Review: HipStirs Craft Cocktail Syrups – Old Fashioned, Cranberry Pie, and Pumpkin Spice
HipStirs is the latest player in the craft cocktail mixer category, a newbie since it only launched in 2022. All their expressions are strictly non-alcoholic syrups which aim to simplify the process of making cocktails at home: Just pour the mixer and the base of your choice — alcoholic or non — and voila. If…
Review: Blackened x Rabbit Hole Whiskey
Finally, we’re digging into the Masters of Whiskey series from the heavy metal-inspired whiskey-makers at Blackened. For those not in the know, Master Distiller and Blender Rob Dietrich partners for each release in this series with a notable whiskey personality to create a uniquely finished whiskey that also undergoes Blackened’s patented Black Noise sonic-enhancement process.…
Review: 2020 San Felice Bell’aja Bolgheri Superiore DOC
We last saw San Felice’s Bolgheri bottling in the 2017 edition. Like that vintage, this 2020 is a blend of 95% merlot and 5% cabernet sauvignon. But unlike the 2017, this offering is a much softer and more approachable wine, ready to drink today. Exuberantly fruity but far from sweet, you’d never notice this was…
Review: Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond 10 Years Old Spring 2023 Edition
I promise we didn’t sleep on Old Fitzgerald‘s spring 2023 bonded release. This whiskey wasn’t even announced until August, and it’s taken another few weeks for us to get our review done. A youthful installment in the newish series (which now numbers 11 whiskeys), this wheater is a mere 10 years old, produced in the first…
Breaking the Toughest Barriers in Drinks with Tiffanie Barriere
Tiffanie Barriere is on a hot streak. After building her name as a mixologist and the driving force behind one of the world’s most beloved airport bars — Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta’s One Flew South — she spread her wings to the media realm, which included a guest judge appearance on Netflix’s Drink Masters. In 2023, she…
Review: 2022 Oceano Zero NA Pinot Noir San Luis Obispo Coast
Non-alcoholic wine is a tricky beast, but we’ve been watching the category evolve and improve in recent years. Oceano’s latest holds a lot of promise: Not only is it vintage-dated, it’s a vineyard designate from the Spanish Springs Vineyard in central California near San Luis Obispo. Process-wise things are similar to other NA wines: It’s…
Wine of the Sea Ages Wines 100 Feet Below the Waves – Here’s How They Taste
Aging wine and spirits on and around the water has become something of a Thing lately, with operations like Jefferson’s sending whiskey around the world on ocean voyages and Maison Ferrand aging Cognac on a barge in the Seine. Wine of the Sea is something very different. A Wisconsin wine importing company called the BZ…
Review: Wines of Merry Edwards, 2021 Vintage
2021 is shaping up as an exceptional vintage for California pinot noir, and Merry Edwards recently dropped its wines from this year — all showing beautifully. Today we dig into six of them and a sauvignon blanc — five from the Russian River Valley and one from the colder Anderson Valley to the north. Thoughts follow.…
