Review: Bee d’Vine Honey Wine
You can make wine from just about anything, but honey wine has a long and rich history, dating back some 2000 years to Africa, where the honey seems to flow freely. If you’ve ever had mead at a Renaissance festival (or your crazy uncle’s house), you basically know what you’re in for. Honey wine is essentially…
Review: XXIV Karat Grand Cuvee and Rose — Sparkling Wine with Gold Flake
What, sipping Cristal ain’t baller enough for you? Kick back some XXIV Karat (that’s 24 Karat if you ain’t down with Roman numerals), a sparkling wine that is infused with “indugent 24-karat gold leaf.” Yeah, Goldschlager wrote this playbook, and El Cartel Tequila tore it up. Gold flake in spirits is becoming common these days. Gold…
Rioja Review: 2008 Rioja Bordon and 1998 Vina Albina
When it comes to upscale wines, Rioja is a category that is often overlooked. But these Spanish wines, primarily Tempranillo with a smattering of other Spanish regional grapes, like Mazuelo and Graciano, thrown in, can often be aged for a decade or more, particularly at the Reserva level or higher. Today we look at a…
Review: The Arran Malt Devil’s Punch Bowl Chapter III – “The Fiendish Finale”
All good horror stories deserve a trilogy, and Arran Malt, with its Devil’s Punch Bowl series, is back for a third and final round of this special release whisky: The Fiendish Finale. See notes on Chapter I and Chapter II here. There’s unfortunately not a lot of production information on this batch, but it is…
Review: NV Menage a Trois Prosecco
One is wise not to expect a whole lot from a $12 Prosecco, but this DOC-classified bottling is perfectly acceptable for a quick punch of sparkly stuff. The nose offers modest yeast and bready/toasty notes, with modest hints of apple beneath. The body is more pear-like, with notes of lemon jellybeans and just a hint of…
Review: Southern Comfort Gingerbread Spice
Southern Comfort seems unstoppable, now that it’s adopted the same playbook as Kahlua, Malibu, Baileys, and any number of other liqueur producers intent on releasing a new flavor every year, typically around the holiday season. This year it’s an obvious one: Southern Comfort Gingerbread Spice, the go-to crowd pleaser of a flavor that eventually finds…
Review: Thistle Finch Small Batch White Rye Whiskey
This white rye is made in Lancaster, Pennsylvania — the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch Country. What about that name? “Pennsylvania Dutch folk art frequently features a bird in it, that, in German, is called a “Distelfink” or Thistle Finch. The bird is a symbol of happiness and good fortune.” Thistle Finch is made from a…
Review: 2012 Frank Family Vineyards Pinot Noir Carneros
A lighthearted and light-bodied Pinot from Frank Family, this Carneros offering features plenty of jammy fruit — strawberry and cherry intermingled — along with notes of tea leaf, cinnamon, and vanilla candies. A bit flabby in the body, it’s a bit hamstrung by those jammy elements that unfortunately push it too far into fruit juice…
