Run out and buy your special someone a bottle of Moet or Veuve… or look off the beaten path at a different sparkling wine.

Here’s a look at six recently released sparklers from literally all over the world (six wines from six countries) — tasted blind, just for the fun of it — featuring three standard sparklers and three rose versions.

Happy early Valentine’s Day!

Sparkling Wines

NV Trapiche Extra Brut – Mendoza, Argentina – Lightly sparkling, with fresh apple flavors. Simple, but refreshing. Would work well in a cocktail or as a house sparkler. B+ / $12

2007 Bagratoni 1882 Reserve (pictured) – Tbilisi, Georgia (yes, the country) – Fruity, with orange aromas, but with an oddly vegetal finish. Very bright color. Would go better with food. B- / $25

NV Pongracz Brut – Western Cape, Stellenbosch, South Africa -  Very dry, and extremely fizzy. Not bad at all, but nothing special. B / $NA

Sparkling Rose Wines

NV Elyssia Cava Pinot Noir Brut – Spain – Extremely fruity, with blatant raspberry character. Almost tastes doctored. Somewhat sour finish. From Freixenet. C+/ $22

NV Amorosa Bella Brut Rose – Mendocino, California – The essence of rose petals in a bottle. Perfumy and a little cloying. C+ / available only at the Kenwood Inn & Spa (also available here)

NV Lamberti Vino Spumante Rose – Calmasino, Italy – Sweet, not very fizzy at all. Very flat. Not a lot of character, but I can drink it. In an odd side note, whatever is used to make the wire cage black began to melt, leaving a puddle of black ink all over my hands after opening it. B- / $13

Yes, Virginia, they make whisky in Wales. And as in Scotland, they spell it without the E.

Penderyn is arguably the best known Welsh whisky on the market, and if you’ve had one whisky from Wales, it’s probably this one.

Penderyn makes several bottlings, but this, in the company’s “house style,” is one of its best-known, a single malt which is matured in bourbon barrels and finished in old Madeira wine casks. It bears no age statement but is lightly golden in color and the balance indicates it’s quite young.

Wood and leather notes are surprisingly prominent in the body, which exhibits a buttery, honey-like consistency. The Madeira character is considerably different than in, say, Balvenie’s Madeira-finished Scotch, ending not so much with wine-like notes but with bittersweet chocolate and more cask wood character. I’d like more balance and cohesion in all of these flavors, but I do appreciate this whisky’s moxie.

92 proof.

B+ / $52 / welsh-whisky.co.uk

There is one known use for Herbsaint, and it’s a big one: In the classic Sazerac cocktail, in which the glass is washed with Herbsaint before rye, sugar, and Peychaud’s bitters are added.

Now Sazerac (the company) is relaunching the venerable spirit with its original 1934 recipe, called Herbsaint Original.

Neither the standard Herbsaint nor Herbsaint Original contain wormwood, so while they both carry a strong anise/licorice flavor, neither is a real absinthe. Nonetheless the liqueur was caught up in anti-absinthe hysteria in the 1930s, and the company was forced to remove the word “absinthe” from its labeling.

I was expecting minimal difference between Herbsaint Original and standard Herbsaint, but boy was I wrong. Poured neat, these are night and day against each other: Herbsaint is electric green and a little scary in its artificial coloring, while Herbsaint Original is a deeper greenish brown (though it too includes artificial coloring). The flavors are different, too: Herbsaint is known for a sharp licorice character and a heavy alcoholic finish, but Original is deeper and richer, still clearly licorice, but less sweet and, surprisingly, less boozy, despite being 100 proof to the standard version’s 90 proof.

One surprise: Herbsaint standard actually performed better in the Sazerac cocktail. While the tastes were similar, Herbsaint Original just weighed things down too much.

Both versions will continue to be sold.

A- / $35 / sazerac.com

Valentine’s Day approaches, and that means bartenders and home mixologists galore will be breaking out the Chambord to create V-Day cocktails.

Or perhaps you’d like to find a way to get drunk and get engaged at the same time. It will cost you, of course — at least $10,000.

The funny thing is this is a bit of a trend. At least three different bars are offering “proposal cocktails” that include jewelry. It’s one-stop shopping for lush lotharios. And here they are.

My favorite recipe (which doesn’t actually include a ring but rather a necklace and some cuff links): Louis XIII Black Pearl cognac, 4 ounces Charles Heidsieck 1981 Champagne Charlie, fresh-squeezed orange juice, apricot puree, Sence rose nectar, two ice cubes, 18-carat gold necklace with Tahitian black pearl, 18-carat gold and stingray-leather Mont Blanc cuff links.

Sounds delish… but after that outlay, we’ll have to elope.

