Review: RedTerra Vodka
Quick: What’s a spirit made from agave? Tequila? Yes. Mezcal? Yes. Vodka? Yes! RedTerra is an agave-based vodka, which is made especially discordant due to the heavy Russian imagery — red, black, and an eagle — used on the bottle label. But RedTerra starts with 100% real blue agave harvested in the Jalisco Highlands. It’s then…
Review: Wines of Fathers & Daughters, 2015 Releases
Fathers & Daughters is a brand new winery operating out of Anderson Valley. Its first two wines, a sauvignon blanc and a pinot noir, come from the Ferrington Vineyard. Thoughts follow. 2013 Fathers & Daughters Sauvignon Blanc Anderson Valley Ferrington Vineyard – Minerally and herbal, this grassy sauvignon blanc offers a restrained edge of coconut…
Review: The Glenlivet Nadurra Peated Whisky Cask Finish
Glenlivet’s third Nadurra (Gaelic for “natural”) expression is here (released yesterday) — and it’s Glenlivet’s first peated whisky in over 100 years. For those unfamiliar with this line — which now includes three Nadurra bottlings, all permanent extensions to the Glenlivet stable — the goal is to bring whisky back to its roots, through cask…
Review: 2013 Flora Springs Merlot Napa Valley
This gentle merlot is classically Napa, with notes of strawberry and raspberry jam, layered with milk chocolate. Not at all root beerish like last year’s bottling, it instead veers more into Christmas spices while sticking with the overall sweet focus. Simple but enjoyable. B+ / $30 / florasprings.com Related posts: Review: 2021 Flora Springs Soliloquy Napa…
Review: Wines of Orsianna, 2015 Releases
Orsianna is made by the family of Fred Tocchini, who operates the San Francisco Wine Trading Company. (We reviewed their single-barrel bottling of Four Roses a few months back.) Now we’re taking a peak into what Tocchini and co. can do with wine, including some fresh whites and some lightly aged reds. 2013 Orsianna Sauvignon…
Tasting Lost Spirits Distillery Whiskey Experiments
Lost Spirits — the company that’s knee deep in ultra-accelerated spirits aging technology — has largely devoted its early experiments to one liquor category: Rum. Why rum? It’s easier to age, with simpler ingredients and a more straightforward line from white spirit to old brown stuff. Whiskey is a bit of a holy grail for…
Review: Ledaig 18 Years Old
Ledaig — pronounced, seemingly impossibly, as “letch-igg” — is produced at Tobermory, the only distillery on the Isle of Mull, which is a bit north of Islay on the western Scottish coast. Ledaig has a lot in common with Islay, namely the use of peated malt, but it cuts a much different figure than your…
Book Review: Beer: The Ultimate World Tour
This coffee table book takes you on a worldwide adventure of beer drinking, from Ireland to Germany to Japan to the U.S., author Bill Yenne aims to give us the lowdown about what it’s like to make beer and drink beer in various nations around the globe. That’s really it. The prose is straightforward and…
