Review: Cabo Wabo Diablo Coffee Liqueur
It seems like just about every premium tequila producer is expanding into coffee liqueurs, and the latest comes from Cabo Wabo, the Sammy Hagar-founded tequila company. Called Cabo Wabo Diablo, this liqueur includes 100% agave tequila laced into an Arabica-based coffee liqueur. A tiger-eye brown spirit, Diablo is less dark in color than you might…
The A-List – December 2013
After several months of excellent and broad-reaching releases, our A-List is a wee bit scant this month. “B+” ratings were in no short supply, but as we all know, “B+” simply doesn’t make the cut. Either way, these are the monsters which earned our seal of approval for the month of December. Related posts: Review:…
Review: Masterson’s Straight Barley 10 Years Old and Straight Wheat Whiskey 12 Years Old
The folks at Masterson’s — made by California-based parent company 35 Maple Street — make what has already become a cult rye whiskey, Masterson’s 10 Year Old Straight Rye. Now the company is back with an even stranger pair of siblings: two well-aged whiskeys, one 100% wheat, one 100% barley. Both are straight whiskeys made…
Review: Liqueurs of Vietnam’s Son Tinh
And now for something completely different… Son Tinh is a liqueur producer based in Vietnam. The company makes a wide range of spirits, including a shochu-style liqueur, bitters, and fruit-based liqueurs. At present the company makes 11 products, 6 of which we (miraculously) got to sample, delivered via an awesome, custom-made wooden crate straight from…
Review: Baron Tequila Platinum
Baron is a new brand of 100% agave tequila, triple pot-distilled from organic agave. (While it’s specifically billed as gluten-free, note that all 100% agave tequilas are naturally gluten-free.) This blanco also boasts of a “zero-zero taste profile,” but it’s actually quite a pungent spirit. The nose is full of vegetal agave notes — a…
Review: The 86 Co. Aylesbury Duck Vodka and Ford’s Gin
The 86 Co., based in New York, is a sort of negociant of the spirits world. crafting spirits in cahoots with other distillers and distilleries from around the world. The company launched a barrage of four spirits in 2012, including the two we’re profiling below. Aylesbury Duck Vodka – Distilled from Canadian winter wheat, bottled in…
Review: Stumbras Vodka
Stumbras hails from a large conglomerate in the Baltic region, one of its concerns being distilling. This Lithuanian vodka comes from a distillery that produces a whopping 13 million liters of 350 different beverages each year. The company is the largest producer of spirits in the region. Stumbras produces a variety of vodkas, including many…
Review: 2011 Palmeri Syrah and “Dark and Brooding” Wines
Palmeri is a small producer in Northern California producing wines from both Sonoma and Napa county. We sampled two of the company’s recent releases. 2011 Palmeri Syrah Alexander Valley Van Ness Vineyard High-Elevation – Made from grapes grown at 1000 feet-plus. It’s an intense wine, the nose thick with anise, leather, and tobacco leaf, the…