Two more new releases from our good friends at Deschutes (and many more Deschutes brews in the hopper to write about). These two are seasonal-release bottlings that, while fancier than the brewery’s year-round ales, are less complex than some of Deschutes’ more exotic concoctions. They are however much easier to track down than those very limited releases (which can vanish from stores in as little as two weeks).

Deschutes Cinder Cone Red is an (obviously) red ale inspired by the slopes of Mt. Bachelor. A melange of hops and barleys, it’s a very rounded brew, refreshing but with enough bitterness to create complexity. A distinctly orange citrus finish is intriguing but not overly sweet or cloying. Definitely a winning example of this style. 5.4% alcohol. A-

Deschutes Red Chair NPWA — not an Imperial Pale Ale, a Northwest Pale Ale — uses seven varieties of malt in its preparation, giving it a dessert-like quality and a round sweetness that engages in a credible battle with its moderate bitterness. Stronger in alcohol (6.4%), it’s got a more velvety texture that makes one think even more of port or sherry as it goes down. Definitely not an IPA, but something all to its own. B-

pricing N/A / deschutesbrewery.com

Yay, more zinfandel!

HammerSky made just 294 cases of this reserve Zin, a textbook example of California zinfandel that’s worth a look. Jammy with plums and cherries up front, it reveals an intricate structure underneath, with leather, tobacco, and some raspberry notes, too. A very easy-drinking wine but one which is decidedly zinfandel at heart.

A / $37 / hammersky.com

Zinfandel enthusiasts have a… how you say… an interesting reputation.  I’m not sure if it’s the mystique of the wine or the generally heavy alcohol content, but Zin fans are unique among the wine enthusiasts of the world. Judging from some of the costumes at this year’s ZAP Zinfandel Festival (men in hula skirts, home-made Zin-themed dresses),

With some 300 wineries pouring at this event (spread out across two buildings in San Francisco’s sprawling Fort Mason), ZAP is one of the biggest wine events in the world. There’s no way to taste everything (though a lot of locals sure do give it a try), so I tried to focus on the most highly-acclaimed California zinfandels on the market — surprisingly few of which I’d actually had.

Some favorites: Downing Family’s chocolate bomb from 2006, and an early look at the 2008 Robert Biale Varozza Vineyard Zin, one of the most perfectly structured wines of the show. Perhaps best overall: Hartford Family’s full lineup, which featured solid A and A- ratings across the entire line, all balanced, full of fruit, and richly textured.

Total tally: 45 wines reviewed. Full ratings and limited notes follow. (Some prices were not available.)

2010 ZAP Zinfandel Festival Complete Tasting Report

2007 Acorn Winery Zinfandel Heritage Vines Alegria Vineyards / $35 / B+ / thinner

2006 Acorn Winery Zinfandel Heritage Vines Alegria Vineyards / $35 / A- / rich and big

2007 Beaver Creek Vineyards Zinfandel Lake County / $50 / B+ / no finish

2006 Bradford Mountain Winery Zinfandel Dry Creek Valley / $28 / A / big pepper notes

2006 Bradford Mountain Winery Zinfandel Grist Vineyard / $34 / B-

2006 Cakebread Zinfandel Snow’s Lake Vineyard, Kates Vineyard / $41 / A- / tastes like a blend

2007 Cedarville Vineyard Zinfandel Estate El Dorado / $20 / B

2008 Cedarville Vineyard Zinfandel Estate El Dorado (barrel sample) / $20 / B- / green pepper notes

2006 Chateau Montelena Winery Zinfandel Estate Napa Valley / N/A / A- / good balance

2007 Chateau Montelena Winery Zinfandel Estate Napa Valley / N/A / B / not ready

2006 Dancing Lady Wines Zinfandel Old Vine Della Costa Family Vineyard / N/A / B

2007 Dancing Lady Wines Zinfandel Old Vine Della Costa Family Vineyard / $27 / A- / peppery

2008 Dancing Lady Wines Zinfandel Old Vine Della Costa Family Vineyard / $24 / A / fruity style, very different and young

