Review: Liber & Co. Real Grenadine
Remember Liber & Co.’s nifty Spiced Tonic syrup? Now the company’s back with another offering: a real grenadine. Grenadine is historically an intensely tart syrup made from pomegranates (making it deep red in color) and sugar. In recent years grenadine has turned into nothing more than red corn syrup, making it completely useless as a…
Review: Saint Brendan’s Irish Cream Liqueur
Saint Brendan was a 5th century Irish apostle (later a saint, of course) who was best known for a seven-year-long fantastical voyage that has gone down as a bit of high Catholic mythology. No telling if he was into Irish cream, but I have my doubts. Saint Brendan’s Irish Cream (motto: “Simple by Design”) is another in…
Review: Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel Rye
Wild Turkey is expanding the Russell’s Reserve line this year with a Single Barrel Rye expression. There’s already a Russell’s Reserve 6 Year Old Rye (much more expensive these days than the $25 it cost in 2007), but as with the Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel Bourbon, this is a higher-end expression that plays some of…
Review: Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye (2015)
A Crown Royal Rye? Wait, isn’t all Canadian whisky “rye”? Hang on a sec. There’s a lot of confusion about rye and Canadian whisky, and rightly so: By law in Canada, a whisky only has to have some rye in it to be called a rye, part of an outgrowth of hundreds of years of shorthand…
Review: El Mayor Tequila Complete Lineup (2015)
It’s been seven long years since we encountered one of the oddly shaped bottles of El Mayor Tequila, and even then it was just the blanco expression. Today we’re taking a fresh look at El Mayor — and covering the complete lineup of three expressions of this highlands-born, 100% agave spirit. (There’s an extra anejo too, not…
Review: Six Saints Rum
This “righteous spirit of the West Indies” hails from Grenada, but little other information is provided about this rum. Only the notice of “natural colour” informs much of anything about its production. The nose on this moderately golden rum offers a bit of petrol, backed with some cloves and a bit of spiced or mulled…
Review: Black Dirt Bourbon 3 Years Old
Black Dirt is made in New York State’s first microdistillery, where an applejack and this bourbon are produced. Made from a mash of 80% local “black dirt” corn (hence the name), 12% malted barley, and 8% rye, it’s aged for three years in #3 char new American oak barrels. Let’s take a look under the…
Review: Sauvignon Blancs of Brancott, 2015 Releases
Brancott is a bit like the Mondavi of New Zealand. It was the first to plant Sauvignon Blanc in Marlborough, a region that has become one of the world leaders in this style of grape. Today, Brancott makes dozens of wines, including eight different sauvignon blancs. We reviewed five of them, from entry-level juice to some…
