Review: 2013 Chamisal Stainless Pinot Noir Unoaked Central Coast
If you ever wondered Beaujolais Nouveau would taste like if it was made in California, try this: Chamisal takes a Central Coast Pinot Noir and bottles it, completely unaged in oak. For a red wine this is completely unheard of. I can probably count on one hand the number of unoaked reds I’ve had in…
Review: Magic Hat Dream Machine IPL
For this hybrid, Magic Hat mixes up the style of an IPA with an amber lager. Good call, and this mash-up works well. The body is round and full, the hallmarks of a big autumn lager. The modestly bitter finish is loaded with bracing hop character, though it’s far from overpowering. Dream Machine works both…
Review: Buffalo Trace Distillery Single Oak Project Bourbon Round Twelve
Round 12 of Buffalo Trace’s “Single Oak Project” experiment has arrived, meaning there are just four more iterations of the grandest experiment in whiskeydom to go before it’s all over. Previous rounds can be found here: Round One (including all the basics of the approach to this series) Round Two Round Three Round Four Round Five…
Book Review: The Architecture of the Cocktail
The Architecture of the Cocktail is a neat idea and an even neater-looking book. Using architectural blueprint-style diagrams, author Amy Zavatto and illustrator Melissa Wood take you through 75 drinks, largely classics with a few modern cocktails thrown in. But rather than include a pretty picture, each cocktail is “designed” in black and white, showing…
Review: Deep Eddy Cranberry Vodka
For its fourth vodka, Texas-based Deep Eddy Vodka steps out of the south and adds New England cranberries and cane sugar to the mix. As with its prior flavored vodkas, this spirit keeps the color of the fruit in the infusion instead of filtering it out. The result is a colorfully deep crimson. On the…
Review: Seven Stills of San Francisco Chocasmoke Whiskey
The future of craft distilling may be in beer: So believes Clint Potter of The Seven Stills of San Francisco, a new craft distillery located, well, you know. Seven Stills makes this unique whiskey — the first in its “Seven Hills” series — from actual beer (much like Charbay and a few others): a chocolate…
Book Review: A First Course in Wine
Novices will swoon over this handsome, lovingly photographed, generally quite beautiful guide to the basics of the wine world. As the name suggests, this is a first course in wine, and the book dutifully walks through some of the first questions a new wine consumer might have. What different grapes look like, where they’re grown, how…
Review: Prairie Organic Gin and Cucumber Vodka
Prairie Organic Vodka, a clean, corn-based spirit from Minnesota, has been with us for the better part of a decade. At last the company is out with two line extensions, a gin and a cucumber-flavored version of the original spirit, both organic releases. Thoughts on both follow forthwith. Prairie Organic Cucumber Flavored Vodka – Take…