2008 Dashe Cellars Zinfandel Dry Creek Valley / $24 / B / overly herbal

2007 Dashe Cellars Zinfandel Florence Vineyard / $32 / A- / textbook, jammy zin

2007 Dashe Cellars Zinfandel Todd Brothers Ranch Old Vines / $32 / A-

2007 Dashe Cellars Zinfandel Louvau Vineyard / $32 / B+

2007 Deep Purple Zinfandel Lodi / N/A / C

2006 Downing Family Vineyards Zinfandel Fly by Night Napa Valley / $24 / A / chocolate notes

2007 Downing Family Vineyards Zinfandel Fly by Night Napa Valley / N/A / A- / younger version of the above

2007 Four Vines Winery Zinfandel Biker Paso Robles / $25 / A-

2006 Hartford Family Winery Zinfandel Russian River Valley / $35 / A-

2007 Hartford Family Winery Zinfandel Russian River Valley / $35 / A-

2007 Hartford Family Winery Zinfandel Russian River Valley Harford Vineyard / $55 / A

2008 Hartford Family Winery Zinfandel Russian River Valley Jolene’s Vineyard / $55 / A-

2007 Mauritson Family Winery Zinfandel Rockpile Cemetary Vineyard / $39 / B / vegetal

2007 Mauritson Family Winery Zinfandel Rockpile Ridge Vineyard / $35 / B+

2008 Mauritson Family Winery Zinfandel Dry Creek Valley / $27 / A-

2008 Mauritson Family Winery Zinfandel Jack’s Cabin Vineyard / N/A / A-

2008 Outpost Estate Wines Zinfandel (barrel sample) / N/A / A

2007 Proulx Winery Zinfandel Paso Robles / N/A / B- / licorice tinged

2008 Robert Biale Vineyards Zinfandel Grande Vineyard, Napa Valley / $40 / B+

2008 Robert Biale Vineyards Zinfandel Varozza Vineyard, St. Helena / $40 / A / one of the tops of the show

2007 Rombauer Zinfandel California / N/A / C+ / almost sweet

2007 Rusina Wines Zinfandel Dry Creek Valley / $30 / A-

2007 Rusina Wines Zinfandel Alexander Valley / $28 / A- / good balance

2007 Rusina Wines Zinfandel Triskelion / N/A / B+

2007 Sonoma Wine Company Zinfandel Zynthesis Cellars, Lodi / $16 / B

2006 Starlite Vineyards Zinfandel Alexander Valley / $42 / A-

2007 Storybook Mountain Vineyards Zinfandel Mayacamas Range Estate, Napa / $34 / A / big plum character

2008 Turley Wine Cellars Zinfandel Hayne Vineyard / $75 / A- / herbal but balanced

2008 Turley Wine Cellars Zinfandel Old Vine California / N/A / A

2007 Woodenhead Zinfandel Guido Venturi Vineyard / $34 / B

2006 Woodenhead Zinfandel Martinelli Road Vineyard Old Vines / $45 / B

2007 Woodenhead Zinfandel Braccialini Alexander Valley / $45 / B+

Our friends at Magnificent Bastard announced a contest to create a namesake cocktail for them late last year. After giving it much thought, here’s what I came up with and submitted.

I wanted to create something that’s very easy to make, uses relatively common ingredients, and, in keeping with the name of the website, is both magnificent and bastardized (the distant inspiration here being the Paloma cocktail). You got it.

The Magnificent Bastard a la Drinkhacker
Laphroaig 10 Years Old Scotch whisky (for rinsing)
2 oz. anejo tequila
1/2 oz. grapefruit juice
splash of agave nectar

Rinse a cocktail glass with the Laphroaig and pour most of it out. Add remaining ingredients to an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake and strain into the prepared glass. Don’t bother with a garnish.

UPDATE: My recipe made the finals in MB’s contest and is now in the bracket for competing against 31 other cocktails… check out how it does here! But hey, it’s an honor just to be nominated…

All day I’ve felt barely awake… so an “energy shot” was probably in order to feel awake enough to make it through the evening.

Allday Energy (their spelling) relies on L-Carnitine, L-Arginine, and D-Ribose — three things I’ve never heard of — to pump you up. Presumably lots of caffeine, too.

Naturally, that comes at a price. While the company claims it is delicious, Allday Energy is really quite awful, like cough syrup mixed with Kool-Aid… a difficult combination to stomach. I got it down eventually and, I’m happy to report, I finally woke up… but that might also have been thanks to the three pieces of pizza I sucked down. (And yet, I can still taste the Allday Energy, several hours later.)

Based on this limited testing, I can’t tell you if Allday Energy is any better at waking you up than other energy shots… but I can assure you it is one of the less delicious shots out there.

B- / $2.99 per 2 oz. shot / alldayenergy.net

First produced in Cuba, Matusalem now hails from the Dominican Republic (after a stint in the U.S. — presumably Puerto Rico), but claims to hold fast to its original Cuban recipe dating back to 1872.

This is the company’s top-end bottling, held for 15 years using the solera style of barrel aging.

As for the rum, it’s not as dark and rich as I’d have expected from such an old spirit, its green-tinted caramel color masking a spirit that’s still got a lot of heat to it despite weighing in at just 80 proof. Less sweet than you think, its wood notes are heavy, with a touch of charcoal and even bitterness in the finish.

Otherwise this is a surprisingly, shockingly even, simple rum. Fortunately, it’s very affordable — I’ve seen it as cheap as $20 on sale — and for that, you might find it perfectly acceptable for use as an everyday mixer.

B+ / $30 / matusalem.com