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.
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Notes on Grading
How to Analyze, Score, and Review Whiskey
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…
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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…
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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, aged for 15 years using the solera style of barrel aging (though what exactly…
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Here’s a fresh look at this tawny, last reviewed in 2008. A good, old 20 year old tawny port with a ruddy brick-red color, Sandeman’s affordable porto is an easy and accessible entry to the style. Port’s traditional raisin and prune characteristics are present, but they are considerably muted beneath wood notes, smoke, and some…
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Don Q is a huge rum brand from Puerto Rico. It’s now producing three flavored versions, two of which we were fortunate enough to review. Flavorings are natural and the proof level is rock bottom, so drink all you want. Don Q Coco Rum is (obviously) a coconut-flavored rum (aged at least one year). Quite…
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From the Jalisco highlands, 1921 is a line of 100 percent agave tequilas… plus a tequila liqueur. I tasted them all while trying to figure out what the symbolism of “1921” was… and failed. The line is unusual in that the agave undergoes a double fermentation process, said to offer more smoothness and a wider…
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For years Markham has been a standby of supermarket shoppers: Relatively reliable, affordable, and always on the shelves. The mass-market bottlings are nothing that will knock you over (I have a string of reviews in my notes, mostly B+ ratings, dating back to the 1990 vintage), but in a pinch, they’ll do fine. Now Markham…
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It’s not just a drawing on the label of this whiskey. There really is a Slane Castle. It’s even in Ireland, thank the stars. Slane Castle Irish Whiskey is a new whiskey on our shores, and it’s now becoming available on the eastern seaboard. Created by the good folks at Cooley Distillery, it’s a young…
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The French wine region of Languedoc is attempting a renaissance of late, highlighting the carignan grape — a workhorse of this region’s wines and something which is also making a bit of a comeback as a standalone varietal in the U.S. No one will argue that Languedoc’s biggest selling point is value, and this 2007…
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Hailing from Guyana, El Dorado makes what is known as demerara rum, which is simply a rum from the Guyana area that is made using demerara sugar, aka turbinado sugar — you probably know the coarse brown crystals best under the trade name Sugar in the Raw. El Dorado isn’t Rum in the Raw, though:…
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