Tasting Report: West of West Wine Festival 2015
The West of West Wine Festival is all about wine at its westernmost terminus in the United States: The Sonoma Coast, where dense fog and craggy conditions make growing conditions ripe only for a few prized varietals — chardonnay, pinot noir, and syrah. Recently I spent an afternoon at the WoW grand tasting, working through dozens…
Buffalo Trace Single Oak Project: Every Barrel Reviewed on One Page
Looks like there’s still plenty of interest in the recently-completed Buffalo Trace Single Oak Project. Want to look up a barrel but can’t stand dealing with the search system (I don’t blame you) — then here ya go, every single barrel reviewed on one page, in numerical order. As a reminder, barrel #80 was named…
Review: Braulio Amaro Alpino
Braulio’s an Italian amaro… alpino. Alpino? From the alpine mountains, which gives it a bit of a different spin than what you might be used to. Braulio originated in 1875, and it’s created with a blend of 13 herbs. Only four are known to the public: gentian, juniper, wormwood, and yarrow. The rest of the ingredients remain…
Review: Kirk and Sweeney Dominican Rum 18 Years Old and 23 Years Old
Kirk and Sweeney 12 Years Old, imported by Sonoma’s 35 Maple Street, is one of the best artisan rums on the market. And that’s just a babe at a mere 12 years old. Today we’re looking at the older line extensions of Kirk and Sweeney, including the 18 year old and 23 year old expressions.…
Review: Tanqueray Bloomsbury London Dry Gin
Tanqueray continues to play with the good-ol’ green bottle with its latest limited edition gin, Tanqueray Bloomsbury. Says the distillery: For the newest limited edition release of Tanqueray, the juniper-forward Tanqueray Bloomsbury London Dry Gin, Master Distiller Tom Nichol drew inspiration from a recipe created by Charles Tanqueray’s son, Charles Waugh Tanqueray. In 1868, when Charles died,…
Review: Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Bourbon 17 Years Old
Following up on last year’s Diamond Anniversary bourbon, Wild Turkey is releasing Master’s Keep, a 17 year old whiskey that is the oldest bourbon Wild Turkey has ever released in the U.S. The spirit is the product of Eddie Russell, the son of the famed Jimmy Russell, who was recently appointed to the job of…
Review: Corbin Vodka
You can make vodka out of anything, they say. Potato’s a common base starch. How about the sweet potato, then? Corbin Vodka, made in Atwater, California, is column distilled from the gold old sweet potato. (Don’t call it a yam!) The nose is fairly neutral, sharp with a moderately medicinal character, but balanced by some…
Book Review: Beer for All Seasons
A cynical beer drinker would say the concept of the new book Beer for All Seasons: A Through-the-Year Guide to What do Drink and When to Drink It is absurd. Beer should be drunk every day, amirite beer guys? Well, author Randy Mosher of course has more sophisticated aims here: Pairing certain beer styles to certain…
