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…
Review: Glen Garioch Virgin Oak
Like its sister distillery Auchentoshan, Highlands-based Glen Garioch is releasing a “Virgin Oak” expression aged not in ex-bourbon casks but in fresh, newly charred white oak barrels that haven’t seen a drop of whiskey before — a first-ever for Glen Garioch, which has been operating since 1797. As with the Auchie, this expression is bottled…
Review: Teeling Single Grain Irish Whiskey
If you’re unfamiliar with “single grain” whiskey, you’re not alone. While in fact the majority of Irish whiskey sold is grain whiskey, single grain whiskey is not typically seen on the shelf. (The single doesn’t refer to the type of grain but rather the fact that it’s made at a single distillery.) All grain whiskey is made…
Tasting Chopin Vodka: Potato vs. Rye vs. Wheat
Curious how the base carbohydrate impacts the way a straight vodka tastes? Well, Poland-based Chopin is here to illustrate. It’s one of the few companies that make a multitude of straight vodkas from different base products. In fact, it now makes three: one from potato, one from rye, and one from wheat. While I’ve tasted…
Review: Whistling Andy Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Up next, craft distilling comes to… Montana. The curiously-named Whistling Andy offers this new, all-local bourbon (the state’s first) made from 100% Montana-grown grains. A unique blend of corn, barley, wheat, and rye is used for the mashbill, which is triple-distilled in pot stills, then aged for three years in medium-char new oak barrels. The…
Review: Bowmore Devil’s Casks 10 Years Old
A new limited edition expression from Islay’s Bowmore, the Devil’s Casks bottling is inspired by a local legend involving the devil being chased by the churchgoing folk of the area into Bowmore’s vaults, where he is said to have escaped by hiding inside a cask of hooch. I can’t vouch for whether there is any…
Review: Powers Gold Label Irish Whiskey (2014)
The good folks at Ireland’s Powers don’t know when to quit. First they rebrand and relabel their classic Gold Label Irish whiskey in 2009, now they’re back at it again, redoing the bottle a second time while boosting the proof a bit. (And that doesn’t even include the launch of the masterful John’s Lane special…
