Reviews
Reviews of spirits, wine, and beer (and various errata like mixers and garnishes) comprise more than 80% of the content at Drinkhacker, and here you’ll find the entire Drinkhacker review archive in one place. Products are rated on a letter-grade scale that should be familiar to most, with F as our lowest, “failing” grade and the very rare A+ as our top score.
Top Reviews Posts:
Notes on Grading
How to Analyze, Score, and Review Whiskey
We’ve gone through flavored vodka and flavored rum. Now you can start adding flavored tequilas — hitting the market in earnest now — to the mix. Unlike, say, Agave Loco, Centenario’s Rosangel is a much more subtle product. The only similarity is the original base spirit: Reposado tequila, rested for two months (in Port barrels…
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What!? We’re writing about 2008 wines when many wineries are still tricking out their 2006 vintages!? That’s right: Barrel sampling season is underway for the 2008 vintage of California Cabernet Sauvignon. The wines have been in oak for a few months now and are starting to show their true colors. I spent several hours tasting…
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The poor man’s Jagermeister, Phillips Black is a wildly flavorful, very sweet, licorice-like herbal liqueur designed for drinking cold and, most likely, extremely fast so you don’t realize what hit you. The 100 in the name refers to the proof level and the Black the color your soul will be after drinking three shots of…
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Cinco de Mayo is just two days away, and that means it’s tequila time. Here’s a new one that just launched in April. Gran Centenario already makes a full line of tequilas, including a reposado, but recently the company expanded with a new brand called Azul. The big draw: At $16 a bottle, it’s about…
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“Nature’s sports drink,” they call it: Spiked with natural electrolytes, tons of potassium, no fat or added sugar, it’s the water of the coconut, familiar to most of us only as it regards the consumption of the occasional beachside piña colada. Zico aims to get thirsty athletes and yoga enthusiasts drinking more of the stuff,…
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Can an $8 bottle of Hiram Walker Triple Sec really go toe to toe with the gold standard of curacao, Cointreau? Hiram thinks it can, and sent a bottle of its budget orange liqueur to taste side by side with Cointreau, which at $35 is more than four times the price. In a nutshell: Yeah,…
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Summer is nigh, which means pink wine time is upon us. Frederick Wildman submits for our approval this rose from Paul Jaboulet Aine, the pink version of the producer’s popular Cotes du Rhone Parallele 45, the red version of which is a staple at every wine shop on the planet. This rose — 50% grenache,…
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For the first time since 2003, Portugal has declared a vintage Port year: 2007, which was characterized by relatively cool weather, followed by some heat near harvest time, just enough (they say) to ripen the grapes. I had the chance to sample the 2007 vintage from 12 different producers this week (total production of all…
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Available only in duty-free shops (if that any more), this, like the aforereviewed Glenfarclas 105 is “100” only in the old 175-proof-is-max scale: By modern standards it’s 114.2 proof, so take appropriate precautions should you find yourself face to face with a bottle. It’s certainly worth the hunt. This surprisingly dark whisky packs lots of…
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This new value label is hitting the market, hoping to entice consumers with good wine at very affordable prices. We tried two of the three bottles being sold. Here’s how they stack up. All three are non-vintage bottlings and source fruit from all over California. Expect to pay $11 to $13 for a bottle. NV…
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