Review: The Arran Malt 12 Years Old Cask Strength Batch #2
Batch #2 of this rarity, a cask strength bottling of Arran 12 Years Old, was crafted from 17 first-fill sherry butts and 4 second-fill sherry hogsheads. There can’t be much of this to go around. In fact, as I type this, Arran is already on Batch #3 according to its website. The nose is hot,…
Review: Tamdhu 10 Years Old
Shuttered from 2010 to 2013, Tamdhu, one of Speyside’s founding distilleries, is back in operation. Primarily known for its contributions to blended Scotch, the distillery is now producing more single malts, and this 10 year old expression (obviously made from stock that predates the distillery’s current ownership) would be released is the first volley of…
Review: Tullamore D.E.W. Phoenix Irish Whiskey
Tullamore D.E.W. (nee Tullamore Dew) continues its march upmarket with the release of Phoenix, one of its fanciest bottlings released to date. This expression is launched in commemoration of the first-ever air disaster, a hot-air balloon fire in 1785 that took place in the town of Tullamore and subsequently burned down most of the town…
Tasting the Sweet White Wines of the Roussillon Region – Les Pins and Domaine Singla, 2014 Releases
Roussillon is southern France’s answer to Sauternes. This small part of the Languedoc region, nestled between the Mediterranean Sea and the Pyrenees mountains, specializes in sweet dessert wines, made much in the same style of the more famous — and much more expensive — brethren to the north. These wines, known as Vins Doux Naturels…
Review: Hangar 24 Barrel Roll No. 03 Pugacehev’s Cobra
A Russian Imperial Stout brewed with maple syrup and aged in bourbon barrels for eight months, Hangar 24’s latest barrel-aged brew is indeed, as promised, “an assault on your senses.” They mean that in a good way, but at first, Pugachev’s Cobra, now in its third release (it comes out every December), is a little…
Book Review: The New York Times Book of Wine
If you want to learn about wine… like really learn about wine, you might think a mammoth tome like The New York Times Book of Wine would be a good place to start. Sure sounds legit. Alas, TNYTBOW is not that kind of place. As with many a book of this ilk (the kind with a newspaper name…
Review: Taildragger Rums – White, Amber, and Coffee-Flavored
American rum is on the rise, and the latest expressions include this trio from Tailwinds Distilling in Plainfield, Illinois. Tailwind makes Taildragger from pricey first-boil molasses from Louisiana (rather than cheap 5th-boil blackstrap), which is distilled in a 100 gallon pot still with a six-plate column. Taildragger is not carbon filtered nor chill filtered, which…
The Classic Cocktails of New Orleans
Ah, New Orleans… it’s not just the home of some of the best food in the world, it’s also the birthplace — a spiritual birthplace in some cases — of some of the most classic cocktails ever invented. I had the good fortune to travel through Louisiana, particularly New Orleans, on the eve of Mardi…
