, raspberry, and Christmas spices up front. A bitter edge winds through some distinct vanilla notes before settling down for a somewhat racy, almost peppery character on the finish — a nice counterpart to the denser, almost macerated fruit notes up…
Review: Jose Cuervo Reserva de la Familia Tequila 2015 Edition – The Rolling Stones Tour Pick
Here’s a curious crossover. This year’s release of the acclaimed Jose Cuervo Reserva de la Familia Extra Anejo tequila is coming with a familiar pair of lips: The Rolling Stone’s logo. Bottled to commemorate the band’s 1972 “Tequila Sunrise” tour, this tequila is designed to “celebrate the pivotal role Jose Cuervo played in fueling The…
Review: 2011 Pombal do Vesuvio Douro
Portugal’s dry red wines come in a distant third place when ranking the wine varieties the country is known for, and even at Quinta do Vesuvio, it’s better known for Port than it is for table wines. It’s easy to overlook the standard reds of the Douro region, but this blend of Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional, and Tinta…
Review: The Exclusive Malts Batch #9 – Deanston 1997, Ben Nevis 1996, Glen Keith 1996, Glen Garioch 1995, Allt-A-Bhainne 1995, Cambus 1988
It’s another outturn from indie bottlers The Exclusive Malts, with a series of eight single cask releases from a wide range of distilleries. Today we look at six of them. So, without further ado, let’s get on to the tasting! The Exclusive Malts Deanston 1997 17 Years Old – A “midlands” distillery near Glasgow, Deanston…
Review: Wines of Stonestreet, 2015 Releases
Stonestreet is a high-elevation vineyard and winery in California’s Alexander Valley — all three of the wines below are made from 100% estate fruit. Let’s taste. 2014 Stonestreet Sauvignon Blanc Alexander Valley – Not especially Californian in makeup, but rather quite tropical with melon, mango, pineapple, and standard citrus fruit notes, with a quite sweet —…
