Book Review: Craft Cocktails at Home
As food has evolved beyond grilled steaks and baked potatoes, so have cocktails. It’s now common to see bar menus stuffed with cocktails that involve homemade tinctures, smoke, infusions, foams, pearls of goo, and god knows what else. Molecular mixology is a real thing, and it’s come to the masses. Kevin Liu’s book, Craft Cocktails at…
Review: Wines of Italy’s Stemmari, 2014 Releases
Stemmari is a major winemaker of Sicily, where it produces wines from both native and international varietals, with a ruthless focus on keeping costs down. Most of its wines are available for under $10 a bottle, and some of these are quite good. The naming system may be a little tricky. The less-expensive, single varietal…
Review: 2010 Mt. Brave Cabernet Sauvignon Mt. Veeder
Napa’s Mount Veeder has a new resident: Mt. Brave Winery, one of the most difficult and rugged parts of the Napa Valley. Mt. Brave is focusing on Malbec, Merlot, and (of course) Cabernet Sauvignon, the signature grape of Mount Veeder. This 2010 release is an impressive early effort for Mt. Brave. Intensely dark purple —…
Book Review: The Home Distiller’s Workbook
First things first: This stuff is totally illegal. You can’t distill moonshine, whiskey, vodka, rum, gin, or anything else at home. It is quite dangerous in many ways. If the still doesn’t explode, you could always poison yourself with methanol. Or you could get killed in prison. (Unlicensed still raids are a real thing.) Still…
Review: Slovenia Vodka
Yes, it’s from Slovenia. No, it’s not weird to ask. In this day and age, names mean nothing. Made from 99.9% winter wheat and 0.1% non-pearled buckwheat (“for smoothness”), pot-distilled, and brought to proof with Slovenian Alps water, Slovenia Vodka has a curious pedigree. The money behind this new brand comes from, in part, chef…
Review: Spring44 Straight Bourbon and Single Barrel Bourbon
Arguably known best for its honey-flavored vodka, Colorado-based Spring44 is jumping onto the whiskey bandwagon, with two new expressions of straight bourbon whiskey. As you might expect by their sudden appearance on the market, both are sourced whiskey from Kentucky (not Indiana), brought down to proof with Colorado water, and bottled in individually numbered bottles.…
Review: Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Fire
JD jumped into the honey-flavored whiskey market and made massive waves. Why not try it again with cinnamon? Tennessee Fire is a classic cinnamon-infused spirit, with a nose that’s immediately redolent of Red Hots, but not overpowering. The body is more quiet and candylike than, well, fiery. The palate starts off sweet, with vanilla caramel notes,…
Review: Beefeater Burrough’s Reserve Barrel Finished Gin
Remember when genever was going to be the next big thing? Of course you don’t. That stillborn trend gave way to aged gin, which is now — cautiously — on the rise. Will barrel-aged gin be successful where genever was not? Let’s take a look at a bottling from one of the biggest names in…
